Mitch Marner gets chilly and loud reception in his Toronto return with Golden Knights

TORONTO (AP) — Mitch Marner stepped on the ice for warmups and heard some boos during an initial lap around a rink he knows well.

The Vegas Golden Knights winger experienced more jeers on his first shift. That noise only got louder when Marner finally touched the puck, followed by an unexpected ovation after heading to the bench.

In his first game back at Scotiabank Arena since a drawn-out divorce with the Toronto Maple Leafs was finalized last summer, Marner felt a range of emotions Friday night.

And left with a 6-3 victory.

“Passionate fan base,” Marner said. “They love their team. It was interesting the whole night. When warmups hit, it really just felt odd and weird.”

The Maple Leafs honored Marner, who spent nine seasons in Toronto playing for the team he cheered for as a kid, during the first television timeout. There was a mixture of boos and cheers throughout the 40-second video tribute as many fans rose to their feet. Marner raised his right arm and tapped his chest in acknowledgment with Vegas already up 2-0.

“I was trying to just take it in and not get emotional,” he said. “Still got a lot of love for these fans.”

Asked if there was a sense of relief the homecoming was finally over, Marner replied with a smile: “Completely, definitely, honestly.”

Vegas captain Mark Stone thought the atmosphere hit the right notes all night.

“You’re expecting boos, right?” Stone said. ”(Marner) doesn’t play for the Maple Leafs anymore, but they tip their cap to what he did for this organization.”

Drafted fourth overall in 2015, Marner enjoyed plenty of regular-season success with the Maple Leafs, but was a lightning rod of criticism in hockey’s biggest media market for Toronto’s inability to break through in the playoffs.

A slow march out the door from his de facto hometown last season as unrestricted free agency loomed finally ended when he was shipped to Vegas in a sign-and-trade deal that netted Marner an eight-year, $96 million extension.

“That (booing) was fine,” he said. “I knew was it going to come … the cheering when I was going off was pretty funny. I didn’t see that one coming.”

Marner, who picked up two assists in a 6-5 overtime victory against his old team on the Las Vegas Strip last week, has 12 goals and 40 assists in 50 games this season.

“Our guys were going to try to bring their best for Mitch,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “And they did.’

Marner’s new club sits comfortably in a playoff position atop the Pacific Division standings, while Toronto is on the outside in the Eastern Conference post-season race.

“The booing I had, it was what I expected,” he said. “Tried to play through it, play with the puck, play my game. And do my thing.”

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Vegas Golden Knights' Mitch Marner (93) tries a wrap around on Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Anthony Stolarz (41) during third period NHL hockey action in Toronto on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

Vegas Golden Knights' Shea Theodore (27), Pavel Dorofeyev (16) and Mitch Marner (93) celebrate a goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Toronto on Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

Vegas Golden Knights' Mitch Marner (93) and Toronto Maple Leafs' Nicolas Roy, right, battle for the puck during first-period NHL hockey game action in Toronto, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

Vegas Golden Knights forward Mitch Marner warms up before playing against his former team, the Toronto Maple Leafs, in NHL hockey game action in Toronto, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

Vegas Golden Knights' Mitch Marner, center, waves to the crowd as they have a tribute to him while playing against his former team, the Toronto Maple Leafs, during first-period NHL hockey game action in Toronto, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

Vegas Golden Knights forward Mitch Marner warms up before playing against his former team, the Toronto Maple Leafs, in NHL hockey game action in Toronto, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

Vegas Golden Knights' Mitch Marner (93) waves to the crowd as they have a tribute to him while playing against his former team, the Toronto Maple Leafs, during first-period NHL hockey game action in Toronto, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)

LUSAKA, Zambia (AP) — She says she was let down at every step. By a partner who abandoned her when she was pregnant. By a health service that denied her a legal abortion. And by a justice system that sent her to a maximum-security prison for illegally terminating her pregnancy on her own.

Violet Zulu, a house cleaner in Zambia earning $40 a month, was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2024 after representing herself in court with little understanding of the consequences of her actions. She didn't see her two children or other family members for nearly two years.

After word of her case reached international rights groups that helped her file an appeal, Zulu was freed last month. Activists say she represents many women in Africa who take desperate decisions when facing barriers to legal abortion services.

