Mitch Marner walked into his postgame scrum Thursday night with Ryan Reaves on FaceTime, fresh off a Golden Knights win over Toronto.
"You wanna talk to the media, Reavo? Toronto, they love you," the Vegas forward said into the phone, as reported by Danny Webster.
The punchline had history behind it. Reaves played 84 games for the Maple Leafs across 2023-24 and 2024-25.
The big right winger is retired now. He walks away with 962 NHL games and 1137 penalty minutes on his ledger.
Vegas knows the act well. He spent four seasons in a Golden Knights sweater, from 2017-18 through 2020-21.
So one phone call covered two of his former dressing rooms in a single night. And the game that set it up went the distance, with Vegas winning 4-3 in a shootout.
That's three straight wins for the Golden Knights, now 4-1-0 under head coach Ryan Craig.
Jim Hiller's Leafs still waiting on their first road win
Marner logged 24:10 of ice time and fired five shots on Sergei Bobrovsky.
All he had to show for it was a single assist. He also went minus-1 on the night.
Bobrovsky had plenty to do with that. The Toronto goaltender turned aside 40 of 43 shots across 65 minutes.
Here's the issue. Through five games, a $12,000,000 forward has three points.
Jack Eichel has 12 on the same roster. That gap is too wide to wave away, even in October.
Eichel did it again Thursday, scoring once and setting up another in 26:38.
Adin Hill handled the rest. He stopped 21 of 24 in regulation and overtime, then shut the door in the shootout.
And Toronto? Jim Hiller's group sits at 2-2-1, with one point to show from its only road game so far.
The Leafs got goals from Easton Cowan, Nick Paul and Jack Roslovic. Auston Matthews was held to a lone assist.
Gavin McKenna, all of 18, picked up a helper in 14:08 of work.
The FaceTime bit played like texting an ex a photo from the balcony of your new apartment. Friendly on the surface, with a little extra on it.
Toronto head to Colorado on Saturday. Vegas host Los Angeles the same night.
The rematch comes December 12 in Toronto. Whether that building greets Marner with the same warmth he promised Reaves is a question nobody answered Thursday.
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Are three points in five games already a red flag for Mitch Marner's $12 million deal in Vegas?
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