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The Toronto Maple Leafs began their second-round series with the Florida Panthers in much of the same way they started their first-round match with another Florida-based club, with a defeat. The 4-2 loss to the Panthers in Game 1 of the best-of-seven series was not a curb stomping as the 7-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning was two weeks ago, but was more reminiscent of games later in the series that Toronto won in spite of Tampa being the better club in the majority of the game.
Matthew Knies and Michael Bunting scored for Toronto, erasing a 2-0 deficit after Nick Cousins and Sam Bennett built an Florida lead, but Carter Verhaeghe’s goal late in the second period curtailed the Leafs momentum.
“I thought we made mistakes. Credit to Florida because of how they played. They force you to make mistakes. But I thought we made some mistakes tonight that we didn’t necessarily make in the last series.… Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game. “We gave up a breakaway to the one guy we definitely don’t want to give a breakaway to. We don’t want to give it to anybody, but we don’t want to give it to that guy.…
In the battle of Russian goaltenders, once again the opening round went in favor of the Floridaian, as Sergei Bobrovsky stymied the Leafs with a 34-save effort. “Goalie Bob… fended off Toronto on two early power plays and allowed the Panthers to silence the Scotiabank Arena crowd when Cousins opened the scoring at 9:25 of the first period. Samsonov was not particularly strong after an excellent effort in the series-clincher on Saturday, making 24 stops.
The loss really came down to the fact that the Panthers core players performed up to expectations and the Leafs group were unable to convert. Other than assists on Knies first NHL playoff goal, the Leafs core five (Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, John Tavares, and Morgan Rielly) were held off the score sheet, while Sam Bennett, Aleksander Barkov, Brandon Montour, Verhaeghe, and Matthew Tkachuk scored three of the four goals and nine points.
Tkachuk is the vocal and on-ice leader of the Panthers and showed that in Game 1, with three assists and nine hits, and for Toronto to respond in Game 2, they will have to find an answer to limit the big winger.
“I thought we did a lot better once we made the changes to our lines.… Keefe said. “They were taking it to us pretty good (in the first period). We had to make some changes.…