Panthers 4 – Maple Leafs 2 | Without complexes

This victory of the Florida Panthers was not a surprise.

Winning a series in seven games gives you wings. Since 2018, the last five years, the record of the teams that have just come out of a final confrontation at the top is 13-7 in the opening match of the next round. One might as well say that emotion still on edge seems to have an advantage over rest.

We will therefore not write a novel on the sole fact that the Panthers disposed of the Toronto Maple Leafs by a score of 4-2. The Leafs still have a lot of time, it’s only a first meeting, it also started badly against Tampa, etc., etc., etc.

There is however one thing which, well beyond the clichés of circumstance, should worry the men of Sheldon Keefe. The Panthers are devoid of any semblance of complex and look more and more like a club ready to make the playoffs.

It took them everything to get there, let’s remember. The Floridians have secured their place in detail two days before the end of the calendar, after a spectacular rise in the standings. 1^er last January, they were eight points from the last place giving access to the playoffs, and this, to the delight of the supporters of the Canadian who, with great blows of online simulations, chuckled with happiness since their favorite team has the choice of first round of the Panthers in 2023.

We are, it is obvious, no longer there. The team that defeated the Leafs on Tuesday night is no longer looking for itself. If a gap of 43 points in the standings with the Boston Bruins did not intimidate her, we suspect that the historic accession of the Torontonians to the second round will not move her more.

Learning

From those seven games against the Bruins, the Panthers have definitely learned.

Because, we tend to forget, there was a lot to learn. The team certainly passed the first round last year, a first since their participation in the final in 1996, but suffered an embarrassing sweep against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Before that, the few times we saw the organization in the playoffs, it was only the time for a sigh.

This time, in the first round, we found solutions against a superior opponent in all respects. By dint of relentlessness, we adjusted the defensive system to the big machine of the Oursons, to the point of dividing the expected goals equally at five against five.^⁠1. We also won the war of nerves, winning the two games that required overtime.

What emerges, and what the Leafs tasted on Tuesday, is a proven recipe for playoff success. A recipe that could be described quite simply:

The best who are the best^MD

Matthew Tkachuk continued his work of domination. Three other assists, in addition to nine body checks. Meanwhile, Aleksander Barkov perfectly played his role of extinguisher against the two big opposing lines while contributing to the attack – here he is at eight points in as many games.

series players

Carter Verhaeghe and Brandon Montour already deserve, each, a small Claude-Lemieux trophy. Both scored again on Tuesday. Things happen every time they step on the ice.

The horses in defense

Montour, Gustav Forsling and Aaron Ekblad swallow up the minutes, as does, to a lesser extent, good old Marc Staal, whose best seasons are however far behind him. In eight games so far, Ekblad has only been on the ice for three 5-on-5 goals.

The goalkeeper who makes the saves

Let’s talk about him as the one we no longer expected. Sergei Bobrovsky was phenomenal on Tuesday. Bossy against Auston Matthews during a Leafs power play in the second period. Imperial v William Nylander with one minute left in third. He has just signed four straight wins.

* * *

We may note a single downside in terms of depth. To see how little head coach Paul Maurice uses his fourth line – less than five minutes against the Leafs – the wear and tear could be felt.

Besides, Maurice made his opponent Sheldon Keefe look bad in this first game by taking full advantage of the confrontations on the ice, despite the presumed advantage of the home team to take advantage of the last substitution.

Keefe searched for answers, to no avail. He had been slow to juggle his squad against the Lightning; Will he show the same patience?

To reporters in Toronto at the end of the evening, the coach noted that his men had “made mistakes that they had not made in the previous series”. The pace, he admitted, is higher than against the Lightning. With an equally grueling level of toughness.

The series is still young, we want it. But the Panthers sent a powerful message. Their triumph over the Bruins was no accident. Another against the Leafs would not be either.

1. According to the Natural Stat Trick website