The Toronto Maple Leafs held serve at home and now head to Florida up 2-0, their first 2-0 series lead in the second round of the NHL playoffs since 1987.

It wasn’t always pretty, and the game got out of control at times, but once again, the Leafs battled through the chaos with a level head and found a way to win. Max Pacioretty stayed hot, William Nylander keeps scoring, Max Domi keeps coming up with big moments, and Mitch Marner scored arguably the biggest goal of his NHL career to date. Late on, the defense locked it down, and Joseph Woll slammed the door shut. 

The Leafs are getting to Sergei Bobrovsky so far, and their transition game is killing the Panthers, but there is still a long way to go.

In the meantime, as Chris Tanev would say, take five minutes to enjoy this before moving on to the next one.

Your game in 10:

1.   This game started with an immediate matchup change by the Leafs, as the Panthers started the game with the Anton Lundell line and the Leafs countered with the John Tavares line rather than the Scott Laughton unit. While the Lundell line did score twice against the Laughton line, the Tavares line had its way with the Sam Bennett unit, and there was some happenstance in those two goals against the Laughton line — one came off a transition play after the Leafs generated some good pressure, and the other was a wide-angled wrist shot we’d never talk about if it didn’t go in. It felt like an overreaction, and the team did not get off to a good start to the game.

Florida established an early forecheck and some zone time, but the Leafs‘ quick-strike offense created a good counterattack opportunity a few shifts into the game. Bobby McMann raced around Dmitry Kulikov for what would have been a 2v1 and was hauled down. The Leafs created one noteworthy chance on the PP: Matthew Knies had time and space on a rebound all alone, but he couldn’t beat Bobrovsky. Otherwise, the power play accomplished nothing.

Right afterward, Jake McCabe fanned on a puck, leading to a Matt Tkachuk 2v1 that Joseph Woll stood tall on. The Leafs generated a good response shift from their third line with bodies in front of Bobrovsky following a Morgan Rielly point shot that Steven Lorentz and Calle Jarnkrok both took whacks at. They drew another penalty, this time a dangerous slew-foot from Brad Marchand, who came out with real purpose to start this game, along with his usual nonsense.

Again, the Leafs’ power play not only didn’t make the Panthers pay, but they generated absolutely nothing, in part because Nylander, with a wide-open look to shoot, tried to circle the net instead of letting it rip. In this series so far, the top unit wants to slow it down and take their time, instead of playing direct and funneling pucks and bodies to the net.

Right after the Leafs didn’t convert, McMann took a penalty to hand Florida their first power-play opportunity.

2.   Bad things tend to happen when two early power plays generate next to nothing, followed by a penalty. It took only a few seconds as Aleksander Barkov cleaned out Auston Matthews in the faceoff circle, Seth Jones walked the line and passed it right back to Barkov on the half-wall, and Barkov scored on a simple wrist shot.

It was more or less the exact same spot where Woll gave up a goal in the game before, and it’s not a good one. The puck went straight in on a 6’3 goalie from just outside the faceoff circle, and it’s a left-handed shot shooting from the outside angle, going all the way across with the puck. It’s not an angle from which the goalie should be consistently beaten.

3.   The 1-0 goal was a huge swing in the period, and it understandably sucked the life out of the Leafs for a bit. They got worked on both special teams, and their goalie gave up a goal that gave them just about zero confidence at the time.

However, to this point, Florida didn’t have much going on at five-on-five; they scored a PP goal and showed up the Leafs’ PP with their PK. Roughly three minutes later, McMann shot through the middle of the ice, chasing down a loose puck for a breakaway. He rushed the shot a bit, but it was a quality chance, and the Leafs’ fourth line dominated the shift from there.

It seemed to spark the team. A couple of minutes later, the Leafs drew another penalty, this time an over-the-glass call stemming from some forechecking. It was a great shift from the fourth line, including crashing into Bobrovsky.

The top unit once again struggled to create much of anything, and Berube went to his second unit with about 50 seconds left on the power play. The second unit did the things the top unit is currently refusing to do. They dumped the puck in on the entry and simply worked for it.

Max Domi and McMann teamed up for a good hit on Forsling, and the puck rimmed around to Rielly, who shot it back deep. Max Pacioretty collected the puck, Domi passed it to Rielly on the point, and Rielly just shot it; i.e., playing direct. Pacioretty applied a beautiful tip to tie the game.

