If ever there was a time for Jake Gardiner to shine, this was it.



The Maple Leafs No. 1 defenceman, Morgan Rielly, was down in pain on the ice. He tried in vain to return to the game but was lost for the night. It was the first period, his team was down 2-0 heading into the second, and Gardiner was going to have to put in the longest night of his career as one of the two remaining left defencemen.



By the end of the night, that added up to 29 minutes, 24 seconds – essentially half the game.



The Leafs won, in large part because of how well Gardiner filled that role. He had to be a chameleon of sorts, too, playing 12 minutes with Nikita Zaitsev, 9.5 minutes with usual partner Connor Carrick, another five with Roman Polak and even three with Matt Hunwick.



He played with everyone. He did pretty much everything, including kill penalties.



“He was huge,” was the review from Auston Matthews.



And he didn’t even...