Bobby McMann went to Scotiabank Arena Tuesday morning thinking he wasn't going to be a healthy scratch.
That's when Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe informed the forward that there was an illness going around and that he'd likely be needed.
By around 4 p.m. ET, it was clear to the club that captain John Tavares was not feeling well enough to play and McMann was thrust into duty.
The 27-year-old registered his first career NHL hat trick on a night when the club was missing key players in a 4-1 victory against the St. Louis Blues.
Scoring twice was impressive enough. But his clearing attempt was banked off the sideboards and just sneaked past the empty net before Blue defenseman Torey Krug could get to it and clear it out.
"That was pretty cool," McMann said of the moment. "I didn't know if it had the right angle or what, but it was pretty cool to see it go in."
McMann scored his third, fourth and fifth goals of the season. He improved his season points total to 10 in just 27 games with the Leafs in 2023-24.
Scotiabank Arena fans showered McMann with hats. His teammates all smiled when he got to the bench, joking with him.
"That's the standard, you've got to get three every game," they said.
Jokes aside, a hat trick from an unsung hero is exactly what the Maple Leafs needed on Tuesday. With all the talk about the team's lack of secondary scoring this season, the club was without two of its top offensive weapons in John Tavares and Mitch Marner on Tuesday. William Nylander played and did score a goal, but he was also clearly under the weather, made evident by the player sitting out of the team's practice on Wednesday.
Add in the loss of Morgan Rielly due to suspension, and the Leafs trotted out a lineup that looked severely underpowered.
But everyone stepped up and buckled down defensively, leading to a season-low 15 shots on goal allowed by Toronto.
"Not one person is going to take the load of it, even though Bobby, frankly, kind of did tonight," Maple Leafs I was super excited for him and excited for our group to have a complete performance like that."
The 6-foot-2 McMann was never drafted in the NHL despite a full four-year collegiate career with Colgate University. He began his career in the ECHL and earned his first AHL contract with the Toronto Marlies in 2020. Two years later, he earned his first NHL contract with the Leafs and made his NHL debut on January 11, 2023, against the Predators. He nearly scored his first NHL goal one night later on the annual fathers' trip but his goal was taken away after a video review.
Mcmann has battled through parts of last season and this season with a lingering adductor tendon but the worst of it seems to be past him. His five goals this season have him tied with the same amount of goals as Max Domi and just one behind Tyler Bertuzzi, who was expected to produce at a higher clip but has just had a down year by his standards.
A late bloomer, McMann is in the final year of his contract with the Leafs and will become a free agent at the end of this season.
His team may have been joking about him scoring three times every night, but they'll take what they can get.
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