A quick mix of the things we gleaned from the week of hockey, serious and less so, and rolling four lines deep. Out here runnin’ around on some big Marcus Foligno energy.
1. Imagine.
A hockey club goes to three straight Stanley Cup finals, wins two of them, and still gets to play the underdog card in its first-round series the following spring.
“Most people picked the Leafs to beat us,” Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper said on the morning of Game 5 in Toronto, oozing confidence and planting a seed. “They’re up 3-1, so people are sitting there saying, ‘Well, we told you so.’
“For the most part, we’ve done a lot of what we wanted to do. We’ve scored enough goals; we’ve just given up too many. But, if I want to look at the big picture of this and say, ‘We keep doing what we’re doing, we just do it two per cent better, just two per cent better,’ then I think some of these quote-unquote ‘breaks’ that maybe have not gone our way, we can push to go our way.”
The breaks went Toronto’s way in Games 3 and 4 in Tampa, where the series shifts Saturday night for Game 6. Many an analyst picked the Maple Leafs to finally get over the hump this week (*raises hand, sheepishly).
The surrounding parts are tougher, more grindy. Tampa is getting old and tired and depleted… right?
“At the beginning of the series I said, ‘Don’t bet against the guys. Not that group,’ ” Cooper reminded as his team narrowed the series to 3-2. “We’re going back to the rink, and that’s exciting for us.”
To upset Toronto at this point, the Bolts must win three straight. Toronto has not lost three in a row since its disastrous October road trip to California.
Tampa must also not fall into mental trap that foiled them in Game 6 of the 2022 Stanley Cup Final. The Lightning spoiled the Avalanche’s chance to lift the chalice at home in Game 5, then, Cooper admits, got a little ahead of themselves mentally.
They believed Game 6 at home was a gimme, that the Cup Final would go seven.
Cooper was genuinely shocked to see Nathan MacKinnon & Co. partying on their home ice.
“Game 7 is irrelevant,” he says this time. “Game 6 is all that matters.”
That should be the Maple Leafs’ approach, too.
Turn three shots to eliminate never-say-die Tampa into one shot, and the Leafs’ nerves will be zapping like a mosquito lamp in the Muskoka woods.
“We’re excited. Short memory. Turn the page,” captain John Tavares said Friday, a day the Leafs reserved for mental reset, recovery and travel.
“Today is a mindset day, making sure we’re in the right frame of mind,” coach Sheldon Keefe said. “Excitement to get back on the road.”
Because heaven help them if this series is still alive when they come back home.
2. Toronto’s Justin Holl–Mark Giordano pairing is getting waterboarded through the first five games of the Tampa series. Both defenders had a decent regular season and deliver good bang for their buck, but the eye test and some nasty underlying metrics agree that something must change ASAP. (And would anyone be surprised if Giordano, overtaxed as the NHL’s eldest skater during the regular season, is skating hurt?)
The Leafs have a fully healthy NHL-level fourth pairing of Timothy Liljegren and Erik Gustafsson at the ready. There are options for the coach, who is even considering dressing seven D.
Keefe has been defensive of his lineup staples, but we’ve reached a tipping point.
“You just gotta try and stay positive,” Liljegren tells me after being heathy scratched for two weeks. “Obviously, you want to win. Because the team’s winning, you just try and contribute any way you can. Be happy around the rink and stuff like that. So, try and stay as ready as you can if something were to happen. Just take it one at a time.”
If Liljegren draws into the lineup Saturday for Game 6 (and he should), it’ll be his first appearance in 16 days. He was last seen skating 21:42 and scoring a goal (to become Toronto’s highest-scoring regular-season defenceman) against the New York Rangers in the Leaf’s final regular-season contest.
Keefe suggests he’ll make lineup tweaks in Tampa with some minor injuries popping up among his group.
“We’re looking at everything,” Keefe announced Friday.
How much has Keefe been talking to Liljegren as he waits his turn?
“Not much. We talked a little bit. Just try and stay ready,” Liljegren says. He’s not complaining. “If you have a long Cup run, chances are, you’re gonna have to use a lot of bodies. So, take it one day at a time and see how it goes.”
Well, the breakouts aren’t going swell, and Liljegren can move the puck.
