Toronto Maple Leafs Must Sit Wayne Simmonds for Game 3

The Toronto Maple Leafs blew a huge opportunity to go up 2-0 in the series against the Tampa Bay Lightning because they couldn’t stay out of the penalty box.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are at their best when they’re playing 5v5 hockey, so if they continue to take stupid penalties, they’re not going to win many more games this series.

If you want to be successful in the playoffs, you have to play physical. However, you have to play on a very thin edge, where that physicality cannot result in penalties. If you’re getting a penalty that results in a coincidental penalty for the other team, that’s fine, but you can’t be gifting the back-to-back Stanley Cup champions free opportunities with the man-advantage.

When Kyle Clifford received a five-minute major and a game misconduct on Monday, that could have been the end of Toronto’s season. If Tampa Bay scored two goals on that man-advantage and got off to a huge lead in Game 1, who knows if the Leafs could have recovered.

However, they killed the penalty, which help gain them momentum and they ultimately won the game in convincing fashion.

The same thing unfortunately can’t be said during Game 2 as Tampa Bay scored three (!!!) times on the power-play.

Toronto Maple Leafs Must Sit Wayne Simmonds

Nobody loves Wayne Simmonds more than me, but he was basically useless in the 5:25 minutes of ice-time he played in Game 2. He was a minus-one, and had two penalties; both of which the Lightning scored on.

His physicality didn’t help the Leafs, but instead hurt them. If it wasn’t for his penalties, Toronto could very well have won this game.

When you score three goals on Andrei Vasilevskiy, you have to win the game. He’s way too talented that you know he’s going to get at least one shut-out this series, so you need to win when you score that many goals.

Instead, Toronto shot themselves in the foot and took way too many penalties and it cost them the game.

Colin Blackwell and Ondrej Kase didn’t play much better on the fourth-line, but Simmonds should sit-out Game 3. His style of hockey unfortunately did too much damage during Game 2 that Toronto should inject more skill and see what happens.

Jason Spezza has been a healthy scratch for the first two games and deserves to play.

Instead of worrying about silly penalties by Simmonds, Spezza can use his skill and help drive offense beside Blackwell and Kase. Taking Simmonds out of the line-up clearly makes Toronto a less tough team, but Spezza’s offensive production should outweigh the physicality, as goals are more important than gifting the opposition power-play’s.

Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner both have five points (2 goals, 3 assists each) in two games played, so we don’t have to worry about their offense. As a result, the more 5v5 play there can be in this series, the better it will be for the Toronto Maple Leafs as both Matthews and Marner are two of the best even-strength players in the NHL.