Marner's friends kept drunk-texting him after Leafs' massive win

Sometimes when you’re watching the Toronto Maple Leafs, the players almost seem superhuman, capable of athletic feats the average person can only dream of.

And sometimes, there’s the moments where the players remind you that they’re largely a bunch of dudes in their mid-20s, with friend groups of a similar demographic.

Asked today about the kinds of messages his friends were sending him after the Leafs defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in overtime on Saturday night to advance to the second round of the playoffs, Toronto forward Mitch Marner essentially admitted that, well, his friends got pretty drunk to celebrate and kept messaging him about it.

“Just a lot of excitement, a lot of videos of buddies at bars after it pretty hard,” Marner said today at Toronto’s practice. “Probably like a lot of guys in this room who are from Toronto. A lot of friends turn on the Toronto Maple Leafs. It was a cool moment to see, a cool thing to feel their love and appreciation. But at the same time, we’re trying to do something special here.”

Marner had two goals and nine assists against the Lightning in six games.

“We’ve got a lot of games ahead of us here,” Marner added. “We’ve got a hard, hungry team that’s coming into this building. So we got to make sure we’re just ready for every game. And we don’t look ahead to any game. We’re just here in the moment now and enjoying it and trying to just live in that moment.”

Toronto will be hosting the Florida Panthers for Game 1 of the second round tomorrow, Tuesday, May 2 at 7 pm ET, as well as Game 2 on Thursday, May 4.

The time for Thursday has yet to be announced, but if history holds any indication, puck drop will be set for somewhere between 7 to 8 pm ET.

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