Let’s Nitpick Last Night’s Toronto Maple Leafs Loss to the Panthers

The Toronto Maple Leafs played really well against the Florida Panthers on Wednesday night, but ultimately lost 3-2 in overtime

As we all know, the Toronto Maple Leafs have officially clinched a playoff spot and will be playing the Tampa Bay Lightning the playoffs. With only eight games remaining, we could look at this game as a meaningless loss in March, but instead, it’s way more fun to nitpick it.

Overall, this game was weird. There were a bunch of random penalties, with Toronto dominating the ice. Goaltender Alex Lyon was a late substitution for Sergei Bobrovsky and was clearly the difference-maker in this game.

In only his 24th career NHL start, Lyon made 38 saves, none bigger than his glove-save on Auston Matthews in OT. For some reason, the Leafs always seem to lose the game they’re supposed to win and this outcome was no different.

Before I nitpick more, let’s look at some positives.

Matthews was buzzing all night and finally got rewarded when Mitch Marner made an unbelievable play near the boards to get Matthews the one-timer. That was as good as it gets from M&M, so seeing Matthews play his best hockey at this time of the year is a fantastic sign.

Not only that, but Zac Aston-Reese deserves a lot of credit. His goal was a great example of driving the net as he tipped in a shot from the point and almost had a second goal if he was able to capitalize on his penalty-shot attempt.

Toronto Maple Leafs Lose a Game They Should Have Won

Alright, now let’s get to the nitpicking.

If Mike Babcock was still the head coach of the Leafs, he would have been screaming at this team to “start on time,” as they were clearly sleeping after allowing a goal one minute into the game.

The entire hockey world knew that the Panthers needed this game more than Toronto, which meant they were give their best effort, but Toronto must have forgot because that was a horrendous start.

Toronto not only outshot Florida 40-29 but they also won 16 more face-offs than the Panthers, owning possession for most of the night. With a 2-1 lead near the end of the third, the Leafs were the better team and should have put this one to bed.

But, as we’ve seen before, Toronto gave up a penalty in the dying minutes, which resulted in the tying goal, sending this game to overtime. Giving up a penalty at that time of the game is bad, but I will give Mark Giordano credit, because they were going to score if he didn’t hook his man in-front.

Overtime was in Toronto’s favor, then all of a sudden, my least favorite play of the game happened. William Nylander fell and took forever to get up, which resulted in a Florida two-on-one. Although John Tavares did a great job to get back into the play and defend Brandon Montour, Tavares stopped skating a few feet before he got there and allowed Montour to tap-in an easy goal.

I’m not sure what Tavares was thinking because there was only one play he could have made there. He should have skated into Montour, took out his body and tried to at least stick-lift him, but instead, he stopped skating and tried to use his stick, resulting in the Panthers game-winning goal.

Securing two points for Toronto at this time of the year doesn’t matter, but knowing that the Florida Panthers needed to win should have been enough motivation for the Leafs to destroy them. When a desperate team comes to play, you need to match their energy because that’s what playoff hockey is all about. Hopefully the Leafs learn from this loss and don’t become too complacent in their last eight games.