JVR and the Toronto Maple Leafs Tame the Florida Panthers

Last night, the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Florida Panthers by a score of 4-3 at the Air Canada Centre.

While the Toronto Maple Leafs tamed the Panthers, the Colorado Avalanche didn’t hold up their end of the bargain. The Avalanche suffered a 2-1 defeat by the Philadelphia Flyers at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado. Since the Avalanche lost, the Toronto Maple Leafs still haven’t clinched a spot in the 2018 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. Hopefully, the Toronto Maple Leafs will be able to clinch a playoff birth tomorrow night when they battle the New York Islanders at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Even though the Toronto Maple Leafs didn’t clinch a playoff birth last night, they did have a record breaking night. The Toronto Maple Leafs set a franchise record for wins with 46 and they set another franchise record for home wins in a single season with 27 wins. In addition, James van Riemsdyk (JVR) scored his 200th career goal, Mitch Marner continued his point streak and Frederik Andersen grabbed his 36th win of the season. Andersen’s win against the Panthers gave him a career high in regular season wins.

First & Second Periods

In the first period, the Toronto Maple Leafs were hungry. They wanted to show Leafs Nation that the loss against the Sabres was a minor bump in the road. Marner, Auston Matthews and Patrick Marleau all jumped onto the score sheet in the first period. The only issue that the Toronto Maple Leafs had in the first was a lot of their shots were going to the net. This has been a growing issue for the Maple Leafs and wasn’t just evident last night. In fact, a couple forwards including William Nylander and Marner have less than 50% of their shots making it to the net.

Unfortunately, the Toronto Maple Leafs failed to shut down Jonathan Huberdeau last night. In his last two appearances against the Maple Leafs, he’s owned the ice for the Panthers and posted 3 goals. He’s been a Maple Leaf killer and needs to be shut down by the top defensive line when the Panthers play Toronto.

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While Huberdeau was a monster at the Air Canada Centre last night, his second goal could have potentially been taken away. Mike Babcock was toying with the idea of challenging Huberdeau’s goal since the Panthers were off-sides. Babcock ultimately decided not to. In the second period intermission, Elliotte Friedman of Rogers Sportsnet pointed out that Babcock most likely held back since it appeared that Nikita Zaitsev might have interfered with Jamie McGinn. The referees could have allowed the goal due to the potential penalty.

JVR Shines In Third Period & Lack Of Offense In Third Period

Coming into the third period, the Maple Leafs were up by a slim margin of 3-2. The Maple Leafs were looking for a spark in the third period, since the Maple Leafs were having difficulty getting out of their own zone. The usual suspect, JVR provided that spark. He parked himself in front of Panthers’ net-minder, Roberto Luongo. Tyler Bozak fired a pass from behind the net to JVR. JVR took a shot on Luongo, which ricocheted off of Luongo. He then collected the rebound and put the puck past Luongo for his 200th career goal.

Unfortunately, JVR’s goal didn’t lead to much of an offensive surge from the Maple Leafs. The Maple Leafs continued to be dominated in their own zone and were out-shot 14 to 8 in the third period. The Maple Leafs have a couple of high scoring opponents in the next few games including the Winnipeg Jets. If the Maple Leafs expect to grab a few more wins before the playoffs, they need to crash the net in the third period. They can’t sit back and hope that their defense holds up.

Recap

To conclude, the Maple Leafs tamed the Panthers by a score of 4-3. Tomorrow night, they’ll head to Brooklyn to take on the Islanders. The Islanders are coming off of a 4-3 win over the Ottawa Senators. John Tavares and the Islanders will be hungry to grab a win as their second half of the second hasn’t gone so great. They’ll be looking to end the season on a high notes and pick up some wins.

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Hopefully, the Maple Leafs will be able to shut them down and finally clinch the playoffs.

stats from NHL.com & hockey-reference.com