"Mishandled pucks": Leafs HC Craig Berube gives unfiltered opinion on Mitch Marner-Nylander-Tavares line's performance against Seattle Kraken

Toronto Maple Leafs superstar forward Mitch Marner returned to the lineup on Thursday night in Seattle following a short one-game absence with a lower-body injury.

In his return, coach Craig Berube assembled a rarely seen line of Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander. Toronto beat the Kraken 3-1, and the line was involved in the scoring on a goal from defenseman Philippe Myers in the first period. Despite that, the bench boss felt there were some things to clean up moving forward.

Leafslatest on X (formerly Twitter) shared Berube's comments on the performance of the trio during his postgame media availability on Thursday.

"I thought they were fine, but they could’ve executed better in some situations where they normally would. They kind of mishandled pucks and didn’t execute the pass at the time. There were opportunities for them to strike and get some opportunities, but I didn’t think they executed well enough," Berube said.

The Maple Leafs are in Vancouver on Saturday night to face the Canucks in their final game before the 4 Nations break. It will give the newly formed line one more opportunity to see if they can stick in the long term.

Mitch Marner should be good to go for the 4 Nations

There was concern over Mitch Marner's status for the Four Nations Face-Off tournament when a lower-body injury popped up earlier in the week. His swift return to the lineup puts those to bed as the 27-year-old appears healthy and ready to roll.

Marner will represent Team Canada and be relied upon to produce offense as one of the top forwards on the team. He's amassed 71 points (16 goals, 55 assists) in 53 games played during the 2024-25 campaign. This puts him in a tie for second with Connor McDavid (71 points) for the most points this season of any Canadian NHL player behind only Nathan MacKinnon (83 points).

His 55 assists also rank second in the NHL, once again behind his fellow countryman MacKinnon (63 assists).

It will be the Markham, Ontario native's first time representing his country since the 2016-17 World Championships.

Marner and Team Canada will begin round-robin play at the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament on Wednesday against Team Sweden. The puck drops at 8 p.m. EST at the Bell Centre in Montreal.