That’s Pacioretty’s fifth of the playoffs. What a story he’s becoming.

4.    The Leafs didn’t play particularly well in the first period. While the Panthers weren’t exactly good, either, it felt a bit fortunate that the Leafs entered the intermission tied 1-1 after so many blown power plays and conceding the opening goal. I thought the Leafs might settle in from there and get rolling to start the second period. Instead, Florida regained the lead 15 seconds into the period.

In what should have been a nothing play, Woll stopped the puck for Rielly, who was under some light pressure, so he went around the net. Rielly ended up on his backhand, and with some pressure and no obvious passing options, he tried to throw a weak backhander up the wall for a turnover.

Right when it went off his stick, Rielly should have known it wasn’t getting past the winger who was sealing the wall. Instead, he followed his pass a bit up ice, and the Panther who was initially pressuring him — Marchand — peeled away to the net, gaining an inside step on Rielly. The Panthers worked it back in deep, and Lundell only needed to make a bit of a bump pass to Marchand, who had time and space and buried it.

It was a bad turnover by Rielly, and watching it back a few times, Woll could have helped Rielly out a bit more, too. He struggled to play the puck all night, and while Stolarz isn’t Martin Brodeur, he is notably better at it than Woll. In any event, it was a poor start to the period for the Leafs.

5.   After the 2-1 goal, Berube flipped the middle-six matchups back to what they were in Game 1, and the Leafs settled in a bit. An excellent feature of the Leafs’ game so far in this playoff run is their response after goals against. In Game 1, Rielly scored the shift after Florida made it 2-1. After this goal, it took the Leafs four minutes to tie it back up.

It was a broken sequence through and through. After a Simon Benoit turnover in the defensive zone, Oliver Ekman-Larsson bailed out his partner by deflecting a centering pass up ice. From there, the Leafs did what they’ve done all series so far: torched the Panthers in transition.

The puck bounced to center ice, where Pacioretty, who came flying off the bench, won the race to the puck. Nylander shot up ice, and suddenly the Leafs were on a 2v1 following a turnover in their own end. Pacioretty did well to pull it to his backhand and fit the puck through the defender, and Nylander did the rest from there, kicking it from his skate to his stick and chipping a cheeky little shot over Bobrovsky for his sixth goal of the playoffs.

Nylander now leads the entire playoffs in point scoring (tied with Connor McDavid). He has been an electric gamebreaker so far. Meanwhile, the assist put Pacioretty up to a point-per-game scoring pace.

6.   The goal went to the Leafs’ legs, as expected, but pure chaos broke out in the second.

It started with a Laughton hit right on the numbers of Evan Rodrigues. Nate Schmidt went after Laughton, and Rodrigues temporarily left the game. There was some chance the refs might call it a five-minute major, but Rodrigues must have some reputation; they called him for embellishment. Laughton was assessed four minutes, and Schmidt got a penalty for jumping Laughton. The game stayed at five-a-side. Rodrigues did return to the game shortly afterward, too.

A minute and a half afterward, the refs made some level of makeup call, dinging Pontus Holmberg for a tripping penalty after he was knocked down away from the puck and essentially returned the favour.

The Leafs dug in for the kill. Matthews and Marner were really effective, making an initial clear before Marner disrupted a potential entry. Matthews got the puck deep, won a battle, and ripped it all the way back down the ice to kill the clock. With Laughton in the box, the Leafs’ second PK unit consisted of Matthew Knies and Calle Jarnkrok; while the Panthers generated zone time against them, they held the fort.

When the game returned to five-on-five, the officials missed a series of calls as Jarnkrok and Holmberg were each hauled down on separate plays, and perhaps the most egregious miss was Tavares’ stick getting shot away with the puck in the vicinity as he tried to collect a rebound. It is the easiest call on the ice for a minor peewee referee.

Emotions ran high in the period, and it reminded me of Game 4 against Boston last season when Marchand and Tyler Bertuzzi got into it, there was no call, and Ilya Samsonov let in a wrist shot from the boards off the rush by Trent Frederic. There was the potential for something silly to happen again, but the Leafs remained composed.

They even created a few chances, including a 3v2 that McMann played horribly; he tried to backhand it to the backdoor instead of dropping it to a wide-open trailer. Nylander also fired a good shot off the rush (before Tavares’ stick was shot away).

