Marchenko’s night to remember gives way to a familiar Maple Leafs ending

The Leafs’ first goal against Buffalo on Thursday was a delight. Auston Matthews left his skates to field a puck with his outstretched hand at the blue line. Then he hustled over to the corner of the net to receive a lovely pass and slot it in.

The second Toronto goal may have been even more aesthetically pleasing. Kirill Marchenko backed in on goal at close range, swivelled to discombobulate defenders and then put it between his own legs. Marvellous.

Buffalo’s goals weren’t anywhere near as entertaining. Like, not even close. Totally by the book hockey goals. Sure, they scored more of them. But is that how we’re going to judge these things? Statistically?

Toronto collapsed in the third period, giving back a 4-2 lead. Then they fell a little further in overtime, pooching it entirely.

What should have been an evening spent celebrating Kirill Marchenko’s first hat trick as a Leaf was instead spent in the more familiar way – making excuses that even the excuser doesn’t seem to believe.

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“Honestly, I thought we had a good process in the third,” said Matthews. “I don’t think our process was bad.” If that’s true, this man can never be allowed to coach.

Even Sergei Bobrovsky, only one month into the disappointing part of his NHL career, knew what to do: “You either win or you have a lesson to learn. It’s a good lesson to learn.”

If this was actually the case, everyone on this team would have PhDs in place of championships.

Last year, the Leafs’ problem was that they were boring to watch and bad at hockey. This year, they’ve solved the first part. The second remains mysterious.

Their stars have been stars, and yet the team currently sits outside a playoff position. It’s not a disaster, but there’s no suggestion it will get better.

You can already feel the tension building in the room. Hushed voices. Downcast eyes. No matter how many nameplates get swapped, this remains a club incapable of shrugging things off.

Meanwhile, new problems are beginning to pile up. Chris Tanev, the only truly reliable defensive defence man, is out week to week. That’s the nice way of saying year to year.

John Tavares was half-carried off the ice after a heavy, no-look collision in Thursday’s game. His condition is unclear.

But from a ‘keeping the discussion sane’ point of view, the most concerning thing was rookie Gavin McKenna’s night. McKenna faded out of the line-up in the second period and never really returned. He logged just six minutes of ice time – the closest thing you can get to being a healthy scratch while still in pads.

Afterward, coach Jim Hiller was unable to explain what McKenna had done wrong – though he clearly thought it was something.“ I probably should have got him out there early in the third, but I didn’t. I’ll talk to him about that.”

What’d you think of his game?

“He was okay.”

Oh dear.

This is how the Mitch Marner’ing of McKenna begins. It’s little insults like this, lobbed in public, with a best intention that they will be cleared up in private later. That sort of thing only makes sense when filtered through the hockey brain.

It fails to understand how memes work. You think you’ve said nothing, but the internet knows different. It only remembers the look on your face when you were not very subtly burying the guy. Where do you think an 18-year-old spends more time – online or in your office?

“Doesn’t take anything too, too personally,” said Hiller. “I’ll talk to him, but I don’t have any concern.”

Of the millions of people who coach the Leafs, that makes one person who believes that.

What’s becoming clear is that the Leafs have created a team of two dramatically different parts. There is the Matthews/Marchenko/William Nylander part. After spending last season watching this club get outshot by opposing mascots, it is refreshing to see their best talent skating with purpose. There were early moments in Thursday’s game where it looked like Matthews and Nylander in particular were working at a different speed to everyone else.

Then there’s the part that survives on discipline and consistency. That part is still MIA. Everyone was in some way to blame for the third-period letdown. Unfairly, Marchenko was at fault for the overtime winner.

“I will remember it for my whole life,” Marchenko said. He meant his three goals, but the way he said it, you thought he was talking about his late failure.

The glass nearly full version of the year – which is the one the Leafs will always focus on – is that these mistakes are correctable. Bobrovsky said the very thing. He kept banging on about “talent.”

Which talent, exactly? The Leafs have unleashed their offensive horses, a few of whom are capable of performing like all-timers. But everywhere else, especially as you get closer to the back, it’s what you expected. This is a club with a few thoroughbreds and a lot of plough horses. You don’t get far in today’s NHL unless the whole stable is capable of placing in the money.

This is a club built to make mistakes that can’t afford any. Hiller talked Thursday night about their inability to make “two plays” late, like that was some magic formula. Perhaps he hasn’t noticed that he has been given a one-play sort of roster. If they were capable of reliably making the second play, he wouldn’t have a job, because they wouldn’t have fired the last guy.

Like everyone else, he’s going to have to learn to live with what he’s got. The deeper the Leafs get into this, the more they will have to rely on their most important employee – GM John Chayka.

Chayka changed the Leafs roster a great deal this off-season. It remains to be seen if he’s changed the Leafs. So far, it hasn’t looked like it.