TORONTO – Morgan Rielly stands in front of too many cameras and microphones to hear clearly his hushed words from the back of another post-playoff-loss scrum.
His hair is scraggly with a 60-minute sweat.
A nine-day playoff beard underway but not untamed.
His eyes are blackened, not unlike the grouper he might order on a return flight to Tampa no one in his dressing room wants.
He is the face of Leafs Nation.
And the spokesman.
The longest-tenured Toronto Maple Leaf is asked a simple question, following Thursday’s 4-2 Game 5 defeat at home by the stubborn Tampa Bay Lightning:
Are you wondering what you have to do to win one of these elimination games?
“Always. Until it happens,” Rielly says. (He smiles a little as he says this because it beats the alternative.)
Feel familiar, Toronto?
Rielly was drafted a couple months before hockey’s most tortured franchise embarked on a 2012-13 campaign that ended in that epic “It was 4-1” Game 7 implosion in Boston.
If all you know is playoff pain, your threshold gets high.
Since that loss, and in light of Thursday’s fresh one, the Maple Leafs are on a ridiculous 0-for-11 streak in contests in which can eliminate a postseason opponent.
It wouldn’t be fair to hang all 11 on the current group, but the core of Rielly, Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander are now 0-for-10 in such situations.
Which is not the end of the world. But if they go 0-for-12, they probably won’t get a chance to go 0-for-13.
John Tavares, the local star who signed home because he believed he could help end the suffering, has only been part of four of the early ousters. He understands as well as anyone what it would mean for Maple Leaf Square to erupt and horns to honk well into the wee hours.
“You try and get away a little bit and try not to put too much focus into it or whatnot,” Tavares says. “But you’re not stupid either.”
Take a giant step back from the ledge.
Yes, the Maple Leafs got outplayed by a bunch of veteran, urgent and organized champions on two days’ rest Thursday.
The Lightning started faster, swarmed for a territorial edge, and its slumping all-world goaltender, Andrei Vasilevskiy, rose to the occasion.
“Who really dug his heels in was the goalie,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper says. “His name’s come up for various reasons over the last couple days. And I think he proved he can handle the high shots.”
Zing.
“We put an emphasis on letting him see pucks,” adds Victor Hedman, still logging big minutes despite showing visible pain.
But the Leafs still lead this sucker. They’re still the healthier group. And they’ve got two more cracks to finally quench Rielly’s seven years of wondering and what-ifs.
Fun fact: This version of the Leafs has not dropped three straight since October.
Despite the serious faces and short responses, they are in the driver’s seat.
“There’s nothing we can change about this one,” Matthews says. “We have a great opportunity and a great challenge ahead of us here Saturday.”
To meet that challenge would mean swiping all three games from their belligerent hosts at Amalie Arena.
For that to happen, Toronto — which is getting outscored 15-12 at 5-on-5 — must tweak a couple things.
Matthews calls for better starts, and the Lightning have outshot Toronto 65-41 in the series’ first periods.
They must establish a fiercer forecheck of their own, and that starts with limiting those prolonged stretches hemmed in their own zone.
Their breakouts must be sharper and swifter, which is easier said than done when Cooper’s crew locks in on its attacking game plan.
“They come with a lot of speed,” Rielly says. “I mean, they know how to play this time of year. They’re a good forechecking team. They got heavy forwards.”
Those forwards are picking apart Toronto’s Justin Holl and Mark Giordano pairing something awful. Holl is being outscored 9-2 at even strength, Giordano 8-3.
Coach Sheldon Keefe is asked about the value of keeping Holl in the lineup with a healthy righty, Timothy Liljegren, sitting in the press box.
“First response would be whether he is on the ice by himself in those situations. I think the answer is, he’s not out there by himself in those situations when he’s getting scored on,” Keefe responds.
“But I think we need those guys to be better.”
Finally, it’s time for another solid showing by Ilya Samsonov, who got outduelled in Game 5 by allowing a bad-angle Michael Eyssimont rush goal that gave Tampa a 2-1 lead and lock down a tight one.
“Our D zone was fast, we clogged the middle up, we got out fast, and we got rewarded when we threw some pucks there,” Pat Maroon says.
The Maple Leafs find themselves in a heavyweight fight, and it’s time to adjust. Michael Bunting will draw back in for Game 6. He must. Liljegren should too.
They need a refresh, a new angle of attack. And fresh legs.
Because don’t look now, but Toronto has let its opponent off the mat.
“They punched us a couple times in the face. We punched ’em back. We’re both still standing. Somebody at some point is going to get a knockout punch,” says Cooper, now facing the possibility of losing three home games in one series.
“You know what’s crazy about that? We have to win three games in Toronto. It’s the Year of the Road Team. It’s crazy how that works,” Cooper goes on.
“Let’s be honest, this game’s so damn fun. You’ve got two teams going at it. There’s so many storylines. There’s stars here. Like, seriously, wouldn’t you guys have been pissed off if this ended tonight?
“Let’s all be back here for Game 7.”
Fox’s Fast 5
• The Calle Järnkrok–Auston Matthews–William Nylander line that Keefe started Game 5 had never been a starting line for the Maple Leafs all season.
• Patrick Maroon was only dealt a two-minute minor roughing penalty for his boarding of Mark Giordano at the second-period buzzer.
Auston Matthews went after Maroon, and Keefe had a long conversation with the officials afterward, yet no Leafs complained about the hit post-game.
Smart.
The series is deep enough that we’ve reached the keep-mum-and-just-win-a-dang-game stage.
My take: The refs should’ve called a boarding major, which would’ve allowed them to review the video and knock it down to a minor if they so choose.
The period is over. You’re not holding the game up at that point.
• Corey Perry is embracing the villainy like it’s a long-distance lover who just got through customs.
Lustily booed, Perry keeps churning out positive shifts and doing irritating stuff like this:
“That’s Corey Perry for you,” Maroon says.
“Everyone hates Corey Perry when he’s not on your team, and that’s why Corey Perry is the best at that. He’s so good, especially in these moments.
“There’s a reason why he’s played over 1,300 games. He’s still got it. He’s still got that little rat in him. He makes it difficult for other teams and makes it frustrating on the other side. A lot of guys obviously hate him on their side, but they’d love to play with him.”
• Rielly has been downright excellent offensively (three goals and four assists for seven points through five games) and has improved in his own end.
If you thought Rielly–Schenn was the D pair to worry about, you were sorely mistaken.
• Jake McCabe goes hard…
