Your Favorite Leaf’s Average Game Of Fortnite

More recently, Travis Dermott confessed on Instagram to have spent his day with the Calder Cup in a way that most 20-somethings probably would at this point:

Heeere’s Mitchy!

Mullet Marauder skin in tow, you can count on Mitch Marner to hop into a game of Duos with best friend Auston Matthews pretty much any time they’re free. Sure, Marner’s a naturally skilled gamer to begin with, able to rack up a handful of eliminations per game by Auston’s side, but Marner’s full potential is best realized when a Chug Jug falls into his hands.

Forget the Mountain Dew sugar highs that send him flying across the ice – Chug Jug Mitch will decimate to competition across the map and away from the storm, en route to a Victory Royale.

Landing in Tilted Towers is not for the faint of heart. It’s one of the most popular spots in the game, with hoards of players parachuting towards these skyscrapers in the opening minutes of each round. Needless to say, Zach Hyman is not the faint of heart.

Zach Hyman is more like the No Skin who foregoes using the gun he picked up on top of a building in Tilted in favor of bludgeoning you with his pickaxe for the early elimination. Gritty in the corners and never fearful of dangerous territory, Hyman may not be equipped to make it out of the Top 50, but he sure as hell will put up a fight in the opening stages of each game.

Do you want to know when Morgan Rielly feels like a kid at Christmas? On mornings when he wakes up to find that Fortnite’s Sniper Shootout limited-time mode is back again.

A stalwart leader by nature both on the ice and on the island, Morgan Rielly rolls into most games with his trusty Squad Leader skin. A creature of habit, he likes to get a good headstart by landing where the loot is aplenty and early eliminations are abundant. After racking up a few quick eliminations atop the Viking Base mountain, Rielly can often be seen hopping into a rift and heading towards the top of another slope, sniper rifle in hand as he preys on victim after victim in the fields below.

These are the words spoken by Auston Matthews in referring to Freddie Andersen’s Fortnite skills, to prove that we’re not simply picking on the Leafs’ netminder for his defense-first approach.

Frederik Andersen would be the type to drop money on a skin as ridiculous as Tomatohead if only to look like he knows what he’s doing. And where does Freddie like to drop, you ask? Wherever is below before he’s forced off of the Battle Bus, more or less. It’s off to the quieter corners of the map for Andersen, and he’s quick to equip his trusty Bush to stay out of harm’s way.

…until he’s eliminated with a shot right to the Tomato, that is.

Before you ask, the answer is yes – William Nylander is definitely vain enough to choose the skin that looks most like him.

William the Sun Tan Specialist can most often be seen dropping into the highly popular Paradise Palms on the map’s southern end, landing amongst the dunes of Fortnite’s desert in search of Loot and some early thrills.

A skilled goalscorer on the ice, Nylander is adept at translating those skills onto the island. He can most often be seen engaging at close range, mowing down the competition with his Compact SMG. He’s been seen more times than we can count mowing down opponents, pretending they’re the TSN reporters trying to trade him away. Perhaps his offense-first approach doesn’t always pay off in a Victory Royale, but his skills are more than enough for Nylander to find a place in the Top 10 on most occasions.

We all know that Jake Gardiner loves to jump up into the play and, and isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. That’s why Gardiner can often be found landing in Dusty Divot – smack in the middle of the map. Gardiner’s playing style is enough to get anybody on the edge of the seat – for better or for worse.

Gardiner is known to forego many of Fortnite’s traditional guns in favor of his trusty Grenade Launcher. How does it work for him, you may ask? Results may vary.

More times than not, Gardiner’s bombs from his Grenade Launcher are a sight to behold, as his offensive game is best suited to knocking down enemy’s forts and eliminating them when least expected. Sometimes, however, his lapses of judgment lead to some more-than-unfortunate bounces for those pesky grenades, leaving him with some pretty horrific self-eliminations with his tool of choice.

Come on, you don’t actually believe him, do you?

We all know that Kyle Dubas:

Nazem Kadri is Mike Babcock’s go-to guy down the middle, and he takes that role Mission Specialist into the Battle Royale ring as well. We all know that Kadri is no slouch when it comes to being a rapid-fire goalscorer, and his Fortnite skills are pretty comparable.

When he’s not letting his cat play, Naz is a force to be reckoned with; an antagonist best suited for his favorite landing spot, the Villain’s Lair. You can always count on Naz to be in the thick of things well into the final stages of each game.

For Leafs Legend John Tavares, the Fortnite formula is quite simple:

Hit ’em with the four kills right off the bat. Take your skills far and wide across the map, preying on No Skins (and Frederik Andersen) camping out in bushes, and blowing the roof off of enemy buildings. That’s Auston Matthews for you. I mean, come on, you didn’t think he was only the GOAT in hockey, did you?

Auston Matthews is a franchise player for every Squad he’s been a part of, regardless of how many Chug Jugs Mitch has downed or how many opponents Willy has gotten the better of. He’ll make a Barn Burner of every game from Fatal Fields to the Scotiabank Arena. Don’t mess with our golden boy.

Here’s to our boys in blue and white continuing to chug those jugs and snipe on those No Skins. A fun way to decompress and bond as a team is always needed, especially down the stretch run of sniping on the other 30 NHL teams. Hopefully, the end result will be drinking from the greatest Chug Jug of all: