MAPLE LEAFS NOTES: Teammates inspire teammates, rolling Panthers await
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The message was sinking in, apparently.
Or specifically, how the message was being worded in the Maple Leafs dressing room before Game 6 Thursday against the Ottawa Senators.
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A day after Leafs coach Craig Berube said the only pressure his players have is from their own teammates, captain Auston Matthews carried a similar tune on Thursday morning at Canadian Tire Centre.
“You just try to block all that stuff out,” Matthews told media in Ottawa. “The main focus is on the guys in the room, on the team. Just playing for one another. That’s really all there is to it. All the outside noise, all that stuff, it’s not something you really focus on at all.”
The outside noise wouldn’t have reached high levels again if the Leafs’ recent playoff history had played out differently.
Had the Leafs won more than one round in the era of Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander coming into this spring and been more consistent in the post-season, there likely would not have been such worry this week after the Sens won games 4 and 5 to climb back into the best-of-seven series.
Veteran Max Pacioretty was asked about the pressure on the Leafs’ core.
“No one has ever played seven perfect games through a series,” Pacioretty said. “These guys work. I’ve said it time and time again, I don’t want to say surprised, but the nicest thing that I saw when I came here (last summer) was how hard these guys work and how much they care.
“All those guys, they lead us every night and they care just as much, if not more, than anybody. That’s a big reason for their success.”
For the most part, that has been regular-season success and little else.
PANTHERS PROWLING
After eliminating the Tampa Bay Lightning in a rather tidy five games on Wednesday night, the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers gave themselves some time to rest and recover while awaiting the winner of the Battle of Ontario.
Now that they’re back in the final four in the Eastern Conference, don’t the Panthers have to be considered the favourite to emerge from the East and play for the Cup for a third year in a row? We would say so with apologies to the Washington Capitals and Carolina Hurricanes.
The series between the Panthers and Lightning was tight — shot attempts at five-on-five were basically split down the middle — but Florida’s ability to execute and spread the scoring around set it apart. And it happened against a Lightning group that wasn’t what you would call short on experience or talent.
Led by Sam Reinhart’s six points, the Panthers had 11 players who recorded at least two points in the series. Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky didn’t have to be spectacular, but he made timely saves. Like the team in front of him, nothing rattles the veteran netminder.
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Paul Maurice’s team plays a hard brand of hockey and are happy to punish opponents when those opportunities arise.
The playoff scars, now accompanied by the shine of their 2024 Cup rings, have helped put the Panthers in an enviable position.
“They have an exceptional team,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper told media after his team was ousted. “They built a team, they got a sniff of it (in 2023 in going to the final), didn’t win (against Vegas), came back, went to the final and won (against Edmonton last year). And who knows what they’re going to do this year.
“They’re primarily the same team, but now they know how to do it. There is only a few teams in the last little while that really know how to do it. We were one of them and now they are one of them.
“We’re in a really tough (Atlantic) Division. It was our turn for a while (in winning the Cup in 2020 and 2021) and now it’s theirs.”
SANDERSON THE MAN
If we didn’t know it already, we certainly do now.
Jake Sanderson, who turns 23 this summer, should play a significant role in the Battle of Ontario for years to come, whether it’s in the regular season or if the Leafs and Senators meet again at some point in the playoffs.
Sanderson represents a piece for Ottawa that the Leafs don’t have in their organization: A young defenceman who is on pace be a cornerstone type, if he is not that already for the Senators.
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The fifth pick overall in 2020 had a career-high 57 points in 80 games during the regular season. His sense for the game puts him in the upper tier of defencemen in the same age range.
“He is very elusive, as you guys can see,” Berube said. “As much as you can, you want to be physical on him and arrive on time and take the body on him. That will slow him down, for sure.
“When he has separation, it’s best to angle him out and make him move the puck and keep him in front of you as best you can. Tough to handle. He is a great skater, he has a lot of good tools.”
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