Game 3 was lost in heartbreaking fashion, but the Maple Leafs still have an opportunity to earn a road split in Game 4 and bring the series back home with a 3-1 advantage (7:30 p.m. EST, Sportsnet/CBC/TBS).
Keys to Game 4
via Anthony Petrielli (@APetrielli)
– A week ago, if you told every Leafs fan (or the Leafs themselves) that they’d be up 2-1 going into Game 4, they’d happily have taken it. There is no reason to panic, and there is no need to change the lineup. Stick to your game. It’s working.
– The power play showed signs of life in Game 3. There was a smart adjustment to shift players down low versus running a pure 1-3-1. Against an aggressive penalty kill that challenges the power play’s point men, the Leafs need to make the Panthers pay down low.
– The Leafs‘ penalty kill was sharp, too, as Florida’s power play went 0-for-3. The Leafs were effective at denying entries and need to keep the pressure up.
– Joseph Woll needs to do a better job of managing hard rims and playing the puck. The Leafs, as a team, need more hold-ups/legal interference on the Florida forecheck. They can’t let Florida run their defensemen all series.
– Keep hounding the Florida defense on the forecheck and continue to exploit the Panthers in transition. The opportunities are there.
– If Paul Maurice runs Anton Lundell’s line more against Auston Matthews’ line, the Leafs’ top line has to make them pay inside this matchup.
– #34 is rightfully receiving some scrutiny, but the Leafs also have five forwards who haven’t scored a goal yet. A depth goal would go a long way, as would Matthews shooting it into the net. Get after it.
Game Day Quotes
Craig Berube on so many goals coming off of bounces around the net in this series:
The lesson is, don’t pass up shots, and hit the net. It is going to go in off people because there are numbers there all the time, especially in the playoffs.
You have to get to the net to score goals in the playoffs, for the most part. You are going to have the D from the opposition and the forwards there. Pucks are bouncing in from everywhere.
It is something we talk about quite a bit. We need to get pucks and people there.
Berube on the message to Bobby McMann as he fights through an eight-game pointless drought:
It is more about focusing on two or three things out there. We know he is a great skater with good speed. He is a big, physical player. For me, it is focusing on using your speed, arriving on time on the forecheck, and arriving on time at the net. Use your speed and physicality.
For me, it is all about wall play and things like for a player like him. He has to be good on the walls and make sure he is doing a good job there. That’s important.
I think he can get to the net more. He is going to get his looks from his speed and shot, but he needs to get around the paint more.
Berube on Joseph Woll’s mental game as he tries to bounce back from the loss in Game 3:
He is mentally focused. He is really into that side of the game. He is in a good spot. You are not going to save them all. He just needs to go out and do what he needs to do to give us a chance.
Paul Maurice on the state of his team’s play through three games of the series:
We feel we are still building to our game and the level of consistency with our style of play. We got closer to it in Game 3. We would say the extremes of the series so far were the first period of Game 1 — we didn’t love that — and the second period of Game 3, when we liked our game.
We have to keep them off the scoreboard in the first minute of the game because it does affect the game. We get behind it, and then you get a little tension. They are a very strong first-period team in terms of their scoring differential. We need to be able to match that.
Maurice on his team’s 13 goals against through three games:
Both teams probably feel that the numbers are high in this series. You have some really high-end shooters, and then it is just funny that all of the goals seem to be bouncing off of something. With all of that skill, it is still them getting two deflections and us getting two deflections in the last game.
Maybe it is because both teams are so heavy at each other’s net that it is where the action is. We will try to be a little bit better in that department.
Maurice on Chris Tanev taking so many hits in the series and the importance of grinding on the Leafs’ defense physically:
Tanev’s game is not going to change, right? That is the strength of him. He will hang onto the puck an awful lot to make plays, and he makes plays. He is probably underrated in some of his puck movement.
He has been doing that forever. He blocks shots, takes hits, and keeps playing. We are not trying to change his game because it is not going to change.
I don’t think we have really gotten to our forechecking game in three games in the way we would expect to in order to put more pressure on their backend. But his game is not going to change.
There are probably defensemen in the league who you might be able to change the way they play with a heavy enough forecheck, but I don’t think they have anybody on their backend who is changing the way they play because of it.
