TORONTO — From wrestling a grizzly to racing a cheetah.
The Toronto Maple Leafs find themselves dealing with a unique type of wild animal in Round 2. And the fresh challenge it brings will require quicker execution and an altered plan of attack.
So, while the Florida Panthers do share similarities with the now-vacationing Tampa Bay Lightning — no state tax, a famous and well-compensated Russian goaltender, a head coach gunning for the NHL lead in quotes-per-60 — they’re also a different kind of cat.
And the Panthers’ particular brand of hockey was on full display Tuesday in their blazing 4-2 road win over the Maple Leafs to draw first blood in Round 2.
“That will be the battle of this series, right? Both teams have something they’re really good at,” said Florida coach Paul Maurice, soaking up all the time and space at the winners’ podium that was nowhere to be found between whistles.
“You can expect a certain amount of forecheck and physicality from us. You’ll expect a certain amount of speed and skill from them, for sure. And then one team will feed the other.
“The team that brings the least amount of food to the game wins.”
The us-against-world Panthers stormed in hungry, unsatiated by feasting on the 65-win juggernaut Boston Bruins on their own turf less than 48 hours prior.
And once the Maple Leafs failed to capitalize on two quick power-plays to open Game 1, they were happy to pounce first.
Nick Cousins and Sam Bennett staked Florida to a 2-0 lead and built their case for Hottest Line in Hockey, hushing a previously frenzied Scotiabank Arena throng that came to taste second-round hockey for the first time in 19 springs.
And while the Leafs clawed back to even the score with nifty net-front dekes from rookie Matthew Knies and local Michael Bunting, a costly turnover to 40-goal speedster (and former Leafs property) Carter Verhaeghe — who went in untouched and sniped a puck clean past Ilya Samsonov — erased Toronto’s rally before the 40-minute mark.
“We give a breakaway to the one guy we definitely don’t want to give a breakaway to,” Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe lamented. “Part of the plan going in is how he can jump into those holes. That’s how he scores a lot of goals, by getting behind the defence. We cannot make that mistake when it’s 2-2. That’s a tough one.”
Sure.
Once again, the Maple Leafs and their home-ice advantage (whatever that’s worth these days) got spanked like an innocent police horse at a drunken outdoor party.
But if the first round taught us anything, it’s that a 1-0 series lead doesn’t mean much. Neither Toronto nor Florida won Game 1 in their first series, and they’re both standing.
To do so, they adapted to the style of game their opponents presented.
Whereas the Lightning’s dangers were tough and organized, methodical and grindy, the Panthers skate with hair afire.
Their attack is looser, less predictable.
Fast as a lead foot. Urgent as a first responder.
A throwback to 1980s drag racing with no seatbelts required.
Caution meet wind.
“Their pace is high. I would say it’s a quicker pace out there. And they’ve got a lot of skill that executes at a high rate of speed. That’s the difference,” Keefe says. “And you can tell they’ve got a lot of confidence and they’re feeling it right now, playing really well.”
These Cats give you more to handle. But they also give you more lanes, if you’re quick enough to spot them, to reach at their net too.
Further: There is a recklessness to the wild card’s game that leads to penalties, so Toronto’s power-play must make them pay for their sins.
The catch in Game 1 was that the up-and-down Sergei Bobrovsky played like a $10-million goaltender, extending his season-long win streak to four, and helping his side go 4-for-4 on the penalty kill.
Still, Toronto had its opportunities in a breakneck 60 minutes that featured 115 shot attempts, 65 scoring chances, 31 high-danger chances, and 83 hits — plenty of them biggies in open ice.
“I would say it’s under-physical from what we’re used to,” Maurice said.
Oh.
“That’s the type of hockey we’re going to be playing the whole series,” added Bennett, a force all night.
Before the playoffs began, Toronto’s Ryan O’Reilly spilled some wisdom on the four-round gauntlet that is playoff hockey.
“Every game has a different pulse to it, a different frequency,” O’Reilly shared. “You have to tap into it. Find your way through it.”
The Panthers’ game pulse is tachycardia.
The Maple Leafs must tap into it, or they’ll be tapping out.
“I think you adjust to your opponent,” said Keefe, noting that the recovery time from mistakes has vanished.
“It just happens a step quicker than it happened in the previous series. That caught us. I think our guys will adjust to that.”
They can. They better.
“Bad result. But first game, yeah? Heads up,” Samsonov said.
“Go back home, eat some food, go to the sleep. Tomorrow sun is up again, yeah?”
Fox’s Fast 5
• Matthew Knies scored his first NHL goal blind, finishing off a beautiful Arizona-to-Arizona connection with some nifty hands.
“It’s a surreal feeling, especially in the playoffs,” Knies says. “Having Auston pass that to me was only fitting.”
• There is a striking parallel in the composition of Toronto and Florida’s most impactful playoff D pairings: Morgan Rielly–Luke Schenn and Marc Staal–Brandon Montour.
Both feature a smooth-skating, rush-jumping offensive threat who contributed eight points in his club’s first-round victory. And both duos are stabilized by a steady, nasty, stay-at-home veteran butcher who has a brother (or two) in the league.
“He’s got the right partner,” Maurice says of Montour, who scored his sixth of the playoffs Tuesday. “Marc has been fantastic for him. Marc is so incredibly consistent and experienced. And knows the game. And talks the game. Funny as hell. Those guys just built fantastic chemistry, and I think Brandon has benefitted from that.”
• Here’s Luke Schenn trucking Matthew Tkachuk:
• Mitchell Marner was named a finalist for the Frank J. Selke Trophy, alongside Patrice Bergeron and Nico Hischier. Marner has a shot to become the first winger in 20 years to win a trophy dominated by centres (Jere Lehtinen, 2003).
In the 25 years ice time has been tracked, only players Marner and Paul Kariya (1998-99) have registered 99-plus points while logging 182:59 worth of shorthanded time in a season.
“It’s cool. But this sport is done with five guys on the ice, and a lot of kudos to the guys around me,” Marner said. “I’m not trying to focus on that. I’m trying to focus on what’s going on in this series.”
• Toronto must find a solution to the Nick Cousins–Sam Bennett–Matthew Tkachuk line.
They tilted the ice to 75 per cent shot attempts and 73 per cent of scoring chances, while the Leafs’ shutdown pair of T.J. Brodie and Jake McCabe was on its heels, getting outshot by double all night.
Keefe says once he moved Marner to Auston Matthews’ line and dropped William Nylander to John Tavares’s line, it made a difference.
Not enough of one, we’d argue.
