maple leafs

Tampa lighting up Leafs just a regular season massacre or playoff preview?

Apr 22, 2022 • 4:51 pm

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The Toronto Maple Leafs without Auston Matthews, Jake Muzzin, and Jack Campbell fell 8-1 to the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena on Thursday, but the question with slightly more than a week left before the playoffs and the Leafs likely facing Tampa in the first round is whether they can step up and play to the level that the two-time Stanley Cup champion put forth in the final meeting of the regular season.

The Lightning dominated on special teams, scoring three power-play goals and neutralizing the Leafs top-ranked power play until Ilya Mikheyev’s goal in the third period broke Andrei Vasilevskiy’s shutout bid. Toronto seemed to be disengaged in the contest and Erik Kallgren bore the brunt of the beating, allowing eight goals on 36 shots in the contest.

Clifford bopped Perry on the head with his stick pic.twitter.com/NDvIdwsfdk
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) April 22, 2022

“You just get a little sample of how hard you need to play and how well you need to play to be able to beat a team of that quality when they are playing at that level.… Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game. “The way I see it is, the last time we were in here you know how the game went and you saw how their team responded. To me, it was clear that the game meant more to them than it did to us and it showed in how they played and how they competed. That’s what happens when that’s the case.…

Simmonds dropped Sergachev pic.twitter.com/o2XfH3vgeV
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) April 22, 2022

The Leafs have a six-point lead on Tampa (who have five games remaining) and a magic number of five to clinch home-ice advantage in the first round, but the one-sided loss is something that should cast some doubt on whether the Leafs will be able to beat the Lightning, who some say are a tired club after two long playoff runs.