In a game that had the entire country on their toes, for reasons that didn’t just stop at hockey, Team Canada prevailed. Stop us if you’ve heard that story before.

Between rising tensions in North America over threats of annexation from below the border, quotes to the media that fuelled the fire on both sides, and the long-lasting rivalry between Canada and the USA that’s blessed this sport for decades, Thursday night’s 4 Nations championship affair went from being a blank date on the calendar to must-see TV that had even the most casual of hockey fans on both sides tuning in.

Although Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner had both taken some heat here and there for some relatively quiet performances on the scoresheet throughout the tournament, both players had easily their best games of the tournament on the biggest stage, under the brightest lights, when the stakes were highest – something that this market has craved for years and years on end. For the purpose of this piece, since only one of those two players could have come out victorious last night, let’s zero in on Marner and the rest of the winning side.

Some saw it as a demotion when Marner was moved to a checking line with Anthony Cirelli and Brandon Hagel after starting the tournament on Connor McDavid’s wing. On paper it may have looked like that, but this was a move that had a domino effect and paved the way for Canada’s victory. Marner and McDavid are both players who thrive when they’re the primary puck-carrier on their line, so it makes sense that those two didn’t initially click together. Key word ‘initially’, as they saved their best connection for overtime in the Championship game.

Marner was all over the ice in Thursday night’s tilt in Boston, setting up Sam Bennett for the game-tying goal and then Connor McDavid for the overtime winner. He killed penalties, took reps on the power play, but most importantly, he stepped up and made big plays when the team needed it most. It’s hard to ‘take control of a game’ per se when you’re playing in a best-on-best tournament and both your teammates and opponents are the most skilled hockey players in the world, but Marner was not a passenger on Thursday night, and that’s all that fans wanted to see.

Although Matthews was on the losing end of things and blew his coverage on the overtime winner, he also set up both of Team USA’s goals and was a dangerous shooting threat all game long, coming within an inch of a goal several times in the third period. It was interesting to watch him from the opponent’s perspective, and certainly provided a different feeling around analyzing his game. It’s easy to criticize his performance when he’s playing for your team and your opinions are emotionally-driven because of that, but watching him from the opposite bench served as a stark reminder of how dangerous he is when he’s feeling it.

It’s no secret that Marner has taken a ton of flak in the past, and from a fan’s perspective, it’s understandable. The frustration of not winning more than one playoff round in what’s now the ninth year of this core together has been bubbling over the years, and when you spend every off day during the season reading about contract negotiations and how much money the team is going to have to spend to keep certain players, it can be hard to keep the emotions at bay when said players have routinely fizzled under the spotlight.

However, it’s important to understand that fans aren’t criticizing the likes of Marner and Matthews because they don’t think they’re capable of shining under the bright lights. That’s actually the whole reason for the extra heat. These two players are objectively two of, if not the two best Maple Leafs in history from a skill standpoint. Matthews is a 60+ goal-scorer, Marner is an exceptional playmaker, and both players possess Selke-level defensive abilities. We’ve seen the way that these two can take over games in the regular season and single-handedly put the team on their backs, which only adds to the frustration from the fanbase when they’re shut down by the Boston Bruins or Florida Panthers in the postseason.

Last night, that narrative was briefly silenced. You couldn’t ask for brighter lights or a higher-pressure situation, not just because of the stakes of the game itself, but because of the political tensions surrounding it. It was the closest thing we’ve seen to the 1972 Summit Series against the Soviet Union from a sports standpoint and a real life standpoint, and despite the entire country watching on the edge of their seats, yearning for a win in such dire circumstances, he showed up and played his best game of the tournament on both sides of the puck.

It’s important to remember that these players are all human beings, and they have emotions the same way the rest of us do. Have you ever gotten in your own head about something that should be an easy task for you, and found difficulty completing said task because you can’t get out of your own way? That’s exactly what we’ve seen from Marner in the playoffs in recent years. And, sure, people will make the argument that you should be able to work through those feelings if you’re one of the highest-paid players in the NHL, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have their own demons.

It’s easy to watch guys like Matthews and Marner get shut down in big playoff games and chalk it up to ‘Oh, they didn’t try.’ or ‘Oh, they’ve picked up their paycheques and now they’re ready for summer vacation’, but the reality is, they’re more than capable of doing what they did Thursday night in an NHL playoff game. And in a perfect world for everybody, Marner holds this experience close to his heart (and, frankly, Matthews too), and applies it to his game when the Leafs head into the playoffs. If there was any lack of confidence that he didn’t have what it took to show up and ball out in a game with high stakes, the conclusion of the 4 Nations Face-Off should mend things in that respect.