Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner won’t dwell on the lack of a penalty on the play where he got elbowed by Florida Panthers defenceman Dmitry Kulikov.
The incident in question occurred during Game 4 on Sunday night, in which no call was issued to Kulikov on the play. Marner suffered no apparent injury and was able to finish the contest.
Mitch Marner took an elbow up high. No call on the play
🎥: Sportsnet pic.twitter.com/4WkNs34zET
— TheLeafsNation (@TLNdc) May 12, 2025
Marner was asked about the play in question after practice on Tuesday, but he opted to turn the page on it and focus his efforts on preparing for Game 5.
“It’s hockey. I don’t know. Stuff happens fast,” he said. “I don’t really care or talk about it. I’m just trying to go out there and do my thing.”
The incident was one of many intense and borderline dirty hits that took place in the game, with both fan bases left feeling frustrated. Oliver Ekman-Larsson laid a big hit on Evan Rodrigues in the second period that resulted in the latter suffering an injury. In the closing seconds of Game 4, Max Domi laid a hit on Aleksander Barkov from behind that resulted in Florida’s captain going headfirst into the boards. It resulted in him being issued a five-minute major for boarding and a $5000 fine from the Department of Player Safety.
There will certainly be plenty more fireworks on Wednesday, as evidenced by when the broadcast showed Matthew Tkachuk jawing at William Nylander on the bench after the game ended.
“In the end, I really liked our physicality and compete out there. The guys played hard. It is a tough series. They are a very good team. We know that, and it is a battle,” head coach Craig Berube said. “I thought most guys were engaged. They were going good. There are guys who can do more, for sure, and we are going to need more out of them. We will figure that out and handle that.”
Berube felt that the Kulikov hit on Marner was ’10 times worse’ than the Domi hit on Barkov, while adding that he was never given an explanation from the officials on why the former wasn’t called. It is worth mentioning that Kulikov was ultimately not given any supplemental discipline for his elbow, so there is nothing that can be done about the play now.
Judging by the response from Marner on the incident in question, he is not going to dwell on it and instead shift his attention towards a better response in the pivotal Game 5 on Wednesday.