Some of the uptick, no doubt, comes from playing with Mitchell Marner, and Tavares says with every passing practice, skate and game, he’s getting a better feel for his surging 21-year-old linemate.
“I think certainly now, game 14 today, and the practice time we’ve had, exhibition games — I’d like to think we think the game pretty well (together),” said Tavares, still wearing gear from his 20-minute night against the Penguins while Marner blazed by in a long baby blue dress coat. “You can make adjustments and get more of a sense of the way he plays and getting a better feel for his poise. I think you always know it, but until you kinda see it and go through it and have those opportunities to really get a feel of your timing and where to be and trying to read off him and his body language and what he likes to do — you see it on a day-to-day basis, you just get a better feel for it.
“It’ll only continue to get better,” he added. “I think when you play with guys for long periods of time, it’s just amazing when you see the chemistry (develop). I think you can see it with the team we just played, how long they’ve been together, and just so many things become automatic, you don’t even think about them. As I get more comfortable and get a feel for him, and even just the way we play, things will get better and better I think.”
Increased comfort was evident against the Penguins.
With 18 points, Marner is sitting just outside the top-5 in league scoring — even with Morgan Rielly, who matched Tomas Kaberle for the most prolific 14-game start by an NHL defenceman in the last 10 years.
Tavares has been impressed with Marner’s poise and processing of the game, but also his tenacity in working to the get the puck back when he doesn’t have it. (Mike Babcock has been raving more and more about this in recent days.) Then, when he had the puck back, Tavares explained, Marner seemed to have this innate sense for where everyone else happened to be on the ice.
“He just makes it easier because you see him hunt a guy down and you’ve just gotta find some open ice,” Tavares said. “It makes the game a lot easier for me.”
https://theathletic.com/631938/2018...-life-a-whole-lot-easier-for-the-maple-leafs/