Her story has drawn little sympathy in her southern African nation, where parts of society view abortion harshly. Her own mother said she agreed with her daughter's prison sentence, but said it should have been shorter.

Zulu spoke with The Associated Press as she pieces her life together again at the age of 26.

She said she first attempted to access legal abortion services at a public clinic, which should have given her advice or services but turned her away. She then tried a private pharmacy, which requested 800 Zambian kwacha ($43) for abortion drugs, a month's salary for her.

She was already struggling to feed her two young sons, and she sometimes had to beg food from relatives.

She said her decision to drink an herbal concoction she prepared herself, one known for terminating pregnancies, was taken out of despair. She couldn't bear for her boys to have even less food if she had another child.

“I never wanted to abort my pregnancy, but it is the circumstances at home that forced me to do it," Zulu said in the interview at the two-room rented home with no running water that she shares with her children and parents.

“I was scared (when I took the concoction), but I didn’t really care what would happen to me," she added.

In her court testimony, she explained what happened next: She delivered the fetus in a toilet, placed it in a sack and dropped it in a nearby stream. She said she confided in a friend, but word got out and neighbors reported her to police.

Zulu, who left school in the eighth grade, was never offered free legal counsel despite the right to request it. She represented herself in court and pleaded guilty to the offense of procuring her own abortion. She said she didn’t understand the legality of abortion and thought she would receive a warning.

“This is a system that failed Violet,” said Rosemary Kirui, a legal adviser for Africa for the abortion rights group Center for Reproductive Rights, which campaigned for Zulu’s release and helped with her appeal. “It is not that she did not try. It is that she could not afford the services, yet she should be able to access them as a citizen of Zambia.”

Zulu should have been eligible for a free abortion under a provision that allows doctors in Zambia to consider risks to the well-being of her existing children, said Sharon Williams, country director for the Women and Law in Southern Africa advocacy group.

But Zulu was not aware of that, largely because of the secrecy, stigma and shame around abortion, which is not advertised by Zambia's public health system.

Zambia's health ministry did not respond to questions about her case.

Part of the problem, Williams said, is that Zambia has legalized abortion while also defining itself in its constitution as a strongly Christian country.

Abortions are still largely restricted in Africa, with few countries allowing them for reasons other than threats to the health of the mother or the fetus. Even in countries like Zambia, religious beliefs, conservative values rooted in local cultures or a lack of information make access to legal procedures difficult, according to health and rights groups.

Williams said Zulu’s case ought to lead to a national conversation over whether Zambian authorities should better educate communities over the legal right to abortion.

“I think now that we have this judgment, we’re ready for the conversation," she said.

Activists say desperate women turn to unsafe abortions. Africa and Latin America have the highest proportions of them, with approximately 75% of all abortions in Africa deemed unsafe, according to the World Health Organization.

The Guttmacher Institute health rights organization estimated in a 2019 report that over 6 million unsafe abortions a year occurred in sub-Saharan Africa. It noted that Zambia's abortion law “tended to be a ‘paper law’ rather than one that ensures widespread access.”

In South Africa, which claims to have the most progressive laws on the continent, abortion has been legal for nearly 30 years. It is allowed on request before 13 weeks of pregnancy and for several reasons before 21 weeks.

But studies estimate only 7% of public health facilities there offer abortion services.

In 2023, the case of a 14-year-old who was denied an abortion by South African health workers three times for reasons that were not valid prompted a national reality check. After an urgent court case, a judge ordered that the girl be allowed to have an abortion, which was performed on the last day eligible by law.

At the time, a representative of the social justice group that represented the girl said South Africa's abortion laws were being undermined by "the abuse of medical knowledge by health care professionals" in trying to prevent abortions.

In Zambia, Zulu said she still felt bad about what she did but must now provide for her sons. She was looking for work again, she said.

Imray reported from Cape Town, South Africa.

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The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Violet Zulu, who was sent to a maximum-security prison after she was denied a legal abortion and ended her pregnancy on her own, poses for a photograph in Lusaka, Zambia, Jan. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Kille)

Violet Zulu, who was sent to a maximum-security prison after she was denied a legal abortion and ended her pregnancy on her own, poses for a photograph in Lusaka, Zambia, Jan. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Kille)