Lightning–Maple Leafs Series | When Perry is around…

It’s the kind of moment that rekindles old traumas.

Simon Olivier Lorange
The Press

The last time Corey Perry defeated Jack Campbell was a little less than a year ago, on May 31, 2021. His goal then gave the Canadian a 2-0 lead in the seventh and final game of the first-round series between the Habs and the Toronto Maple Leafs. We remember what happened next.

On Wednesday night, Perry again gave his club a 2-0 lead, this time the Tampa Bay Lightning.

At the start of the second period, the 36-year-old winger accepted a long pass from Victor Hedman who launched him on the breakaway. The next moment, the puck was behind Campbell. The Leafs did try to get back into the game, but we knew around that time that the fatal blow had been struck. Final mark: 5-3 for Floridians. The series, tied at 1-1, now moves to Tampa.

While the big guns of the Lightning have woken up, Hedman (4 points) and Nikita Kucherov (3) in the first place, we take the trouble to direct the spotlight to Perry since it is in his department that we find the one of the most fundamental differences between these two adversaries.

On one side or the other, the great offensive leaders were heard.

A gap should separate the Lightning from the Leafs in goal and defense, but that’s not (yet) the story of this series.

It is rather when we focus on support employees that the gap is striking. He was, in any case, in this second game.

Experience

The Lightning’s fourth line, consisting of Perry, Pat Maroon and Pierre-Édouard Bellemare, is not playing much. Not even six minutes for Maroon, Wednesday. A little more for his two companions, who are put to work on special teams.

They are far from young. Maroon has just turned 34, Bellemare is 37. But at three, they have above all a formidable record: four Stanley Cups and a total of seven appearances in the final.

On Wednesday, they completely, but then completely eclipsed their Leafs counterparts. The trio of Wayne Simmonds, Colin Blackwell and Ondrej Kase had a tough night. Simmonds, in fact, was atrocious.

In 11 appearances, all at even strength, he found a way to be on the ice for an opposing goal – that of Perry – and to receive two silly penalties that cost as many goals. That’s a lot for a measly 5min 25s of ice time.

The Lightning of course won their two Stanley Cups, in 2020 and 2021, thanks to their big stars.

However, each time, the importance of shadow workers has been widely extolled. The famous “perfect” third line led by Yanni Gourde was an obvious example, but the following unit was never outdone. Its members were called Cédric Paquette, Tyler Johnson, Ross Colton, Pat Maroon (well, well), Mathieu Joseph.

Here is today Bellemare and Perry, with the same results. Perry, whose head coach Jon Cooper said before Wednesday’s game that he was an assistant coach on skates. A loud voice in a locker room of superstars. All that for a million? It may not be theft, but close.

It’s been two years in a row that the striker has seen his team lose in the Stanley Cup final – the Dallas Stars in 2020, the Canadiens in 2021. congratulations on hiring him.

As for Marian Hossa, in 2010, the third time could well be the good one for Corey Perry.

In short

– Completely muzzled in Game 1, the Lightning’s power play got to work, producing three goals. On the other side, it was out of fuel, to such an extent that, during a penalty imposed on Pierre-Édouard Bellemare, in the second period, it was the Lightning who got four shots (none for the Leafs).

– Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy increased his perfect streak to 15 following a playoff loss. Since his team’s early elimination in 2019, the Russian has never lost two games in a row. Heading into Wednesday’s game, he even had a .952 save percentage in those post-loss games, which fell slightly after he allowed three goals on 34 shots for the Leafs.

– After only two games, Mitch Marner already has five points on his record. He thus surpassed his totals from the first round series of 2019, 2020 and 2021, which had all resulted in a harvest of 4 points.

– Alexander Kerfoot’s goal was already the Leafs’ second shorthanded goal in this series. A feat when you know that the power play of the Lightning allowed only five goals in 82 games during the season. The Torontonians, on the other hand, had led the league with 13 goals with a man less.