During his most recent 32 Thoughts Podcast Elliotte Friedman opened up about what he believes has led to the Maple Leafs' success without Auston Matthews. The Toronto Maple Leafs have been without Auston Matthews for several weeks now after he was initially diagnosed with a day-to-day injury. When Auston Matthews went down the Toronto Maple Leafs were struggling to stay in the playoff race and their power play was incredibly disappointing. Since being injured the Maple Leafs have come alive and won 5 of the 6 games that Auston Matthews has missed and their powerplay has seen a massive jump. <div align='center'><blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'><a href='https://twitter.com/SNstats/status/1855448195192463856'> </a></blockquote></div> With the Toronto Maple Leafs playing so well over the last six games there has been debate over what has changed. This afternoon Elliotte Friedman made his opinion known that Mitch Marner has been the x-factor that the Toronto Maple Leafs needed to get things going. <h3>Elliotte Friedman praises Mitch Marner for his incredible play with Auston Matthews out</h3> During his 32 Thoughts Podcast which came after the Toronto Maple Leafs and Edmonton Oilers game Elliotte Friedman spoke about the Maple Leafs' recent success. Many around the NHL have praised Mitch Marner for his play against the Edmonton Oilers particularly on the offensive side of the game. Elliotte Friedman took a different approach and praised Mitch Marner for his defensive effort in shutting down the Oilers' top line including Connor McDavid. I think he's handled things really well, and this is all coming as they've now won one five of six with Austin Matthews out with injury, he said. I thought it was just quite impressive how he's handled, certainly the assignment on Saturday night, playing against 97. Over the last several months Mitch Marner has been surrounded in chaos and controversy in relation to his expiring contract. It seems as though everyone outside of Toronto continues to praise Mitch Marner and does not understand why the Maple Leafs refuse to re-sign Mitch Marner. The opposite seems to be true of fans in Toronto who no matter how good Mitch Marner plays the fans want him to be traded or let go when the season is over. As the season goes on with Auston Matthews expected to be out for at least a few more games it will be interesting to see how much Mitch Marner drives his value up. <div align='center'><blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'><a href='https://twitter.com/lukefoxjukebox/status/1858553530539188491'> </a></blockquote></div> Of course regardless of his play in the regular season it seems like all substantial judgement will be held off until the Stanley Cup Playoffs begin.