Maurice on whether his team is challenging the Leafs in front of their own net enough:
I think, at times, we have too many guys at the net. There are nine people standing in front of their goalie at times, and we are ripping it off shin pads. It is not so much that.
Once you get a knuckler that goes in for either team, all pucks start coming to the net from all angles. You saw that on the Marner goal. That is just going to the net because they are bouncing in off our D and their D. I don’t even think that is coaching; that is just a human reaction to seeing something good and wanting it to happen again.
We are doing it. They are doing it. You have to block as many as you can and get in front, or get them out of the way so your goaltender can see it. Even if you do that, some strange bounces are happening around the net. There is more tension for both teams in front of both teams’ nets.
I don’t know if we need more guys. We would have to move the benches in front. Everybody is standing net-front now.
Chris Tanev on whether he is sore in the mornings after the punishment he’s taken:
No, I feel great. Every day is a great day. You wake up, and you’re happy. You come to the rink.
Tanev on whether there is a secret to absorbing hits:
Sometimes, I try to draw guys in and absorb a hit before I move it. There are probably some times when I could move it a little quicker.
It is just playoff hockey. It is what happens.
Tanev on leaving Game 3 for a spell:
My skate broke. It sucks, but the guys did a good job of fixing it and getting me back out there as quickly as they could.
Matthew Tkachuk on Tanev’s game and battle level:
I’ve known him very, very well, going back to Calgary. I am very impressed with how he has played. I really am. I have always said how great of a player he is for years, but to see him at this stage continue to do it year after year is incredible.
He is kind of the head of the snake back there on the backend. He is their leader. You can tell. We are not on the inside of their room, but you can tell by how he conducts himself, talks to the team, and leads by example.
I mean, I have seen it. It is no surprise to see what he is doing now.
Mitch Marner on matching up against Anton Lundell’s line more on the road:
Three guys who work extremely hard, get to the net, and put pucks to the net. They do a good job of surrounding the net and suffocating you. For us, it is just about making sure we are making our plays and doing our thing. We’ll focus on ourselves.
Seth Jones on the areas of emphasis for the Panthers defensively after conceding 13 goals in three games:
Just eliminating rush chances. In the first three games, our F3 has gotten caught a little bit. The D gaps have not been as tight as we want them to be in the neutral zone as well. They are getting some of those rush chances.
They have kind of changed the way they play. They play a really fast game, actually. They get the puck out of their zone, and they get through the neutral zone fast. They try to create bounces and hit underneath speed for rush chances.
We have given them a little more space than we would’ve liked in the first few games. They have also been opportunistic. Give them credit. They know how to put the puck in the back of the net.
We want to be physical and tightly gapped. That is a big part of our game defensively. And then we have Bob back there, who will be a brick wall for us.
Toronto Maple Leafs Projected Lines
Forwards
#23 Matthew Knies — #34 Auston Matthews — #16 Mitch Marner
#67 Max Pacioretty — #91 John Tavares — #88 William Nylander
#18 Steven Lorentz — #24 Scott Laughton — #19 Calle Jarnkrok
#74 Bobby McMann — #11 Max Domi — #29 Pontus Holmberg
Defensemen
#22 Jake McCabe — #8 Chris Tanev
#44 Morgan Rielly — #25 Brandon Carlo
#2 Simon Benoit — #95 Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Goaltenders
Starter: #60 Joseph Woll
#30 Matt Murray
Injured: Anthony Stolarz
Extras: Nick Robertson, David Kampf, Ryan Reaves, Philippe Myers, Dakota Mermis, Jani Hakanpaa, Dennis Hildeby
Florida Panthers Projected Lines
Forwards
#17 Evan Rodrigues — #16 Aleksander Barkov — #13 Sam Reinhart
#23 Carter Verhaeghe — #9 Sam Bennett — #19 Matthew Tkachuk
#27 Eetu Luostarinen — #15 Anton Lundell — #63 Brad Marchand
#10 AJ Greer — #92 Tomas Nosek — #17 Jonah Gadjovich
Defensemen
#42 Gustav Forsling — #5 Aaron Ekblad
#77 Niko Mikkola — #3 Seth Jones
#88 Nate Schmidt — #7 Dmitry Kulikov
Goaltenders
Starter: #72 Sergei Bobrovsky
#41 Vitek Vanecek
