LEAFS NOTES: Nervous and sloppy, Leafs now face elimination
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The city was abuzz all day, from subway riders to the Bay Street towers, Maple Leaf Square to neighbourhood bars and cars with team flags.
There were 19,000 Scotiabank Arena fans, many who shelled out big playoff bucks, greeting them with towel-waving frenzy. But the only patch not plugged in was the 200 x 85-foot ice surface. There was nothing, at least in the organized fashion that had brought Craig Berube’s team to a division title and within 10 wins of the Stanley Cup.
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LEAFS NOTES: Nervous and sloppy, Leafs now face elimination Back to video
Despite deafening noise from the game ops crew and urges of ‘Go Leafs Go’ at every whistle, they started nervous and then got sloppy, losing the building, the game (6-1) and it would seem the series they were once a goal away from leading 3-0.
William Nylander was stopped on another breakaway, while Auston Matthews’s breakthrough game never materialized. And the goal-challenged captain seemed to drag linemates Mitch Marner and Matthew Knies down with him.
The Stanley Cup champions, looking very fresh despite their travel, didn’t even need their big guns, with the likes of Jesper Boqvist, Niko Mikkola and A.J. Greer beating Joseph Woll. Matthew Tkachuk and Brad Marchand were content to taunt their opposite numbers on the Leafs such as Max Domi.
SERIES GOES SOUTH
Well, at least Toronto goes back to Florida on a 1-0 streak avoiding elimination there.
Back in 2023, on the verge of being swept, the Leafs carved out a 2-1 win in Sunrise. Marner scored at 10:03 of the third and Toronto hung on, only to lose in overtime back home.
While the Leafs are almost guaranteed to come out with more purpose with their season on the line, the Panthers have since won a title and know the value of putting an opponent away early to earn some rest for future rounds. Maurice wasn’t getting ahead of himself Wednesday night.
“We leave the game here. We’ll have certain kind of (travel) day we’ve had a number of of times. It won’t be any happier or better day, it’ll be exactly the same and (Friday) we’ll expect the first six minutes to be like the first 10 tonight and like Games 1,2 and 3.”
The Leafs are facing a second round or earlier exit for the 12th time in playoffs since their last appearance in the conference final in 2002.
DOMI ON HOT SEAT
While Craig Berube chose to sit Calle Jarnkrok and Pontus Holmberg on Wednesday, he’d be tempted to have Max Domi held out of Game 6.
Unless Domi backs up his promises not to cross the line as he’s done through the series and in Game 5 in particular. He fell right into Matthew Tkachuk’s trap and took a second-period slashing penalty with the Leafs already down 2-0 and a holding call to open the third.
When his double roughing and misconduct were added it brought him to 33 penalty minutes in these playoffs. That’s the most by a Leaf in any spring since his father, Tie, rang up 41 in 2004.
“That’s definitely an issue we have to talk about,” Berube said of Domi’s penalty total. “And figure out what we’re going to do.”
UNDERSTUDIES UP THEIR GAME
Players that Berube and Maurice substituted both scored, but by the time Nick Robertson recorded his first NHL playoff goal, the game was long out of reach. The Panthers were very sour that Sergei Bobrovsky’s shutout was broken with just 1:06 to go and Robertson’s marker sparked another crease scrum.
For the Panthers, Boqvist was in for the injured Evan Rodrigues. Maurice noted he and under-the-radar winger Jonah Gadjovich have scored in the series.
“Those are the fun stories for our room,” Maurice said. “Those guys work hard. They don’t get in the magazines.”
HOPING FOR MUCH BETTER
When the Leafs acquired three Panthers hours after their 2024 Cup parade, augmented the trio with Chris Tanev, Max Pacioretty, then added Scott Laughton and Brandon Carlo at the trade deadline, it was with this week’s playoff scenario in mind.
These aren’t newbies to the grind of playoffs, which aren’t even half completed across the NHL board, nor are they immune to swings in a series. This one saw a 2-0 Toronto lead evolve into a must-win task on Wednesday. While goalie Anthony Stolarz didn’t play a lot in the Panthers’ final mile to the title, he had been a huge piece — literally – of Toronto’s playoff success before his concussion. As have defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson and winger Steven Lorentz.
“Guys who’ve gone through it, who’ve battled through it, their message to the team is important,” Berube said before Game 5. “They’ve done a really good job of it personally. And they’re showing it on the ice, too.”
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
This is the Panthers’ 10th series in three years, including four that took them back and forth through the Northeast and Cup championship rounds in Las Vegas and Edmonton.
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So, it can be said coach Paul Maurice’s team travels well, even if they have to come back to Toronto on the weekend for a possible Game 7.
“We’re truly used to it,” Maurice said. “We sat on the tarmac for three hours trying to let the rain go down before flying to Edmonton last year and got roasted for not flying in there two days earlier. We found a way to scratch one out.”
Maurice reminded that air miles are the same for both teams in this series.
“For any team left of the eight, there will be five things you count as distractions and five things you think are working for you. This is all about what happens when the puck drops. (Long travel) doesn’t matter.”
COMING CREASE CONUNDRUM?
Berube indicated it would be difficult to green light Stolarz in a Game 6 or 7 with his suspected concussion still keeping him from full practice.
“It would be tough (but) I’m not really thinking about that, we’re not there yet,” Berube said Wednesday morning. “We’ll see how everything goes when we get there and where we’re at as a team.”
Woll’s .915 save percentage had ranked him 11th in franchise playoff history before Game 5. But he gave up five on 26 shots and was wisely pulled for Matt Murray if he’s to play Friday.
LOOSE LEAFS
The Panthers thought Marner embellished the trip that sent Anton Lundell to the box. Brad Marchand was among those skating over to him over to jaw and give him a shove. Marchand was kicked out in a major scrum around Murray with 6:41 to play … Sasha Barkov’s half-joking, half serious answer when asked about the Max Domi hit from behind in Game 4. “I didn’t see it” … For the first time in 10 years, the Leafs will have an indoor watch party at SBA for Game 6. Fans can watch from the lower bowl and be part of in-game programming, giveaways and access food, drink and retail as in a usual home game. Tickets are $15 with proceeds to the MLSE Foundation, via the team app or mapleleafs.com. The tailgate party outdoors in the Square will continue.
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