At the other end, Woll came up with a really good save on an against-the-grain shot from Marchand. Woll really started to settle in as the second period progressed after an unconvincing opening frame.

7.   With just under three minutes left in the second period, the Leafs took the lead.

It started with a nicely executed breakout sequence, as Domi hit Steven Lorentz on the wing for a clean pass, and Lorentz tried to pass it to a cutting Laughton at center ice. Laughton did really well to facilitate the goal; he knew he couldn’t pick up the pass, so he tied up the defenseman and won the battle to chip it to Rielly, who activated on the far side.

Rielly made a nice one-touch pass to Lorentz, who flew through the neutral zone and knew Domi was on the other side of him for a mini 2v1. Lorentz passed it over, and Domi buried a great finish. The Leafs are clearly working Bobrovsky high, and Domi made no mistake.

This was a great sequence moving up the ice, and it ended in the second point of the night for both Domi and Rielly. Secondary scoring is alive and well for the Maple Leafs.

8.   The Panthers shook it up a little bit to start the third, moving Mackie Samoskevich to the second line. I don’t think it made much of an impact, but the Leafs seemingly parking the bus from puck drop of the third did. Florida fired five shots in the first five minutes of the period, and it felt like a matter of time until they scored.

During this segment, Chris Tanev was clearly in distress after he was crunched by Verhaeghe. Hopefully, he was just winded.

With the ice tilted and the Leafs on their heels, the Panthers got it deep, and Marchand tied up OEL on the initial puck rimmed up the wall. It reached Lundell, who tried whipping it out in front. The play missed the mark, but it went to the other side, where Ekblad pinched down and did the same thing. This time, it connected with Lundell, who finished into an empty net at the backdoor.

The Florida third line has been a real problem. This was their fourth five-on-five goal in just two games, and the Leafs are clearly struggling to figure out how to match against them.

9.   Once again, though, the Leafs manufactured an immediate response to a goal against. The top line generated one of their few shifts where they put the puck in deep and simply forechecked. They were out-attempted a whopping 25-6 in this game, but they were up 1-0 in goals thanks to this game-winner.

A Jake McCabe shot attempt missed the net and rimmed up the wall, where Marner got to it first. Marner elected to simply get it to the net, knowing Knies was in front, and the shot had some real zip on it. It knuckled its way into the top corner, off the post, and in.

Marner’s now up to 10 points in eight playoff games, and this game-winning playoff goal was his first since the birth of his son Miles, which is awesome. He received a great ovation afterward.

10.    This time, the Leafs didn’t park the bus with the lead. In fact, the shots were just 6-3 for the Panthers for the rest of the game, and Florida didn’t actually record a shot on net in the final three-plus minutes of the period.

The Leafs even created a few chances of their own — in particular, a Matthews-Marner 2v1 was barely broken up. Brandon Carlo fired a big point shot that caused some problems, and Jarnkrok had a look in the slot.

In the final 10 minutes, Berube moved up Holmberg to play on L2; we have seen the Leafs’ head coach rotate the left-wing spot situationally all playoffs so far.

The Panthers created two prime chances. The first was met by a ridiculous toe save from Woll at the backdoor on Samoskevich. The other was a Rodrigues shot he initially saved before the rebound was batted back, hovering in the crease before McCabe knocked it away with his glove (critically, he didn’t close his hand on it for a penalty shot).

The Leafs were all over shooting lanes when the Panthers pulled their goalie, and Florida technically didn’t record a shot on net. Matthews missed an empty-netter — again — and Benoit made a strange play following a Tavares faceoff win where he shot it down for a second straight icing (if he is going to shoot it out, at that rate, at least try to score).

The Leafs’ ice-time allocation in Game 2 was quite interesting. McMann played the lowest at 9:42, with Holmberg and Domi just above him, given that the Leafs led for basically the entire third period. The whole Leafs top line played 22+ minutes, in line with the Panthers’ top unit. McCabe was the Leafs’ only defenseman to play 20+ minutes (21 on the nose),  and OEL played the least at 16:19. Every game, it’s a different TOI allocation with the blue-line group; they get it done by committee.

When it’s all said and done, the only numbers that matter are 2-0. That’s where the series stands as the teams head to Florida. As we said entering this game, don’t let Woll get hot, because if he gets rolling… 

Game Flow: 5v5 Shot Attempts

Heat Map: 5v5 Shot Attempts

Game Highlights w/ Joe Bowen & Jim Ralph

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