The Toronto Maple Leafs are going to finish somewhere between 6th and 8th in the overall NHL standings.
This is an incredible run, one that has seen the team set a number of (dubious) records, and which has ignited the fan base into a mob of crazy people who think Auston Matthews is some sort of God. Which, he might actually be. The Toronto Maple Leafs, after one of the shortest rebuilds in NHL history, are now a legit contender for the NHL championship.
So why in the _______ are they going to face one of the only teams in the NHL that is better than they are?
In what is unfair, ridiculous, dumb, nearly inconceivable, preposterous, stupid, enraging, infuriating, abominable, unconscionable, terrible, idiotic and, one could say, also frustrating as hell, the Leafs are set to open the playoffs against either the Boston Bruins or the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Tampa is currently second in the NHL, and could easily win the President’s Trophy. Boston sits one point behind the Lightning with a game in hand, and could also win the President’s Trophy.
So the Leafs reward for being one of the best teams in the NHL is that they have to play one of the best teams in the NHL. Sounds fair.
The NHL Standings are a Joke
The old joke goes something like this: people love hockey so much they put up with the NHL. That is because the NHL is notorious for terrible decisions. Its as if the league looked to the 1980s Maple Leafs as a model for how to do business.
After one season (and earlier, if you actually took two minutes to think about it, which the league clearly didn’t) it was obvious that the new playoff formatting didn’t work. Forcing teams to fight within their division may be good for business, but it takes away the main reward for having a good season: a weaker playoff opponent. This can’t happen in the NHL if two of the league’s best teams ever end up in the same division, which pretty much happens every year.
If you are one of the best teams, you’re supposed to play the weakest teams. That’s how playoffs work………in every other league.
The Washington Capitals, forced to play the Penguins annually in the second round, have been the biggest loser in this format, but every year there is something dumb going on. This year, it’s the Leafs who get screwed. But not just the Leafs – it’s actually even worse for Tampa or Boston.
There is no way that your reward for winning the President’s Trophy should be a first round matchup against a team that might have finished ahead of you had its best player been healthy for more than 75% of the year.
Not only is this unfair to the three Atlantic teams (arguably, if healthy, the NHL’s three best teams) but it also gives an advantage to weaker teams. For instance, last year the Senators (who everyone knew were terrible, just lucky) almost got a by to the Finals, because Washington and Pittsburgh had to play in the “real” Stanley Cup Final a round earlier.
In the end, it doesn’t really matter because the Toronto Maple Leafs are going to beat anyone they end up facing, but it should be said that it’s really dumb that two of the NHL’s best teams are going to play in the first round.
Two weeks ago we were discussing the NHL playoffs at Sunday dinner and I said that the Maple Leafs were essentially locked into 3rd in the Atlantic Division.
“Hang on,” my brother in law said, “The Panthers could catch them.”
“No, they won’t.”
“They could.”
“No.”
So, without further adieu, I would like to point out to you, Stephen, that the Panthers are 12 points back of the Maple Leafs with two weeks left in the season.
Suck it.
Florida Panthers at Toronto Maple Leafs
7:30PM - Air Canada Centre
Watch: Sportsnet, TVA Sports, Sportsnet Now, NHL Live
Listen: TSN1050, Sportsnet 590
SBN: Litter Box Cats
So, here we are. Game 77 of an 82 game season, the end of March with two more weeks of hockey to go. The Leafs are set in their position, and they could perform an act of mercy tonight and beat the Panthers into remembering they aren’t a playoff team.
So, what should we expect tonight? Well, previously in the season the Leafs beat the Panthers 1-0, and lost to the Panthers 3-2 in a shootout twice. If we’re following the other games It will be a close, low scoring game. A real treat.
Here are your projected lines.
