How the Maple Leafs can win Game 6 and force deciding game back in Toronto
'You have to skate and you have to compete. It's going to be physical. We know that. It's tight.'
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The solution to the Maple Leafs’ problems couldn’t be more obvious.
Stop overthinking. Just go play.
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How the Maple Leafs can win Game 6 and force deciding game back in Toronto Back to video
If only it was that easy with the season on the line in Game 6 on Friday night against the Florida Panthers in Sunrise, eh?
The defending Stanley Cup champions have pounced and are ready to send the Leafs to another early start to the summer in grasping a 3-2 stranglehold in the best-of-seven second-round series.
After taking some time to absorb what the Leafs did in their worst game of the season — given the circumstances and complete failure, there’s no other way to describe it — we would argue that Toronto can’t be that bad again in the looming must-win.
As difficult as it may be, try to forget the previous years of post-season failure and boil your thoughts down to how the Leafs have played under coach Craig Berube. What happened on Wednesday isn’t the way the Leafs have gone about their business in Berube’s first year behind the Toronto bench.
The Leafs excelled in adopting Berube’s north-south system during the regular season — they wouldn’t have won the Atlantic Division otherwise.
They’ve stuck to it, for the most part, during the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs. In Game 5, the Leafs became unglued.
It wasn’t similar to what went down in Game 4, when the Leafs were shut out 2-0. Florida scored a power-play goal and another off a rare mistake on the part of defencemen Jake McCabe and Chris Tanev.
The Panthers didn’t necessarily step up the intensity in Game 5. It wasn’t as though coach Paul Maurice devised a new forecheck and as a result the Leafs couldn’t respond.
Toronto, displaying little-to-no confidence, couldn’t get out of its own way in the defensive zone and goalie Joseph Woll couldn’t gloss over his teammates’ erratic play.
The Leafs, who are in danger of losing four games in a row for the first time this season, didn’t skate on Thursday at the Ford Performance Centre before flying to Florida in the afternoon.
A team meeting was planned once the club arrived at its hotel.
What did Berube want his players to be thinking about when he calls the meeting to an end?
“You have to skate and you have to compete,” Berube said. “It’s going to be physical. We know that. It’s tight.
“And take the thinking out, go play, be aggressive. You can’t not be aggressive. You have to be aggressive. You have to get numbers in there and the system and the structure takes care of the thinking.
“That’s what I want them to do. Go out and play hockey. Play with structure, but be aggressive.”
Will part of the message from Berube be a reminder that when the Leafs have been connected and played with structure, no matter who the opponent or the stakes, they usually come out on the right side?
“For sure,” Berube said. “We’ll be a lot better in Game 6.”
The Leafs don’t have a choice in this. They’ve given themselves no margin for error.
If the group is as tight-knit as it says it is, how can they not bring their best effort on Friday night? Put actions behind your words. Demonstrate to impending free agents Mitch Marner and John Tavares that you have no interest in Game 6 potentially being your last with the veteran pair as teammates.
Captain Auston Matthews and William Nylander are under contract through 2027-28 and 2031-32, respectively. Is a loss in Game 6 how each wants this core to come to its likely end? Of course not.
No matter the Leafs’ mindset, there remain points of concern. Berube spoke on Thursday about how the Leafs have to “do a better job of making life more miserable on their goalie.” Berube wants his players to create more high-danger chances.
At most, there are two games remaining in the series. If the Leafs haven’t been making life hell for Sergei Bobrovsky to a satisfactory degree through five games, how do they intend to have a greater impact in that manner against a Panthers team that gets frazzled by absolutely nothing?
Another possibility: The Leafs succeed in cleaning up the defensive-zone errors and still can’t beat Bobrovsky enough to win the game and force a Game 7 in Toronto on Sunday.
This is where Berube can have some influence as well. Like Maurice and most of the Panthers, Berube has experienced all there is to experience in the National Hockey League, whether it was playing in more than 1,000 games or coaching the St. Louis Blues to the Cup championship in 2019.
Berube’s words have carried through the dressing room throughout the season. Now, more than ever, they have to land.
“If we would have lost 2-1 (in Game 5) and it was a close game, would it really matter today?” Berube said. “We got beat. I’ve been in this situation before. A loss is a loss. We’re all going to be down and dejected, but we can’t be. We have to regroup. We have to get a different mindset going here and be excited to go and win a game.”
We’ll leave the last thought, for now, to defenceman Morgan Rielly, the longest-serving current Leafs player.
“We’re still in a position where we’re right in the fight,” Rielly said. “That’s what we’re focused on. You can dwell on all kinds of things and be upset about effort or whatever.
“But I believe this team cares and we’re in a position now to go win an important game.”
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