If you’re a Canadian patriot and a Maple Leafs fan still basking in the euphoric glow of Thursday night’s overtime win over the United States in the 4 Nations final, it’s understandable that you’re only taking positives out of the NHL’s long-awaited best-on-best showcase. There are plenty to celebrate. Not only was Leafs forward Mitch Marner the primary setup man on two of Canada’s three goals in the final, including the Connor McDavid clincher. Marner scored the overtime winner in the opener against Sweden. On top of that, Leafs centreman Auston Matthews, the U.S. captain, looked like the most likely American to break Canadian hearts throughout the championship game. Matthews set up both his team’s goals by controlling the play down low. He had some glorious chances in overtime, too, only to be thwarted by the clutch netminding of Jordan Binnington. All of that could easily be spun as a massive step forward for Marner and Matthews, whose enormously successful NHL careers have long been marred by a chronic case of underperformance in high-stakes moments. The Marner-Matthews Leafs are 0-for-6 in winner-take-all playoff games, including last spring’s Game 7 loss in Boston. In those losses, neither Marner nor Matthews has scored a goal. Heck, neither has managed more than a single assist in any contest. So, for both to rack up a pair of primary assists in Thursday’s highly anticipated showdown — albeit in a different kind of winner-take-all contest with a different set of teammates — could have been classed as a trip to uncharted territory. “I thought both our guys were excellent in the game,” Craig Berube, the Leafs coach, was saying after Friday’s practice in Etobicoke. “Matty had it on his stick in overtime, too, and could have ended it. But I thought they both had a good tournament. Happy for Mitch, he won. And I’m unhappy for Matty considering they didn’t win. But playing with the best players in the world, being in that environment, being in that stressed situation is good for our players, to experience that and to thrive in it.” They didn’t thrive exclusively. Before he caught fire in the final, Marner was invisible for important stretches. Matthews, for all his positive plays, was ultimately a world-class scorer who failed to score a single 4 Nations goal. And while Berube lauded the Toronto captain for his strong “200-foot” game, it won’t be forgotten that Matthews was at the crux of a game-deciding U.S. defensive miscue that saw him leave McDavid alone in the slot to bury the clincher. If great two-way players are often lauded for attention to detail, neglecting to keep an eye on the best player on the planet at the biggest moment of the biggest game of your international career seems like an important box left unchecked. Not that Berube was in the mood to nitpick a game in which he wasn’t coaching. Berube, though he has made the U.S. his off-season residence, is a proud Canadian from small-town Alberta. So the potential competitive evolution of Marner and Matthews wasn’t his only interest in Thursday’s game. The coach said he was among the Leafland Canadians who won bets with Matthew Knies, the Phoenix-bred winger who said he lost “a few hundred” on his fellow Americans. “(Knies) hasn’t paid me yet, but I said, ‘It’ll be more tomorrow,’” Berube said. Nobody is saying Berube has the look of a guy who might earn a living breaking legs for a bookmaker, but the coach did partake in 303 NHL fights as a player. Knies might be well advised to settle that debt pronto. Not everyone in Leafland seemed overly excited about Thursday’s result. Leafs centreman John Tavares said he went to bed after the third period and recorded the overtime to watch in the morning. Winger William Nylander, who played for Sweden, also hit the sack after the third period. As of noon Friday, Nylander claimed to have not yet seen video evidence of Marner setting up McDavid’s winning goal. “I’ll have to take a look,” Nylander said. If it’s hard to fake that kind of passion for the game, it says something about the state of pro sports that one of the key questions about players who competed in the 4 Nations revolved around their immediate availability. There’s little time for rest, after all. The Leafs play Saturday at home against Carolina and Sunday in Chicago. Marner and Matthews were absent from practice Friday. And while Berube had previously scoffed at the notion that Matthews and Marner might need a game off this weekend — “You got somebody that’s going to go in and play?” he said — he left open the sliver of a possibility that rest might be an option. “There’s a lot put into that (final) game, obviously, by both teams and players,” Berube said. “I think emotionally, it’ll be interesting to see.” Fair enough. But as draining as Thursday’s final might have been, the tournament wasn’t exactly a torture chamber. Matthews played three games in 13 days; Marner played four. Assuming Matthews is healthy — and in the lead-up to Thursday’s final he spoke of acquiring a “new” injury beyond the undisclosed ailment he’s been nursing all season — he ought to be ready to go. Ditto Marner. That’s what the eight-figure salaries are for. It’s time to turn those 4 Nations adventures into NHL results in the run-up to another swing at elusive playoff success. “I know they’ll be motivated coming back here to take (the 4 Nations experience) and grow from it and help us in the stretch run here,” Tavares said about Matthews and Marner. “Great to see (Marner) deliver a big play in a big moment on a great stage. I messaged him this morning; I haven’t heard back. Hopefully he’s getting a lot of sleep. If he’s not, that’s OK, too. I’m sure any time you accomplish something unique and special, you want to soak it in and enjoy it.”