3. Following Tampa’s Game 5 victory over Toronto, Keefe credited his opposition for playing “a perfect road game.”
In his post-win press conference, Jon Cooper proclaimed 2023 the “Year of the Road Team.”
He’s not wrong.
Road teams were running things to the tune of 25-15 through Thursday – the most road wins through 40 games in any single NHL postseason.
The road warriors won 12 straight from last Saturday through the Islanders’ upset in Carolina Tuesday night.
Cooper hypothesized that once you remove the 16 lesser teams in the league, you’re left with 16 clubs with pretty decent road records. Further, everyone hops on the same schedule in postseason series, which makes for fewer “calendar losses,” where a rested home team makes an easy snack out of a travel-weary visitor arriving on a back-to-back.
There was also this nugget:
“There can be times, too, where the home crowd can be a bit of disadvantage for you. At times, the way the crowd feels — and I’ve felt this; had some experience in the playoffs the last little while — you can feel it,” Cooper said.
“You can feel it work for you or against you. At times maybe that can get in players’ heads.”
Sounds like a man whose team must win three road games to advance to Round 2.
4. The Maple Leafs, Senators, Red Wings and Wild are all heading to Stockholm in November as part of the league’s cross-ocean Global Series.
Interesting to note the Leafs and Sens won’t wage a Battle of Ontario six time zones away, nor will either of Toronto’s work vacation dates be considered home games — an easy way to maximize hockey-related revenue. No need to subtract an easy Scotiabank Arena sellout from the revenue heap.
“Obviously that would be lots of fun, playing in Sweden in front of friends and family,” says Leafs Swede William Nylander, who doesn’t want to gab too much about the event considering the immediate task at hand.
Toronto GM Kyle Dubas broke the happy news before it went public to the club’s tight-knit Swedish contingent Tuesday, after the club got off its flight from Tampa.
“It’s gonna be fun. You want to play for all your family and friends that might not be able to come over and see you play here. Might be easier for them to catch a game there,” says Timothy Liljegren, who grew up idolizing Swedish demigod Erik Karlsson during his Ottawa days.
“It’s fun. Every time you got an opportunity to go to Sweden it’s a good one. So, it’s gonna be expensive for the Swedes with family and friends that want to watch the game.”
5. Quote of the Week.
Paul Maurice’s description of Matthew Tkachuk following the Panthers MVP’s Game 5 OT game-winner to quiet a hostile TD Garden is hockey poetry:
“That guy is a — and then you put a long string of profanity — gamer. Is he not a gamer? I can’t tell you how many times he did that in Calgary to us in Winnipeg. Drives me crazy how he can just pull a puck. I don’t know, there’s what, 700 other guys in the league? Six hundred and forty of them jam that thing as fast as they can in the net and lose. And he pulls it across. He’s just a… gamer. Use your own words, just X’s.”
Bonus quote!
Even Maurice’s injury description are gold. Here is Florida’s coach on an ailment Brandon Montour suffered in that same game: “Contusion of the testicular variety.”
6. While we’re on Tkachuk, Brad Marchand was offered a chance to go after his bitter Round 1 rival for a between-whistles chirp fest that was caught on the American broadcast’s hot microphones, thanks to a between-the-benches setup:
Instead of digging into a war of words with his first-round enemy, a candid Marchand pointed the finger at the broadcast for airing some off-colour audio in Game 4.
“I had no issues with what Tkachuk said but rather with the between-the-benches mic remaining hot for four minutes,” Marchand began. “The NHL and the media outlets cross the line by allowing those mics.
“There’s a reason guys don’t want mics on the bench, and that’s because they’re going to take advantage of it at some point — and they did. Regardless of what’s said by Tkachuk or other guys, there should never be an instance where a mic picks up any of that stuff.”
Naturally, the video of a yapping Tkachuk, who was targeting Tomas Nosek with his, um, banter, went viral.
Personally, I enjoy mic’d-up moments and any behind-the-scenes footage that give fans a glimpse into the unglossy version of what NHL life is really like. (Heck, for better or worse, I was listening to 2 Live Crew at age 12.) But every viewer’s level of sensitivity varies.)
One must wonder if Marchand has elevated this topic to discussion between the league, the players’ union, and their broadcast partners.