Toronto Maple Leafs
Zach Hyman - Auston Matthews - William Nylander
Patrick Marleau - Nazem Kadri - Mitchell Marner
James van Riemsdyk - Tyler Bozak - Connor Brown
Andreas Johnsson - Tomas Plekanec - Kasperi Kapanen
Morgan Rielly - Ron Hainsey
Jake Gardiner - Nikita Zaitsev
Travis Dermott - Roman Polak
Frederik Andersen
Curtis McElhinney
Florida Panthers
Evgeni Dadonov - Aleksander Barkov - Nick Bjugstad
Jonathan Huberdeau - Vincent Trochek - Jamie McGinn
Maxim Mamin - Denis Malgin - Colton Sceviour
Michael Haley - Derek MacKenzie - Frank Vatrano
Keith Yandle - Aaron Ekblad
Michael Matheson - Mark Pysyk
MacKenzie Weegar - Alex Petrovic
Roberto Luongo
James Reimer
Here’s my simple, yet effective table:
Numbers Preview Maple Leafs Team Panthers Maple Leafs Team Panthers 250GF - 214GA - +36 Goal Differential 223GF - 221GA - +2 23.7% - 3rd overall Power Play 19% - 21st overall 82.5% - 8th overall Penalty Kill 80.9% - 13th overall James van Riemsdyk - 34 Most Goals Vincent Trocheck - 30 Mitch Marner - 45 Most Assists Aleksander Barkov - 49 Mitch Marner - 65 Most Points Aleksander Barkov - 75 Matt Martin - 50 Most PM Michael Haley - 205 Jake Gardiner - 22:30/G TOI Leader Keith Yandle - 24:32/G Frederik Andersen - .917sv% Starting Goalie Roberto Luongo - .927sv%
Here’s my take on the game:
The season is too damn long.
Go Leafs Go!
TORONTO – Through red, heavy eyes, after 27 minutes of fruitless work, Aaron Ekblad answered questions in quiet, sombre, short sentences.
“We had our chances,” the defenceman lamented. He’d rung a post.
At a volume equally tempered, terrific losing goaltender Roberto Luongo — who had been quipping about his all-carbs diet only a few hours earlier — tried to fit words into disappointment.
The legend sighed before fighting through what sounded like a lump in his throat.
“This one hurts,” he began.
“We didn’t have any urgency in the first. With a team like that on the other side, if we’re not playing our game, they’re going to make you pay. That’s what happened.”
What stings sharpest is that Wednesday’s 4-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs meant everything to the visitors and essentially nothing, beyond milestones and Carlton the Bear hugs, to their bad hosts.
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Leafs coach Mike Babcock described it as playoff-style hockey, but on an emotional level, it only felt that way in one dressing room.
“They’ve been giving it their all here for the past few months, trying to catch a break, trying to make our own breaks, and we’ve been a real good hockey team,” said Florida coach Bob Boughner of a group that had won 20 of 27 since Christmas.
“I thought we beat ourselves tonight.”
The Panthers outscored their high-powered opposition 3-1 over the course of the game’s final 46 minutes but failed to show up for the first 14.
Toronto’s game operations crew exercised discipline by not playing “Sweet Georgia Brown” during long stretches of the first frame as Mitchell Marner & Co. rolled around in the offensive zone, creating quality chance after Grade-A scoring opportunity.
“Everything that could go bad did go bad,” Boughner said.
Luongo was forced to make two jaw-dropping saves on Tyler Bozak and slammed the door on James van Riemsdyk on a breakaway. Game-turning-calibre stops, yet the game took too long to turn.
Babcock called the losing goalie unbelievable before he called him phenomenal. Luongo himself said he’s never felt more on top of his game from a technical standpoint. He’ll be 39 when the playoffs start, with or without him.
“He’s one of the best goalies in the world. He did his job tonight,” Ekblad said. “We didn’t.”
Lava-handed Marner scored to dial his career-best point streak to 10. Auston Matthews snapped his 30th, making the Maple Leafs the first NHL club with three 30-goal shooters, and Patrick Marleau registered his 13th 25-goal season. All within 11 minutes of each other.
“We knew they’re a desperate, desperate team,” Babcock said. “They were playing well. We thought we could jump on them early and get going, and we did.”
Periods 2 and 3 were a different tale.
Led by two goals, a drawn 5-on-3 power play and eight shots (plus three more attempts) all from winger Jonathan Huberdeau, who’s already set career highs in goals and assists, the Panthers showed the type of effort in line with a team that describes every one its last nine games as a must-win.
“Started playing hockey. That’s pretty much it,” Luongo said.
“They were pretty much doing whatever they wanted in the first period. They got three goals. I would’ve maybe liked to have stopped one of them. I dunno. I don’t have much to say after this one, guys. I’m sorry.”
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Don’t bury the Cats in the backyard just yet.
They still hold a game in hand over the New Jersey Devils (winners of three straight) and two over the Philadelphia Flyers, whom they now trail by three and seven points, respectively.
The number-crunchers still give the Panthers a 40 per cent shot to make the dance, despite a restless schedule that includes two matches against the mighty Bruins.
