It started out as a series of explosions. It became a match defined by comebacks.
What remains transparent is Toronto Maple Leaf And Lightning Bay Tampa There’s no shortage of drama in their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series.
And Konoha captured their enemy.
Let’s recap: Atlantic Division opponents traded multiple-goal wins in Toronto to draw the series 1-1 before moving on to Tampa. There, Lightning took a late lead in the rules of Games 3 and 4, lost both tilts in extra time and was on the verge of being eliminated in the 3-1 series.
Tampa Bay returns to Toronto for Game 5 on Thursday night, there was nothing left to do but win the next three hockey games. Meanwhile, the Leafs have three consecutive streaks past the recent Stanley Cup champions and finally, for the first time in nearly 20 years, make it past the opening round of the playoff series.
Will the Lightning be able to demonstrate — and rattle — Toronto enough to come out on top? Or will the Leafs soften their criticism — and stop being a spoiler — by actually finishing off the opponent?
“It feels different,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said of his team after Game 4. “But we have a tough task ahead of us.”
Here are five keys to winning Leaf and Lightning before Thursday’s blue and white battle in Game 5:
Join urgently right from the opening draw
Toronto overcame a one-table deficit in Game 3 to win 4-3. It roared back from a three-table disadvantage to grab plank 4. That’s all good and good. But waiting until the last minute to come alive is unsustainable for Leaf, especially as Lightning plays with more desperation.
Urgency — or lack of it — has been Toronto’s downfall before. And the Leafs know all too well that Tampa Bay has the potential to return as a series. In their first-round meeting last season, Lightning went 2-1 and 3-2 ahead of Cards in Game 7.
No question Auston Matthews recognized after the Leafs’ victory in game 4: “Fourth game [win] is the hardest to get.”
That has long been true of Toronto, not just Tampa Bay. There’s a reason the Leafs haven’t won a post-season series since 2004 and have been knocked out in the opening round of their past six playoff (or play-in) opportunities. The Leafs need not look back at the last time they took a 3-1 lead in the series; it was just two seasons ago against Canada Canada.
It’s time to end this.
Instead of letting Tampa Bay decide the tune – as Toronto did in so many Games 3 and 4 – Leave it to the Lightning in Game 5. Toronto should play as if its season were going on. Momentum is a powerful thing. The Leafs have it, and for the first time they’ve been able to use it properly — to win a decisive series victory — instead of handing power back to the opposition.
Beware of classic Vasilevskiy, worthy of Vezina
It’s been a particularly tough playoff series for the Lightning keeper Andrei Vasilevsky. He may well be the most suitable goalkeeper in the league to produce a Herculean response.
Vasilevskiy is 1-3-0 so far with a goal-to-average ratio of 4.33 and a save rate of 0.856. He has conceded more goals in this four-game period (19) than in any such period in his playoff career. That total is also tied for the second most goals conceded by a single man in the first four games of the playoff series since 1984.
Key point? Like the majority of Tampa Bay’s squad, their goalie didn’t play well enough. There will be no victory for Lightning if that doesn’t change.
“We scored enough goals to win,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said after Tampa’s 5-4 loss in Game 4. “You have to stop them from getting into your own net.”
Luckily for Lightning, there’s a long history of Vasilevskiy doing just that. He enters this post-season with enviable stats, a 63-38-0 playoff record, including seven losses — six of which have come in knockouts.
Basically, Vasilevskiy has been a mainstay of the Lightning in their season(s). Cooper pointed out that some of the goals Vasilevskiy let happen at the end of Game 4 were headers and saves, goals that any goalkeeper – even those who won the Vezina Trophy, Conn Smythe Trophy and Stanley Cup – will struggle to save.
Vasilevskiy cannot undo what happened. But he could still be the clutch performer Tampa Bay has relied on for the past decade. And few things will come to Toronto’s mind like seeing Vasilevskiy go into full shutdown mode with a lot of risk.
Don’t go astray; elevate
The Leafs’ supposedly improved depth is a point of constant talk in this series.
Lo and behold, the rumors are true. Toronto was better than just relying on a core of star players — specifically Matthews, Mitch Marner And William Nylander — and has been attacking Lightning from every angle (and every row) for the past four games.
