Mitch Marner makes his thoughts clear on ‘fiery competitor’ Brad Marchand following shutout loss to Panthers (Getty)

Brad Marchand haunted the Toronto Maple Leafs again, and Mitch Marner had nothing but compliments for his on-ice enemy. Marchand has been a thorn in Toronto’s side on numerous occasions.

He and Marner were teammates in the 4 Nations Face-Off, and they were winning partners. They helped Canada outlast the United States in overtime to win, but now they’re enemies.

Marner said of the Florida Panthers star following the team’s 2-0 win:

“He’s a great teammate, great guy. I’m sure a lot of people probably opposite playing against him and everything like that. He’s a fiery competitor and that’s something you want on your team.”

For a while, it didn’t look like Marchand would be able to plague the Leafs this year. The Boston Bruins were going nowhere, and Marchand wasn’t expected to be traded since he was their captain.

At the trade deadline, though, they changed their mind and shipped him to the defending Stanley Cup title winners. That, and the fact that both Florida and Toronto won their opening series, has led to this heavyweight bout between the two sides and the two stars.

Leafs HC wants more from Mitch Marner, with the star struggling

Auston Matthews has struggled offensively, and while Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube didn’t excuse his issues, he did want to see more from a linemate: Mitch Marner.

Mitch Marner needs to shoot more (Imagn)

Marner is one of the wings on Matthews’ line, and Berube said Monday via NHL:

“Sometimes your top guys, they’re looking to get too good of a chance sometimes instead of just putting the puck on net. I think there’s times where we could put more pucks on net at angles, bad angles, just firing it in there with people going to the net. You never know, it goes off somebody, rebounds or anything like that.”

He continued:

“I think Mitch could just be a little bit more direct in that area. He has the puck a lot, we know that, and he’s got to look to put more pucks to the net. I get what he’s trying to do, he wants to upgrade his chance, upgrade the chance. He’s a passer first, we know that, but we need him to shoot pucks too. So yeah, I agree with you on that. Two games without a shot, he’s got to shoot the puck.”

Marner has two goals and 10 assists in 10 games this postseason for 12 points.