Florida can take another step toward completing the league’s great second-half push Thursday in Ottawa. There’s still time to swap deflation for elation, but the size of the task is weighing on them.
“Tonight was a big loss for us, a hard loss to accept,” Boughner said, “but there’s no time to dwell on it. We have to come back and fire it up.”
TORONTO – “He’s 20 years old, isn’t he?” Mike Babcock was saying of Mitch Marner, whose sophomore season has morphed from sluggish to sensational.
That he is. A 20-year-old who has propelled the Toronto Maple Leafs through an ascendant second half, including Wednesday’s 4-3 victory over the Florida Panthers which left them on the verge of officially clinching a playoff spot.
Marner has produced at the level of a top-10 scorer ever since Babcock overhauled his lineup for a Jan. 24 visit to Chicago. That’s when he found a home on the right side of Patrick Marleau and Nazem Kadri – a move that paid immediate dividends then and continues to yield impressive results now, with Marner sitting at 15 goals and 35 points in the 28 games since.
“The way he can move out there and hangs on the puck and sees the ice is something special,” said Marleau. “I think the work he’s doing to get the pucks back on the forecheck and even on the backcheck is leading to those points that he’s getting offensively.”
Marner leads the team with 67 points and could become the first Leafs player in history to hit 70 during an age 20-and-under season. Talk about growth. Only nine men have accomplished that feat league-wide since 2005-06 and each is a bonafide star: Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Patrice Bergeron, Anze Kopitar, Patrick Kane, Steven Stamkos, David Pastrnak, Connor McDavid and Mathew Barzal.
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Having seen Marner stumble through the first couple months of the season, it’s even more impressive he’s scaling these heights today. Remember that he had just two goals to show for the first 29 games. Amid heightened expectations, his trademark panache was nowhere to be found.
It didn’t help that last year’s successful pairing with Tyler Bozak and James van Riemsdyk failed to produce early results. Marner was eventually dropped to the fourth line for a couple games.
“Obviously it was hard,” he says now. “Jumping lines constantly, playing with different people, it’s hard to kind of get a rhythm going. It also hurts your confidence a little bit as well.”
This is a kid whose game typically screams confidence. Take Wednesday, when he absolutely ripped a shot over Panthers goalie Roberto Luongo after tracking his own rebound off the end boards. Minutes later, Marleau was gift-wrapped his 25th goal of the season when Marner swooped across the top of the zone and put a tap-in on his tape.
He was everywhere. Breaking up rushes on the backcheck, calling for passes in traffic, playing with the assuredness of someone who racked up a gaudy 242 points during his last two seasons of junior hockey.
“I thought Marner was a star tonight,” said Babcock.
“I just feel like when he’s skating he’s always involved in the play,” added teammate Auston Matthews. “Obviously he’s a special player, he sees the ice well and makes guys around him better. So when he has the puck on his stick and creates space, I think he really compliments the two guys he’s playing with really well.”
Looking back, Marner’s path out of the early-season fog was charted through incremental gains, game by game. He had to make peace with the slow start and a diminished role in the lineup.
“I started to realize that it didn’t matter who I’m playing with. That everyone on this team’s got a lot of skill and that I’ve just got to step my game up,” said Marner. “I think I kind of just relaxed, talked to family – they calmed me down. … [My game is] just going out there and having fun, kind of enjoying the moment.
“I think that’s what I got back to. I kind of got myself motivated again and going again.”
The Leafs have been going ever since – racking up the NHL’s second-highest point total since Jan. 24 despite missing Matthews for 10 games of that stretch with a separated shoulder.
They now have three 30-goal scorers spread across the top three lines after Matthews bagged No. 30 on Luongo. For good measure, van Riemsdyk potted his team-leading 35th. The goal and an assist from Marner pushed his points streak to a career-best 10 games.
“I think everybody’s gotten better from last year,” said Matthews. “I’d hope so.”
With Game 1 of the playoffs just two weeks away, Toronto will soon get to put that theory to the test. They are unquestionably a more dynamic group when Marner is performing at this level – giving them another tidal wave to throw over the boards and overwhelm opponents.
“He worked, he worked,” Babcock said of what brought success against Florida. “That’s why he had the puck all the time. He was solid defensively. That’s what the young guys got to figure out – if they play good defensively they’re going to get more chances than you can ever imagine versus trying to be cute, and you don’t get near as many chances and you give up too much.
“That’s just part of growing up in the game and understanding how the game works.”
It’s the sort of thing that clicks over time.
Marner’s time may be now.
