BOSTON — If every next game packs the potential to be his last behind the Toronto Maple Leafs’ bench, Sheldon Keefe will go down encouraging — not ripping — his players.
Speaking with several of the head coach’s charges, the message behind the scenes this series, between the three losses in four games to the Boston Bruins, has been a positive one.
Video of costly mistakes is balanced with accentuating the good moments through 240 minutes against an opponent that has thus far held in an edge in nearly every meaningful category.
That edge, as Keefe frames it, is slight.
“There’s reason for optimism,” Keefe said.
He points to the fact that Toronto won its last game at TD Garden; he omits the part that Auston Matthews willed that win into existence, and that Matthews is questionable to participate in Tuesday’s must-win road trip.
Matthews skated for about five minutes Tuesday morning during the club’s optional skate at TD Garden, then grabbed his water bottle and left the ice long before his teammates.
“He’s a warrior,” teammate Ryan Reaves said. “He’s going to battle through whatever he has to.”
Reaves noted, however, that he doesn’t know if Matthews will play.
No determination has been made on the superstar’s availability for Game 5. All eyes will be on warmup.
“It’s always the doctors’ call,” Keefe said.
Asked if there is something beyond an illness bothering his MVP, Keefe declined to answer: “I think I’ve already answered too many questions on the situation.”
The spin is positive, even if the body language and atmosphere around the visitors’ room is decidedly downbeat.
“These games that we’ve been in, they’re far closer than they may appear,” the coach added. One more finished scoring chance. One more big save. “One less mistake. One more positive puck the other way. … It’s a lot closer than it appears.”
Keefe is leaning into his group’s franchise-record-setting 24 road wins this season, their ability to bounce back from losses, and those times when they upped their performance in the absence of a star player, be it Matthews’ one-game illness, Morgan Rielly’s five-game suspension, or Mitch Marner’s ankle injury, which saw him miss 12 games late in the season.
“Before I coached in the NHL, I coached in the playoffs a lot at various levels. No matter what level you are at, the curveballs, the ups, the downs, and the emotional swings don’t change. That is the reality of the playoffs. It is the most exciting part. You are on top of the world on one shift, period, or game. On the next, you are searching for answers,” Keefe said.
“If anything, over time and with experience, you recognize that the most important thing is to stay even-keeled, continue to believe in your team, and help them find ways to win.”
For Game 5, that means moving Max Domi to first-line centre if Matthews can’t dress.
“He’s played centre for us a lot this season,” Keefe told reporters Monday. “He’s done well with Mitch. He has done well when we have had guys out.
“He’s a very versatile guy who can do different things and has the ability to play different positions with different types of players. It was an easy decision the other night to slide him over there.”
It also means making a change between the pipes.
Woll to the rescue?
Surely more run support would help, but Ilya Samsonov’s .883 save percentage in this series isn’t getting it done.
Joseph Woll gets the nod in net for Toronto in Game 5.
The Boston College product stopped every shot he faced in one period of Game 4 relief work. He was also excellent in his debut playoff start last spring in Florida, stopping 24 of 25 shots and backstopping the Leafs to their lone win of that second-round series.
“It didn’t seem to be too big a moment for him. Just like the other night, he went in and was just calm and did a good job for us,” Keefe said.
“Special teams and goaltending are two areas that we have to be better in. They are connected in lots of ways. They’ve had the edge in those areas in the series, and that’s tough to overcome. Coming out of Game 4, it was very evident that they had the edge in those areas. We have to take steps there.”
Woll lost all three starts against these Bruins in the regular season, but he has a chance to reverse the trend.
Hey, the Bruins carry demons, too
So much is made of the Maple Leafs’ springtime failures that Boston’s troublesome playoff history under Jim Montgomery gets overshadowed.
The Bruins find themselves in the exact spot they were in this time last year: Heading home up 3-1 in a series they have controlled.
The B’s fumbled the ball on the two-yard line in 2023’s first-round series versus the Florida Panthers, who rallied and rode that momentum all the way to the Cup Final.
“What we can learn is the urgency to finish off series. It’s so hard to end a team’s season. We know that. I think everyone who was part of it last year is better off for it,” Montgomery said.
“There’s a lot of guys in our room that have gone through it just a little while ago. And, you know, it hurt. We’re going to see how much we’ve learned — because we’ll see by our start on Tuesday.”
Sniper-slash-philosopher David Pastrnak says the Bruins have been preaching the power of staying in the moment and not thinking big picture: “Learn from the past but also don’t get married to it.”
Captain Brad Marchand politely but firmly cut off a reporter’s query about blowing it against the Panthers last spring.
“I’m going to stop you there,” Marchand said. “It has no bearing on our group. We have a different group. A lot of new guys. Different team. It’s a completely different season. Nothing about that has anything to do with the series.
“We’ve done a great job of staying in the moment, and that’s what you have to do. We can’t worry about a previous game, a previous shift. It’s all about the next — the next moment, the next play. And when you stay in that moment, you’re able to focus on the job that you have to do. We’ve been really good at doing that all year.”
They can prove that in a few hours.
Nylander is playing catch up
Winger William Nylander was a man trying to hop on a moving train Saturday, after missing the series’ first three games with migraines.
He committed a penalty, registered three shots, and the dismal power play failed to click with his return. His goal drought is now 12 games long.
Keefe says his 98-point weapon can still be a difference-maker in this series and trusts he’ll adjust to Boston’s clogging of the neutral zone and commitment to taking away shooting lanes.
“Looked to me like a guy that’s definitely adjusting to the series and what’s required in the series to be able to have success,” Keefe assessed.
“Some of the things that he was looking to do aren’t available. This team defends really well, and he needs to adapt to the series. He will.”
Less playoff magic for Mitch
Jack Han, a former video analyst for the Maple Leafs, dropped a detailed breakdown of why Marner’s playmaking ability, which is so dominant through 82 games, becomes more difficult to spot as checking tightens in the playoffs.
An insightful comparison of Marner’s approach to that of the NHL’s other star right wings. Worth a watch:
Maple Leafs projected Game 5 lines in Boston (if Matthews can’t play):
Bertuzzi – Domi – Marner
Knies – Tavares – Nylander
Robertson – Holmberg – Järnkrok
Dewar – Kämpf – Reaves
Rielly – Lyubushkin
Benoit – McCabe
Edmundson – Liljegren
Woll starts
Samsonov
