maple leafs

Is the Leafs collapse in Florida a warning sign of playoff prospects?

Apr 6, 2022 • 2:56 pm

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The Toronto Maple Leafs appeared to be following the same script as they had in their 6-2 victory over Tampa, weathering an early physical pounding in the opening 20 minutes and taking over the game with an offensive outburst in the middle frame, but unlike their victory over the Lightning, the Leafs could not hold the big lead they built up, allowing the Florida Panthers to erase a 5-1 Toronto lead with five straight goals. The Leafs tied the game to force overtime, but Jonathan Huberdeau scored the game-winner to give the Panthers a 7-6 victory at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, FL on Tuesday.

Mitch Marner scored twice and added a pair of assists, William Nylander, Colin Blackwell, Jake Muzzin, and John Tavares scored for Toronto, but that fine offensive effort was squandered by defensive errors, dumb penalties, bad penalty killing, and most importantly an inability to hold a lead against a team who potentially could be a playoff opponent.

Both clubs exchanged power-play goals in the first, with Sam Reinhart giving the Panthers the early lead and Nylander tying it on a nice pass from Morgan Rielly. Toronto came out for the middle frame as if shot out of a cannon, with Marner scoring short-handed and the man advantage, and Blackwell in the first 2:04 of the second. Muzzin added his third of the season in his first game since mid-February, which chased Florida starter Sergei Bobrovsky, but at that point, the Leafs did everything they could to make it possible for the Panthers to stage a comeback.

“We go from being on a breakaway with a chance to make it 6-1, and don’t score there then follow that up with a too many men on the ice penalty right after, so that sort of starts to snowball.… Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game. “Outside of that we had some pretty terrible penalty killing.…

The too-many-men call (the Leafs 13th bench penalty of the season) led to Reinhart’s second of the game, and was quickly followed by an inexcusable long-range short-handed tally by noted goal scorer Radko Gudas to make it 5-3. Starter Erik Kallgren left the game after being hit up high by a Robert Hagg shot, and Claude Giroux narrowed the gap to one with a goal on a cold Jack Campbell late in the middle frame.

Kyle Clifford’s slashing penalty early in the third gave Florida another chance with the man advantage, allowing Huberdeau quickly tied the game. Aleksander Barkov cashed in on a Campbell rebound to give the Panthers the lead, but Tavares tied the game on the power play with just under four minutes left in regulation to earn Toronto a point in the standings.

“I’m not going to focus on all that kind of stuff. I’m going to focus on the fact that we played another good hockey game today. We were bad in moments, with the penalties, you can’t take a too-many-men on the ice penalty, you can’t give up a shorthanded goal on a clear shot from the blueline, you can’t have your fourth line take a penalty in the third period and you can’t chase the puck a penalty kill. All these things we can’t do in those moments, maybe that’s a sign of the fatigue factor coming in today, I don’t know, because obviously last night we didn’t do any of those types of things.… Keefe said. “I was looking to come out of this little segment of the schedule with a sense of where we were at as a team and whether we can compete with the very best in our division and the answer unequivocally yes, so that’s all I’m taking out of this.…

The arguments that the Leafs got three of a possible four points against two of the NHL's best teams and are 5-0-1 in their last six sound great, but they ring hollow when you consider that they were leading 5-1 midway through the game and didn't get the win. Fatigue was a supposed consideration in that Toronto was playing their third game in four nights, but they were facing a Panthers club playing in their eighth game in 13 days.

Toronto has a highly-skilled offensive club and their blueline is vastly improved from where it was a few years ago, but their inability to hold leads and beat teams they are supposed to beat (like last-place Arizona and Montreal) just reinforces the fears of the club's overall defensive and goaltending shortcomings.

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