Overtime vibes or not, Maple Leafs look to close out Ottawa Senators any way they can
Article content
If ever a pre-game overtime aura has enveloped the Maple Leafs, it has been ahead of Game 5 against Ottawa on Tuesday night.
Three straight games in this series have gone to an extra period and this date and circumstance certainlyis significant for Toronto.
tap here to see other videos from our team.
Overtime vibes or not, Maple Leafs look to close out Ottawa Senators any way they can Back to video
April 29, 1978, was Lanny McDonald’s memorable 2-1 OT series-clinching goal against the Islanders — the only bright spot of that decade — and it has been exactly two years since John Tavares won the Leafs’ most recent series, a 2-1 elimination of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
A win at home in regulation or beyond 60 minutes gets the Leafs to this spring’s second round. Toronto captain Auston Matthews will embrace overtime should it happen a fourth time, a first for Toronto since every match in the five-game 1951 Stanley Cup final win against Montreal was sudden death.
“It’s always electric, but it can go any which way,” Matthews said. “We’ve been on the good side of two of them. For the fans, it’s nerve-wracking, for the players you just try and go out there, play smart, take care of the puck and try to capitalize on the opportunity.
tap here to see other videos from our team.
“Simplify things because you never know what can happen. That’s the mindset tonight: Get pucks to the net, create traffic, rebounds.”
“I think we’re fine,” Toronto coach Craig Berube added. ”Overtimes can be (decided by) anything, a shot that goes towards the net (as Leaf defenceman Simon Benoit and Ottawa’s Jake Sanderson found out). We’re comfortable in that situation, just keep playing our game.”
Matthews was closely monitored when he came out for the Leafs’ optional morning skate Tuesday. While it wasn’t unusual he took Monday’s practice off, he does have an injury cloud that followed him through the early part of this season.
He and Max Domi (not his regular linemate) were in a sparse group on ice for a lengthy skills drill, taking passes from the side or behind the net and snapping them from the slot. Matthews had a couple of cracks from there seeking the overtime winner on the power play Saturday in Ottawa before the Sens’ won.
“I just listen to the body sometimes,” Matthews said of staying away Monday. “It’s not a big deal. Everyone is grinding at this time of the season.”
With Saturday’s loss, Berube joined predecessor Sheldon Keefe as part of a concerning Leafs trend of going 1-12 in closing out series. But Berube’s not making any lineup changes either, be it replacing Anthony Stolarz with Joseph Woll in net, any of his six defencemen or flipping winger Max Pacioretty for Nick Robertson or David Kampf up front, the latter yet to play in this series.
“It’s always talked about, like with all our extra guys, but I’ve liked our game,” Berube said. “I don’t see a reason to change it right now.
“(Kampf) got injured at the end of the season, the team was playing well and I saw no reason to change the lineup. It’s not a knock against him at all. It’s hard for those guys not to play, I get it, but they’ve been very good team-first guys.”
The Senators chose to stay off the ice Tuesday and sequester in their Toronto hotel. They still face an enormous task to rebound from an 0-3 deficit to become just the fifth team in NHL history to complete such a rally.
“We have a lot of veterans in here who’ve been in these (close-out) situations,” Pacioretty said. “You worry about the process in playoffs, can’t get too high or low. That’s when you get caught up in what you can’t control.
“I wasn’t here in years past, but I know that right from the beginning, everyone in here was talking of that pack mentality where everyone was going to stand up for each other, be on the same page.”
X: @sunhornby
Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.