Kirill Marchenko’s defensive miscue overshadowed hat-trick vs. Sabres

Kirill Marchenko scored his first hat-trick with the Toronto Maple Leafs, which also happened to be his 300th career NHL game, facing off against the Buffalo Sabres Thursday night. Unfortunately for him, an overtime defensive miscue completely ruined the party.

“Yeah, of course, I’ll remember this night for sure,” Marchenko said post-game. “But, it’s no good that we lost the game. The win is more important, and I’m frustrated too because it’s my mistake in the end. Good goals, but I want to win games more.”

Marchenko put on an absolute show against the Sabres, going between his legs for his first of the three, something he admitted worked on in the past. “Not often, a couple of years ago, I worked on it,” stated Marchenko postgame. “It worked right now, don’t think much, just try to do something, it’s a good goal, but still, want to win more games.”

Despite the breakout performance, Marchenko is much more concerned about the Maple Leafs blowing the lead, falling 5-4 to the Sabres. He took accountability for his role in the unfortunate overtime winner, after Marchenko lost a step to Sabres’ defenceman Owen Power, leaving Power with time and space to rip one past Leafs’ goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.

“It was tough, we can’t lose these games. In overtime, it was my mistake, Power scored and I can do better work there, for sure.” Marchenko told reporters postgame. “Power was my guy, he jumped by me, and scored the goal, obviously. I’ll clean that up, for sure. They scored 4-4 and overtime, we need to find a way to win these games, it’s so important for us.”

One thing that’s been noticeable about Marchenko since he joined the Maple Leafs is his desire to learn and grow as a player. With an unlimited supply of resources surrounding him, add in his work ethic, always picking his teammate’s brains, looking for an edge.

Losing Matthew Knies was a gut punch to the fan base, but Marchenko’s quickly proved he’s an elite winger, who’s going to put up a ton of points, and continue to look for ways to master his craft. You can bet he’ll be working on 3-on-3 defensive-zone coverage the next time he’s on the ice.