Following arguably their worst playoff performance of this era, the Maple Leafs’ core dug deep, showed all kinds of character, and responded with arguably their best-ever postseason win. 

After all sorts of justified (and some unjustified!) criticism, Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner delivered with great performances. The defense, by committee, was excellent across the board, Joseph Woll was great when called on, and the Leafs found a way to keep their season alive. 

The job is not finished, but we’re onto Game 7, baby. 

Your game in 10:

1.   The game began with the Panthers reasserting their matchups on home ice as Auston Matthews started and Paul Maurice countered with the Anton Lundell unit to start. That meant Aleksander Barkov matched up against John Tavares, and the Leafs were using their semi-new Max Pacioretty – Max Domi – Bobby McMann line mainly against the Panthers’ Sam Bennett unit.

Joseph Woll made a good early save on a top-of-the-circle shot by Bennett off the rush, but like G5, there wasn’t much action to start. Each team recorded just one shot on net through the first five minutes. Just after that point, Simon Benoit was called for a penalty following an offensive-zone faceoff off an icing where the Leafs‘ top line was on the ice against the Panthers’ fourth line. The Leafs killed that off with a big early kill, and shortly afterward, they generated a really good shift by Pontus Holmberg and Tavares in front, where they drove zone time and commotion in front.

The Leafs took another penalty — this time, a trip on Oliver Ekman-Larsson. Again, the Leafs killed it off. The penalty kill was really good in the period and kept the game tied in what was otherwise a really good opening frame by the Leafs.

After their next kill, Matthew Knies was robbed in front off a nice pass by Mitch Marner. The Leafs generated nine high-danger attempts in the first period, as they got to the net really well, but the two penalties killed some of their momentum. 

2.   Florida’s best chance of the period may have been a 2v1 that Holmberg backchecked hard to disrupt, before Morgan Rielly came back and deflected the shot wide. It was a good recovery after four Leafs were caught on the wrong side of the puck, and it was also the only shot attempt against the Tavares line was on the ice for all period. After 20 minutes, they were up 11-1 in five-on-five shot attempts, were buzzing around the zone and getting to multiple rebounds in front, but they couldn’t finish.

The Matthews line was also great, finishing the period up 6-1 in shot attempts. They generated a few shifts in a row where they tilted the ice, and it was far and away the best period Matthews played in this series. He was on the puck, involved physically, and dictating in-zone play.

At the end of the period, the Leafs were up 20-9 in five-on-five shot attempts and outshot the Panthers 7-2 overall. At the end of the 20 minutes, they hadn’t scored, which was a tough outcome after a really good road period.

3.   To make matters worse, towards the end of the first period, Knies tried lining up a hit on Nikko Mikkola and sustained an awkward reverse hit. He was clearly in distress on the bench and missed his final shift, with McMann taking his place. Knies came out for the second period, but it was immediately obvious that he was struggling and couldn’t move particularly well on the ice. In the second period, he missed an entire power play, and the Leafs used McMann on the top line quite frequently the rest of the way.

4.    After his team was outplayed in the first period, Paul Maurice started by flipping his matchups as Barkov opened against Matthews to start the second. The Panthers were much better to begin the period, although they were helped early on by an awful Jake McCabe turnover right up the middle towards the end of the first shift that led to a series of shifts with Florida offensive-zone time.

The ice was tilted against the Leafs early on in the period; shot attempts were 15-0 through the first six minutes/by the first commercial break. They were in clear survival mode. By the end of the middle frame, the five-on-five shot attempts were 32-5. It was ugly at points.

5.   As the Leafs attempted to push back, there was an offensive-zone faceoff where Matthews was high-sticked by Barkov without a call and was forced to temporarily leave the game. Finally, the Leafs received a power play on a too-many-men call that was too obvious for the officials to pass up.

They created one good chance directed at the net by Matthews with Knies in front, and they had another coming on a McMann play, but Matthews was called for a high stick. On the subsequent 4v4, Scott Laughton and William Nylander created a good chance, and while Sergei Bobrovsky stopped it, the Leafs got some contact on the goalie (which I loved). The Leafs definitely got to Bobrovsky in this one, running into him several times.

The Leafs again killed off the remaining penalty and started pushing again. They got their top line out against the Panthers’ fourth line, dominated them, and drew a penalty. This time, Pacioretty was on the top unit over Knies, who didn’t play on the power play at all. It wasn’t a dangerous man advantage for Toronto, and I get why they are keeping the top unit on for only half the time due to the high-paced Panthers kill. 

6.   With their season on the line, I liked the way the Leafs came out in the third period. Chris Tanev, as the trailer off a nice pass by Scott Laughton, had a good look. Calle Jarnkrok should have been on a breakaway, but he was hauled down (of course, there was no call).

