Toronto Maple Leafs: On Advancing, the Hart Trophy and Mitch Marner

The Toronto Maple Leafs are up 3-2 in their series vs Tampa Bay, and game six goes tonight in Tampa.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have two chances to close out this series, but I am betting that they just need the one.

If you’re reading this, the odds are you know that this version of the team is now going for their eighth attempt to eliminate an opponent, and you know all about their baggage when it comes to the playoffs.

The insurance of having two games to try and get to round two is nice, but I don’t think this team wants to face that kind of pressure, so I expect that tonight they will play the best game they are capable of.

Toronto Maple Leafs Looking at Round 2

Big news prior to tonight’s game is that Auston Matthews (along with Connor McDavid and Ilya Shesterkin) has been nominated for the Hart Trophy.

With 60 goals and the best stats in the league for like the last 20 years, Auston Matthews would be an absolute lock to win, if you could trust that the voters would make the correct decision.  The NHL Awards are typically kind of dumb, however, so who knows what will actually happen.

The nomination is somewhat bittersweet because it leaves off Mitch Marner.  Now, no one really expected Marner to be nominated, but he was a deserving candidate anyways.

Marner finished 5th overall in 5v5 scoring, and 2nd in 5v5 scoring per minute.  He was 10th overall in total points, finishing with 97, to go along with his elite defense and penalty killing. (naturalstattrick.com).

Marner’s slow start is what prevented him from winning, or at least being nominated, for the Hart. From January 1st on, after returning from an injury, he played 48 games and led the NHL in points per minute.

Matthews joins Michael Bunting, who was nominated for the Calder yesterday.

As for tonight’s game, the Toronto Maple Leafs will stick with the same lineup that got them here.  That means no Clifford, Simmonds or Liljegren.

You can’t blame them for that.

Look for the Leafs to come out flying tonight. I believe the one thing they’ve really hated about their game this series is how they start,  so I think their plan will be to come out hard and try to quiet down the building.

Tampa is a great team, and they aren’t going to roll over, but the Toronto Maple Leafs have been building towards this for what feels like forever, and they’ve given themselves a great chance to slay their demons and live up to their potential.