‘We’ve got to put our balls on the line.’ Maple Leafs drop overtime heartbreaker to Lightning in Game 6
TAMPA, FLA. – And just like that, just when the moment seemed to be at hand for the Toronto Maple Leafs to banish their many ghosts to purgatory, poof, the moment was gone.
Stop us if you’ve heard this before.
As the Tampa Bay Lightning surged onto the ice at Amalie Arena to celebrate Brayden Point’s overtime winner with 1:56 left in the first overtime session, the Leafs were left to wonder, again, how it had come to this after playing one of their best games of the series. And later they must have wondered how it was that they were left to trot out the same kinds of platitudes and bromides that have accompanied many of the opportunities like Thursday night that have gone by the wayside over these many years.
Auston Matthews, a beast again in Game 6 with a goal to get the Leafs on the board after they’d fallen behind 2-0, was asked about embracing the idea of having to return to Toronto for a Game 7 on Saturday.
“I think that’s all we can do,” Matthews said. “I mean, what’s in the past is in the past, man. You can’t change anything now. It’s about this next game and going out there with a purpose and details and just competing for 60 minutes or whatever it takes. We’ve just got to put our balls on the line and go for it.”
Matthews, like the rest of the Leafs, had a couple of excellent looks in overtime, but if there is one image that seems to crystalize that razor-thin line the Leafs have consistently been on the wrong side of in these kinds of playoff games, it was this; Matthews trying to track down a puck lofted from the Leafs’ zone into the center ice area. But instead of tracking the puck Matthews lost an edge and fell.
The Lightning would take the uncontested puck and start the rush that would lead to Point’s game-winner.
This core group of Leaf players have now lost eight straight games in the playoffs when they’ve had a chance to eliminate an opposing team and move on. The string is nine if you go back to the Game 7 loss in Boston in 2013.
They haven’t won a playoff series since 2004 when there was a center red line and no shootouts and Matthews had not yet turned seven years old.
The strange thing about Thursday’s 4-3 loss is that this team looked different than some of those earlier versions and especially the one that collapsed against Montreal in the first round last season after building a 3-1 series lead.
After falling behind 2-0 to the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning for the second straight game, the Leafs displayed the kind of backbone and determination that has been annually missing come playoff time.
Not only did the Leafs bounce back from the two-goal deficit, they took a lead in the waning seconds of the second period.
But the Lightning, now 17-0 after a playoff loss since 2020, took advantage of a pair of high-sticking penalties midway through the third period and Nikita Kucherov tied the game during a 5-on-3 effort. The Leafs were livid as replays showed the one high-sticking call to David Kampf on Cal Foote didn’t really happen and that Foote sold the play as well as any Academy Award nominee has played a role.
(For the record, Tampa coach Jon Cooper said both the infractions were earned when asked about it after the game.)
There were other officiating issues that rankled the Leafs too, including a long period when Alex Killorn had a good hold of a swatch of Matthews’ jersey and Matthews was towing him like a water skier around the ice in the extra session. No penalty was called.
Matthews, as did the other Leafs who met with media, declined to comment on the officiating and whether the standard, such a key part of the storyline of this entire first round of the playoffs, had been eroded in Game 6.
“In that moment it’s tough to take,” head coach Sheldon Keefe admitted. “But I have the benefit of slow motion replay, officials don’t, so they’re in a tough position. But yeah, it’s really, it’s a tough one to take. But that’s the way the game goes.”
Keefe is not wrong.
And if we had to quibble about the Leafs’ game-plan in overtime, it’s that they did not direct more pucks to the net, making additional passes instead of funneling everything towards Andrei Vasilevskiy, who was very good in spite of giving up at least three goals in every game in this series thus far.
Mitch Marner, in particular, was guilty of overthinking plays, especially during overtime.
“Plenty of opportunities to finish it,” Keefe said. “And really gave them nothing until they had the look and they made good on their one look. That’s the difference.”
The trick of winning in the NHL playoffs is always about compartmentalizing everything. Bad shifts, missed shots, missed saves, glorious goals and thunderous checks. It happened, put it aside and move on.
It’s how the good teams do it. It’s how the Lightning have consistently, persistently been able to absorb playoff losses in one game and come out on top the next. Of course that’s how you end up winning back to back Stanley Cups.
The inability to do that, the fear of compounding one loss into another and another, the fear of failure, and the fear of somehow being lacking are what separates the champions from the also rans.
It is what has defined the Toronto Maple Leafs for 18 years.
In this series the Leafs have shown they are learning. Or appear to be learning. No team has won two games in a row in this series. In theory it’s the Leafs’ turn now.
One last chance to prove they are different, one last chance to capitalize on home-ice advantage and to separate themselves from the angry din of their own history.
“This is what the game’s all about is what it is,” said captain John Tavares, who scored both late-second period goals. “We’re just playing. Approaching it like we have all year. You work all off-season and training camp and throughout the season to build your game and to go out there and play and compete. Just one shift at a time – it’s extremely cliché. And just worrying about being in the moment and taking each day as it comes each game as it comes. That’s what we’re focused on.”
_____
POINTSBET CANADA IS LIVE IN ONTARIO
PointsBet Canada has officially launched in Ontario! Get more details right here!