A little over six minutes into the period, the Leafs finally broke through. To win this game, it simply needed to be Matthews and Marner delivering the offense. It just had to be, and they came through.

On a Florida breakout, Aaron Ekblad fumbled a pass, and Marner stepped up and pounced on a loose puck, winning a battle. Matthews recognized the play developing as he took off down the middle. Marner passed it to him, and Matthews went downhill. He has simply not looked very dangerous off the rush in these playoffs, but on this opportunity, Matthews was absolutely dialed in and determined to make a strong move. He attacked with speed, pulled it wide, curled the puck in, and ripped it five-hole.

It is the biggest goal of Matthews’ NHL career to date, and it was a beautiful finish against a Hall-of-Fame goalie in a must-win game to break the ice. It has been fair to criticize Matthews at points in these playoffs, but let’s also recognize and appreciate how big this moment was, scoring the eventual game-winning goal to keep the team’s season alive. The job isn’t finished, but this was huge.

7.   The unsung hero of this game is the Leafs’ penalty kill. They went four-for-four on the night, and after they took the lead, Brandon Carlo was called for yet another soft penalty. I’m not going to talk too much about the officiating, but it was horrendous all night. Florida doubling up the power play count on the Leafs in this game was a joke. I’ll leave it there.

As for the Leafs’ PK, they didn’t even concede a chance or a shot on net on this kill. They were aggressive and refused to let Florida set up the zone. They didn’t just protect the house and hope to block shots; they pounced on pucks and got them out.

Laughton led the Leafs forwards in shorthanded time on ice in this game, playing 3:23. He was a defensive monster in this one. McCabe and Tanev each finished at around four and a half minutes of shorthanded time on ice and locked it down on the PK. They were really effective at managing Florida dump-ins and making clears, preventing the Florida forecheck from causing chaos, along with their work to clear the net. Marner, Lorentz, and Jarnkrok, along with Matthews, played big minutes at forward, while Carlo and Benoit were the secondary defense pairing.

The PK was a massive reason the Leafs kept their season alive tonight, and it also showed why the Laughton acquisition was so important. He is an excellent penalty killer, which also allows them to keep Matthews fresher for five-on-five.

8.    After the penalty kill, the Leafs doubled their lead.

Max Domi, who saved a few goals with defensive efforts (!), made a nice play on the wall for a breakout to chip it out and up to McMann, who was flying down the wall. McMann saw Pacioretty charging to the net at the far side and made a great saucer pass to find him. It was a really tough play for Pacioretty, with Nate Schmidt chasing him down, the puck coming on his backhand, and Bobrovsky challenging him, but he one-timed it against the grain. It’s a really difficult finish — a true goal-scorer making a play in close.

It’s Pacioretty’s third goal of the playoffs and eighth point. I wasn’t sure about the addition in September, but he has been an absolute gamer in April and May. Pacioretty is now up to 12 points in 15 career elimination games, including his series winner against the Senators.

9.   Leading 2-0 and with Knies in obvious injury-related distress, Berube shifted Laughton up with Matthews and Marner to close this game defensively, and they were excellent. Florida generated zone time, but other than one Tanev block on a backside empty-net opportunity, it was never particularly dangerous. Again, this is why the Laughton addition was so important. He’s a really good all-around player, and Berube used him a lot tonight with the season on the line.

In the final minute and a half, the Leafs were credited with seven blocked shots. They packed the house and made it miserable on Florida to get pucks through. The Leafs put their bodies on the line to seal this out. The commitment was there in spades.

10.    This was a team effort for the Leafs. Steven Lorentz played a team-low 10:32 and was important in the win, finishing third amongst Leafs forwards in shorthanded time on ice per game. Marner was the only Leafs forward who played over 20 minutes; the next highest was Matthews at just 18:14.

Everyone contributed and pulled on the rope for the Leafs. Pontus Holmberg, who finished third amongst Leafs forwards in time on ice per game, played an excellent game, creating zone time and defending very well. On defense, Simon Benoit led the Leafs in ice time (!) as the only defenseman to play over 20 minutes; he also lit up Brad Marchand in the second period, which was a beautiful moment that shifted the game’s momentum a little bit.

Benoit’s high of 20:04 wasn’t that far ahead of Rielly’s low of 18:35, showing how tight the ice-time distribution was on the blue line for Toronto. The Leafs leaned on a defense by committee, everyone did their jobs, and they worked together to support Joseph Woll en route to his first career playoff shutout.

I also quietly thought it was Brandon Carlo’s best game of the playoffs. He was steady and didn’t make any mistakes of note. Any mistakes the team made were cleaned up by Woll, who was calm, cool, and collected in the net.

This was a really good win by the Leafs. But there’s still one more hill to climb.

Game Flow: 5v5 Shot Attempts

Heat Map: 5v5 Shot Attempts

Game Highlights w/ Joe Bowen & Jim Ralph

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