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After allowing falling behind by three goals eight minutes into the first period, the adage on the tip of the tongue of most observers of the Toronto Maple Leafs is “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”
With an opportunity to take a stranglehold on their first-round series, the Maple Leafs were completely unprepared to handle the energized and desperate Tampa Bay Lightning, who chased goalie Jack Campbell and cruised to a 7-3 victory at Amalie Arena on Sunday and evened the best-of-seven at 2-2.
Campbell allowed five goals on 16 shots before being pulled in favor of Erik Kallgren, but the poor performance was just the Leafs goaltender, but an entire team that simply did not show up.
"We weren't at the required level. Tampa played at a higher level than us," Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game. "(We) came on the road, we got to split. We came out here, it was the best-of-five series with three games in this building and two at home. Now it's best-of-three with two in our building, so it's a successful road trip in that sense. Whether you lose the game 2-1 or in the manner that we did tonight. it doesn't matter. You wash it, you move on. We'll be better next time."
While we can look at the particulars like Justin Holl starting the game (which led to Tampa’s first goal), the Matthews-Marner combo being shut down by Killorn-Cirelli-Point, the inability of John Tavares to contribute significantly the entire series, Campbell whiffing on Ross Colton’s shot or William Nylander showing little or no effort until being benched in the second period, the focus really has to be on what happens to this team as a whole when it really counts.
— The Cam & Strick Podcast (@CamandStrick) May 9, 2022
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman revealed an interesting statistic regarding the Leafs in the Shanahan era. In the six years that Toronto has been in the playoffs, the club has a record of 1-8 when they are leading in a series. That speaks to the makeup of the club during that time period and how they handle the pressure of performing in the crucible that is the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The narrative for this club will be determined in the next two to three games against a Tampa club that is beatable in spite of their championship pedigree. The Lightning have been just as spotty in terms of their effort in Games 1 and 3, but have rebounded with dominant performances in Games 2 and 4.
Similar to the Montreal series last May, the Leafs big guns have fallen silent after a strong start and in a postseason dominated by special teams because of a higher-than-normal amount of penalties, the key to Toronto making it past the first round is their top-ranked power play improving from their current rate of success (3 for 18) and not giving Tampa 15 chances on the man advantage, like they did in their two losses.
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
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