“That the media outlets allowed that to happen, it’s very disrespectful to the (broadcast) agreement we have in place,” Marchand added.
“It’s going to get guys in trouble. A lot of things that are said, a lot of things like what he said, that is said all game long and throughout the years, but you don’t pick it up (on) mics. There shouldn’t be mics in that situation. It’s part of the game.”
7. Playoff Leon has entered the chat.
Draisaitl was on the ice for the first 14 goals of the Edmonton Oilers’ postseason.
No player is history has done such a thing.
8. Toronto’s Jake Muzzin finds himself in a unique position.
Long-term playing health in doubt yet under contract, Muzzin has been a noticeable, constant presence around the Maple Leafs — home and away — for more than six months now.
Despite his season being declared over, he travels with the team, hangs out the players, and keeps working out.
Muzzin is considered an invaluable resource, a bridge between players and management.
Wise and accomplished enough to get the big picture, but not so far removed from the daily grind that players don’t treat him as a big brother.
Take Michael Bunting’s recent suspension, for example.
Bunting is an emotional, competitive athlete who needs a dose of Muzzin’s no-nonsense wisdom. The teammates have been hanging out together, watching from the series from press box over the past four games.
“He’s been with me through this whole way,” Bunting says. “He’s been the voice in my head. And just the way he’s been talking me through it, I can’t thank him enough.”
9. Tye Kartye is a story built for April.
The win-by-committee Seattle Kraken already have 13 different goal scorers through its first-ever series — a stunner against the No. 1-seed Avalanche — but none is more unlikely than Kartye, who scored the Game 5 winner.
“Playing,” the 21-year-old forward texted his mom, Richelle, nine and a half hours before his spectacular NHL debut Wednesday.
Kartye’s parents were both at work in Kingston, Ont., when their son’s message buzzed. Mom a nurse, father Todd a high-school chemistry teacher.
“Omg,” Richelle responded. “Ok. Get us tickets.”
Speeding to Pearson International, Tye’s parents hopped a flight to Denver and connected to Seattle. They rushed into Climate Pledge Arena three minutes late for puck drop but in time to see their boy — a training camp invite — score a playoff winner in his debut.
Heartwarming stuff, and Nick Cotsonika was all over it.
10. Considering his general manager had spent five draft picks on the Lightning’s big-swing deadline acquisition Tanner Jeannot, Coach Cooper did the unthinkable Thursday in Toronto, with his club’s season on the brink.
He scratched Jeannot in favour of Mikey Eyssimont, who was injured by a Jake McCabe check in Game 1 and whom you may have Googled this week.
Yes, the Bolts had gone 0-3 with Jeannot in the lineup this series, but scratching such a pricy piece takes nerve.
All Eyssimont did was score a key go-ahead goal and add a valuable assist in the best line for the Lightning’s third line all series.
Cooper explained his decision post-game:
“When you’re in the playoffs, every series is one game. So, that’s what you coach. I understand it’s a seven-game series, but you’re trying to win a game. There’s attributes he brings that we felt not only could help us, but maybe he could help the line.
“We had probably gone a little stale. Jeannot had been in there before, and he had been extremely effective for us. The way he played, he’s had some big moments in this series, but each game is a different battle.
“It was Mikey’s turn tonight. And when you have a group and you’re confident plugging guys in and out, and you have selfless acts like Jeannot was tonight, and maybe another player will be down the road, that’s what helps a team win.
“No different than (Zach) Bogosian stepping in for (the injured Erik) Cernak. You have to step up and man up when called upon — and these guys have done that.”
11. Goal of the Week.
Zachary Hyman takes one on the chin and doesn’t flinch:
12. Giannis Antetokounmpo received heaps of praise for his very considered answer to a question about whether the Milwaukee Bucks’ season is a failure because the East’s best regular-season team got upset in swift fashion once the games had consequences.
You can love the question and love the answer at the same time.
I think the query is direct and borderline harsh, but it’s also fair. And it sparks dialogue.
Here is one of the world’s greatest at what he does. He’s been to the mountaintop.
That doesn’t guarantee a return trip, nor does it mean he won’t get there again.
But it shouldn’t absolve him from criticism if, occasionally, he can’t even scramble out of base camp.
Any question that yields such a real, if polarizing, response is a good question in my books.
