Given all that was at stake — the fate of this season, the fate of this core, the belief of a fanbase teetering on the line between nervy hope and quiet resignation — it would’ve been tough for the Toronto Maple Leafs to come out any worse.
Fresh off a disappointing loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning Wednesday that kicked off their post-Olympic sprint, with the volume growing on the chatter saying it’s time for these Leafs to be sold for parts, Craig Berube’s club took the ice Thursday for a chance at redemption against the Florida Panthers.
Within five minutes, the blue-and-white were in shambles.
First came a giveaway along the wall in Toronto’s zone, an early gift for the Cats, who wasted no time in turning the mishap into a dangerous chance on Joseph Woll. Moments later, another defensive-zone miscue, this time winding up with the puck in Toronto’s net and Brad Marchand’s hands in the air. Soon after that, another unforced error, Nicolas Roy tripping up Matthew Tkachuk at centre ice, sending the Panthers to the man-advantage. One more botched play behind Toronto’s cage, one more decisive, organized response from Florida, and yet another puck in the back of the Maple Leafs’ net.
It was getting out of hand already. Midway through that opening period, the Panthers found themselves with more goals than the visitors had shots. And before the first intermission arrived, Florida completed the set, adding a short-handed tally to their power-play and even-strength markers. It was even more of a mess than the first two, the Maple Leafs fumbling a zone entry and turning the puck over to Evan Rodrigues, who walked in with acres of open ice around him and went backhand-forehand to put a third past Woll.
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Twenty-four hours after the Wednesday-night loss that plunged Toronto even further down the standings, the blue-and-white wrapped up their first period Thursday down 3-0, getting outshot 16-6.
“Really slow start. I don’t think we had the same level of urgency or detail that obviously they had,” Auston Matthews told reporters after the game. “I thought our second and third, we competed hard and played much better, but it’s hard to dig yourself out of a hole against a team like that, that defends really hard.”
“We just didn’t handle their pressure well,” John Tavares added. “That’s obviously what they do. You know there’s going to be a lot of tight plays — they’re going to pressure the walls, they’re going to be very, very aggressive. So, execution through that, and the pace that we needed through that was obviously poor to start the night.”
Asked by the travelling media how it came to be that the club started so slowly against such a familiar opponent, with the need for urgency so undeniably clear, the Maple Leafs’ leaders were at a loss.
“It’s a good question. Obviously, it’s a critical time of year,” Tavares said.
“I don’t know,” said Matthews. “I think we should have the energy and the desperation that we need to start the game, that we had in the second and third period. I don’t know.”
It didn’t get much better in the wake of that wobbly start. The Maple Leafs did make a push in the second, put some pucks on net. But the ice didn’t tilt. The visitors didn’t pull the game back in their direction as much as simply get up to speed with Paul Maurice’s squad.
Toronto finally broke through in the early moments of the third, striking on the power play as a Tavares shot from the slot careened off defender Gustav Forsling’s skate and in. But the swell then subsided, the push faded. By the end of the night, the Panthers had tacked on two more goals — a pair of empty-netters from Marchand and Tkachuk.
In truth, they’d put one more by Woll — the most dispiriting of the bunch. Late in the third, a dangerous Florida rush saw the Maple Leafs truly come apart, Morgan Rielly stumbling and falling to the ice, tripping up Brandon Carlo on his way down, opening up a lane for Sam Bennett to cut straight to the net and set up Mackie Samoskevich for an easy tally. A successful challenge wiped out the goal, the play ruled offside.
It was Toronto’s 11th-straight successful challenge. And that may be telling in its own right — the one thing going well for this club at the moment, their lone streak of excellence of late, hasn’t been their ability to put pucks in opposing nets or keep them out of their own. It’s their ability to erase goals that have already been scored against them.
Still, even here, as the Maple Leafs fell to eight points out of the playoffs with a particularly dispiriting effort, in the captain’s eyes, this isn’t yet time for concern.
“I mean, I don’t think ‘concern’ is the right word,” Matthews told reporters post-game. “I just think we need more desperation. More fire. Especially to start games. We know the position that we’re in, and we need to be the more desperate team every single night.
“I thought the start wasn’t great, but our second and third period, we competed, guys worked. We did a lot of good things. But we need to turn that into a full 60-minute effort.”
All told, 60-minute efforts have been hard to come by for this group. Since their promising run in January, the Maple Leafs have won just four of their past 14 games. Only one of those wins came against a club currently in a playoff position.
But really, it isn’t the results. It’s everything before the results. It’s the process. It’s the way these games have played out for the majority of the campaign. There have been injuries and new faces and off-season losses and all manner of obstacles to navigate. But at a certain point, it simply becomes too late for the reasons to matter. At a certain point, you just don’t have the horses, don’t have the cohesion, don’t have the urgency.
Whatever it may be, performances like Thursday night’s — like a number of those that have come lately for this club, that have come all season for this club — suggest these Maple Leafs simply don’t have it.
There are fans who still believe, who will remain stubbornly in the camp that says Matthews and Co. will find a way to put it all together, that they will claw their way back. Maybe they will. But outings like this one suggest it’s time to pack up the tent and go home. The hill facing these Maple Leafs is steep — the path back to the post-season will require not just better play, but a run of excellence, of dominance. That’s just to get in the door, to squeak in. Then there’s the matter of actually making some meaningful noise once you get there.
For two straight nights, Berube’s club has gone toe-to-toe with squads who know how to make that kind of noise. Both nights, Toronto got sung out of the building.
“It’s the same thing as last night’s game in Tampa — you need it for 60 minutes. Especially now. We can’t take any shifts off,” Berube said post-game. “You’ve got to weather the storm. We didn’t do a good enough job of weathering the storm in the first. I thought the second and third, we played our game. I thought it was a competitive game. Even the start of the game, we were competitive. But they had more jump and energy than us, won more races, hemmed us in our zone too much.”
The Maple Leafs still have time to prove everyone wrong, to make fools of their doubters. With each passing drubbing, the thrill of that hypothetical turnaround gets even greater — at this point, it would be an all-timer — but the chances of it arriving get even slimmer.
Still, the man at the helm is holding steadfast in his belief in this group, come what may.
“It’s always hard. But it’s my job to instil that confidence in our guys,” Berube said Thursday. “You know, myself, I stay confident. And I am confident. I know what these guys are capable of doing. And I’ve got to get it out of them.”
