Loss to Lightning more than embarrassing for the Leafs
TAMPA, FLA.—“It’s a pivotal recreation.”
Title one which isn’t.
“It’s a response recreation for them.”
It’s all the time a response recreation for anyone.
“It’s nonetheless early.”
Till it’s all of a sudden late.
“We haven’t performed our greatest recreation but.”
That certain as hell wasn’t it.
The before-and-after chatter of Recreation 4 within the Japanese Convention opening-round sequence between Toronto and Tampa Bay: Coaches and gamers conceiving the sport just a few hours forward of the puck drop, coaches and gamers assessing the sport a couple of minutes after the horn. The Lightning drew stage with a 7-3 rout of the Leafs, a disembowelment wincing to the eyeball from each angle.
Toronto was on its again foot from the get-go.
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“They got here out exhausting and we didn’t execute properly,” was the forensic statement from Leafs captain John Tavares. “We now have to do a greater job of being on our toes and being prepared for that. I believe we knew it was coming. We simply clearly didn’t execute.
“After that, we had a significantly better finish of the primary interval, had a few alternatives, couple of posts. After which we shot ourselves within the foot with too many penalties.
“Study from it. It’s what it’s. Regroup and be excited for the chance to go dwelling.”
After all the Leafs had visions of going dwelling with a three-games-to-one chokehold on the sequence, silly-walking the Lightning proper out of Amalie Enviornment once more after stuffing them in Recreation 3. “You’d wish to get a break up, however after the primary recreation, it’s ‘Let’s get grasping right here’,” Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe had bluntly said on the morning-of.
Toronto had a splendid alternative to grab this sequence by the throat, to deliver it on dwelling with … properly, the identical 3-1 muscle they’d flexed towards Montreal a yr in the past, earlier than getting clobbered by the playoff Maypole.
As a substitute they permitted the Lightning to fill their lungs with the candy breath of reviving oxygen, to get in contact once more with their inside reigning Stanley Cup champions; to burn Toronto with the recent oil of their very own blistering velocity.
Hardly shocking that Tampa countered with bravado — they’re 16-0 now courting again to the 2020 post-season after a loss.
So, reset for a best-of-three within the brief strokes of a conflict swinging again to Scotiabank Enviornment.
However, oof, the Leafs hadn’t appeared this clown-shoed since … getting ass-hatted by the Lightning 8-1 right here final month.
And-a-one. And-a-two. And-a-three. By 7:58 of the primary interval, Tampa had pumped three objectives by, round and thru Jack Campbell, with each Toronto line, nearly each Toronto participant, in on the minus blush.
“They got here out, clearly scored on their first shot and sort of took it to us,’’ Campbell stated. “Nevertheless it’s one recreation. Study from it. Be prepared for the subsequent one.”
The rampage started on the uno- minute mark, 60 seconds that the Leafs had spent unable to get the puck out of their very own zone regardless of a number of probabilities. Bottled up because the Toronto third line was, Lightning coach Jon Cooper managed to get his third line changed by his prime line. The outcome: Steven Stamkos along with his first of those playoffs and his thirty third profession post-season objective, a one-timer from the excessive slot.
Simply as a press-box scruff was writing a be aware to herself — the crew that scored the primary objective had gained every of the earlier three video games — the Lightning made it 2-0, Campbell inadvertently serving to to direct the puck on a stick-bounce from the again of the web to fourth-liner Pierre-Edouard Bellemare in entrance of the web. He roofed it over Campbell’s left shoulder, unassisted. Crushed twice on 4 photographs.
The onslaught continued unabated with one other fourth-liner and, much more implausibly, Pat Maroon, changing a 2-on-1 after the puck was chipped previous Morgan Rielly, pouncing on his personal rebound.
It was all occurring too quick and too simply for the Lightning. The Leafs should have had first-period PTSD once they received to the dressing room. Keefe shrieking on the ref over matching minors at 19:33 was as animated as Toronto received in that body.
Selecting up proper the place they left off, scarcely three minutes into the second, when Campbell — put this? — waved ineffectively at a seemingly benign shot from Ross Colton that went in off the webbing of his glove. 4 objectives on 14 photographs. On the two-man benefit shortly afterward, with the Leafs deep into penalty-berserk territory, totally disjointed — it was 5-0, with a 3rd fourth-liner hanging, this time Corey Perry.
And so and so forth and so forth.
Poor Erik Källgren was thrown into the maelstrom, although not instantly, Campbell finally taking his place not on the finish of the bench however virtually within the shadows of the passageway.
This post-season engagement has revealed the nice (gobs), the dangerous (sporadic) and the ugly (Sunday’s horror) of the Leafs, a crew practically tailored to tackle the problem of eliminating the defending Stanley Cup champions, an opponent very a lot in their very own picture.
Outstanding depth assembled by GM Kyle Dubas meant Keefe has had loads of choices to tailor the lineup, the road combos and the road matchups. Maybe he tinkered an excessive amount of — a bent of each Toronto coach in residing reminiscence — for Recreation 4.
Michael Bunting, coming back from a late-season leg damage that stored him out of Recreation 1, was adjudged lower than the offensive adeptness of the No. 1 line, already sporting Tampa’s checking unit like a cowl, so Keefe dropped the 26-year-old rookie to the fourth dimension, with Jason Spezza and Colin Blackwell. Elevated was Alex Kerfoot, the multi-purpose Swiss military knife on this squad the previous few seasons.
It was hoped that Bunting would complement the fourth line while discovering his pesky groove and Kerfoot would infuse the brace of Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner with some giddy-up end, which had gone AWOL in Recreation 3.
By the third interval, Bunting was again on the primary line and Kerfoot on the second.
The smothering protection of that prime line, nonetheless, by the holy checking trinity of Anthony Cirelli, Braydon Level and Alex Killorn, had stored Matthews and Marner off the 5-on-5 scoresheet on Friday, forcing them right into a line of defense of scrimmage, a blanking prolonged into Sunday, though Mathews earned an help on William Nylander’s first of two, on the facility play, late in Recreation 4.
The playoff highlight has additionally silhouetted Toronto’s unproductive second line, the place Keefe had reunited Tavares and Nylander for Recreation 3, a combo which, frankly, by no means sparked within the common season. They’ve gone toe to toe with Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov, an exhausting protection activity, however Tavares and Nylander didn’t generate a 5-on-5 level till 12:01 of the third interval Sunday.
Matthews and Marner, the double straws that stir the drink, properly over their yips from playoff failures previous, at the least again in T.O. However neither scored in Tampa.
Toronto’s fortunes nonetheless relaxation with them. And Campbell.
“For me, I simply look within the mirror and study from what I did fallacious, and be able to do some nice issues within the subsequent recreation,” (un) Smiling Jack stated. “Benefit from the crowd at dwelling and cease some pucks.’’
