Mitch Marner’s dog plays spectacular defense

Mitch Marner’s dog plays spectacular defense.

If you didn’t know before, dogs can play hockey, too. Just ask Mitch Marner’s dog, who showed off his skills in the driveway in an Instagram post earlier this week.

The Toronto Maple Leafs All Star right winger posted a video of him practicing with his dog Zeus, and we were really impressed by his quick paws.

(Good footwork is the key to good defense, particularly when playing basketball, soccer, tennis or volleyball.)

“Hockey players are a different breed these days,” Marner wrote as the caption. While he wasn’t able to steal the ball away, Zeus sure put up a pesky fight in chasing it, which would have allowed a teammate to finish the job if this had been an actual game.

For his National Hockey League career, the 22-year-old from the Toronto suburb of Thornhill, Ontario, has played in 300 games over four seasons, scoring 83 goals and tallying 208 assists for a total of 291 points. He’s totaled 5,535 minutes on the ice, 102 penalty minutes, and accounted for 144 blocks and 125 hits.

(These stats come from Hockey Reference.)

Through the currently-suspended 2019-20 NHL season, Marner has totaled 16 goals and 51 assists for 67 points through 59 games, with 37 blocks and 24 hits. The Leafs are third in the Eastern Conference Atlantic Division through 70 games with 81 points and a record of 36 wins, 25 losses and nine overtime losses.

Bark-Andre Furry, Sir Winston Da Doodle and the rest of the hockey dogs of Instagram and Dog Twitter are hoping that the season will be able to continue in a safe manner, but whether that’s possible remains to be seen, as the plan seems to change by the day. (Wesley is also curious how his inaugural fantasy hockey league team would have finished if the playoffs were able to be completed.)

For more news, analysis and opinion about all things in the world of Toronto hockey, see our FanSided Network sister site Editor in Leaf, and the network’s general hockey hub Puck Prose.