“We’re tired of feeling like this…”
Updated yesterday at 11:46 p.m.
Mitch Marner was struggling to contain his sadness, and probably his anger. The Maple Leafs were coming off a 2-1 loss in Game 7 of their first-round series against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Auston Matthews may have said, almost in a whisper, that his disappointment was only linked to the defeat on Saturday night, at home moreover, it is obvious that the past weighs heavily on the shoulders of the main players in this group.
Since starting their NHL careers in 2016-17, Marner and Matthews have never won a series. We can repeat that the scarcity actually dates back to 2004, at a time when they were children, it is on the shoulders of these two that this endless sequence weighs the heaviest.
Over the past five seasons, the Leafs have gone one-streak five times. Five times, it is with bowed head that they came out. According to the statistics firm Stats Perform, this would be unheard of in the history of the NHL, but also of the NBA and Major League Baseball. Only that.
Still, it’s not for lack of trying. Of all the attempts in recent years, the most recent is, without a doubt, the one that has shown the Maple Leafs at their best. A talented team – which we knew – but also combative, resilient, qualities that we knew less. In all honesty, they deserved to win this series. “We came so close,” dropped Matthews. “A matter of thumbs,” added Morgan Rielly. “The line was thin,” concluded John Tavares to illustrate the gap between the two opponents.
Because if the Leafs deserved to win… so did the Lightning. But we will come back to it.
Good start
Over the past few years, the Leafs had developed a bad habit of starting the last game of a series on the wrong foot. Montreal Canadiens fans remember watching their favorites take a 3-0 lead in Game 7 of the first round in 2021.
This time the premises were ready. From the start of the game, we knew that the next 60 minutes would be fiercely contested, that we would give ourselves little space. The noisy crowd had made it their mission to help their team. It was inconceivable that this time would not be the right one.
But, as they have done so often in the past, the Lightning found a way to open the scoring. Nick Paul’s first career playoff goal left the entire arena in doubt.
After being disallowed a goal in the second period, the Leafs persisted and eventually tied the game, courtesy of a nice trade between Marner, Matthews and Rielly. But the same Nick Paul gave his team the lead just three minutes later.
Something snapped then. As if the players and those who encouraged them knew what awaited them, accustomed, despite themselves, to this sinister fate. Even if we were assured that we had never stopped believing in it, the lack of energy of the skaters in blue to retreat to the locker room after 40 minutes did not lie. Neither did the long faces in the third period, even though the gap was only one goal and the Leafs had plenty of time to tie the game again.
In front of them, however, the Lightning lent themselves to a lesson in defensive play, led in particular by Anthony Cirelli, Victor Hedman and Nick Paul, the unlikely hero of the day – that too, we will come back to it.
The NaturalStatTrick site estimated that the Leafs only generated two quality scoring chances at five on five in the third period. And that their effort, however legitimate, only gave birth to the expected 0.63 goal. In a context where, let us remember, they were playing for their survival.
“What I take away from this series is how well the Lightning defend as a team,” Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game. “They are not recognized like that, but defense is their priority. They play to win championships. »
Keefe was logically asked about what awaited him and his team. He didn’t go into detail, and that was pretty predictable. Because he could quickly find himself without a job, like his boss, general manager Kyle Dubas, and perhaps even the president of the organization, Brendan Shanahan. Obviously, the “Shanaplan”, this reconstruction started in 2014, is not giving the expected results. We brought together players who are among the best in the league. Matthews and Marner, of course, but also Tavares, Rielly and William Nylander. Yet every season ends with a disappointed handshake at center ice.
How long will we keep the same elements in place, both on the ice and in administration? It’s hard to predict exactly.
“This defeat hurts more than the others,” summarized Sheldon Keefe. Maybe it will hurt even more.
Written in advance
How far can the story of a match be written more than seven hours before it begins?
In the morning, the representatives of the Lightning exuded confidence. That of those who have already been there, who know how to go about ending the day in style.
Three statements in a row.
Corey Perry: “It’s the kind of game that creates heroes. It could be someone we’ve never heard of. Whether you have a lot of experience or very little, it doesn’t matter. »
Ryan McDonagh on the impact of the crowd in Game 7: “It can go either way. By scoring the first goal, you can silence the crowd quickly. »
Head coach Jon Cooper: “Andrei Vasilevskiy is at his best when the spotlight is on him the most. He’s done it several times, and I expect that tonight. »
All three predictions came true with almost disturbing accuracy. In a club so packed with star players, few eyes were on a third-line player. Yet it was Nick Paul who was the inspiration for his camp. Not only did he score two goals, but he was in all battles, in attack and defense. For this native of the suburbs of Toronto, whom the Lightning acquired at the deadline of transactions from the Ottawa Senators, it is difficult to imagine a more poetic scenario.
As for the crowd, McDonagh couldn’t have summed up what happened better. After Paul’s second net, the decibel level in Scotiabank Arena was about that of a library.
As for Vasilevskiy, who hadn’t offered a particularly stellar performance in the first six games of the series, he was imperial from start to finish. Casually, since the start of the 2020 playoffs, he now has a .970 save rate in 9 decisive games (258 saves on 266 shots). No qualifier can describe this level of domination.
“This team has a recipe,” Keefe said again, almost admiringly. Nothing to say about it. And this recipe still works. It is now up to the Florida Panthers to decode it in the second round.
We wish them the best of luck. As well as the Leafs, in fact, who will have to deal with different problems.