The Leafs have had 10 different goalscorers to date, seeing six pass the six-point mark and receive key contributions from a rookie (Matthew Knies) and two acquisitions in the transaction term: Ryan O’Reillywith seven points, and Santa Claus with two goals.
The Leafs’ chemistry is palpable. The trick is not to think too much about it.
Toronto made the crucial decision not to bring Michael Bunting back into the squad for Game 5. The feisty top striker was suspended three games for elbowing and interfering with defender Tampa Erik Cernak in Game 1. He was eligible to return in Game 5, but Keefe said Wednesday that Bunting will still be on the bench.
In the end, Keefe decided that, despite what Bunting had given the team with a 49-point effort in the regular season, it wasn’t worth breaking the team that had won three playoffs in a row. It’s not that he’s afraid to move players around – in Wednesday’s practice, Knies was elevated to the Leafs’ second row alongside Tavares and Marner.
It’s just another example of how Leaf can continue to use all the players they have to keep Tampa Bay strong — and avoid their former fate as one-sided enemies.
“[I like] six from top to bottom and that was part of the decision not to include Bunting, [so we’re] maintaining that,” said Keefe. “We’re trying to set up something where we can comfortably play all four lines. That was our intention when going into the series. We think we’re in a good position that way and have to adjust along the way, that’s what we had to do the night before. [in Game 4]. The players respond well, we can always make other adjustments if needed, but we want the team [this] road.”
Lightning requires a team effort to defend
“Ultimately, you have to defend,” Cooper noted after Game 4. “And you have to keep the ball out of your net.”
Lately, it’s easier said than done for Tampa Bay, but it has established the right blueprint for do’s and don’ts.
The main problem is that Tampa Bay’s blueline isn’t the same without Cernak. He’s been absent since Game 1 getting hit by Bunting and he won’t be dressing for Game 5 either.
Victor Hedman missed the start of the series through injury and likely didn’t hit 100%. Mikhail Sergachev was defeated and left Game 4 shortly after parrying O’Reilly’s shot. The Lightning is leaning towards rookies Darren Raddysh And Nick Perbix to play the key minutes, and they performed admirably. What Tampa Bay is really asking for, however, is buying into more defense across the board.
“In general, do we want to have Cernak in our squad, one of the top four defenders for us? Yes,” Cooper said. “[But] Obviously we’ve gone our separate ways at some of these points.”
Toronto learned the hard way in Game 1’s devastating 7-3 loss that if it didn’t start blocking the Lightning’s top flight toward the net and prevent them from setting up a strong cycle, it would. will be a short series. Tampa Bay finally had to make the same investment.
Instead of letting Vasilevskiy dry, Tampa Bay’s entire five-man unit would pressure the Leafs’ skaters outside and not allow them to set up front. Pushing through traffic was how Toronto performed again in Game 4, and a tighter effort from Lightning – especially through the neutral zone – won’t allow the Leafs with those chances to slip through. into Vasilevskiy’s vision.
Cooper admitted his team may have sat back in the third inning of that Game 4 loss. There’s nothing like the imminent threat of disqualification to spark any player — regardless of superstar status — to do the dirty work needed to sustain a team’s hopes in the next round. Game 6.
Want: PK perked-up
Special teams play an important role in every post-season series.
It is worth mentioning that Tampa Bay and Toronto have played equally well in this power game. Another fact is that, at times, both teams’ penalties are something of an eyesore.
Entering Game 5, Toronto hit 70.6% in PK (and 6 took 17 when playing strength).
Tampa Bay is even worse with 64.7% in PK (and 5 eats 17 in power play).
Will this all-important, potentially massive Game 5 be decided by who kills the less gruesome penalty?
The lightning strike has abandoned the goal of playing the winning power of the game to Alexander Kerfoot in Game 4. Toronto’s destruction was sometimes disrupted by Tampa Bay’s four-way vision of man advantage (see: allowing four power markers in Game 1).
Being out of the box helps, obviously. Tampa Bay have taken more penalties (27) than any other team in the post-season period. The Leafs are not far behind with 23 offenses.
There were also narrow heroic moments from both sides. The main shot blocks. Dive into the firing lane. Positive pressure and positive results.
It just took a bad decision, though. One obvious spin or careless sloppiness when you take down a man and it won’t be balanced play that dominates all day. It can be a difficult pill to swallow with the expected results.
