Can the Leafs find enough offense to outscore the Panthers?
A lot of this will depend on whether or not Auston Matthews can break out of his playoff scoring slump. We’ve all seen the numbers. Three goals in his last 20 playoff games. No goals in nine career playoff games against the Florida Panthers. A 5.7% shooting percentage in this year’s playoffs.
I’m convinced that a nagging injury has been bothering Matthews most of this season, one that is impacting both his shooting accuracy and velocity. He’s shooting the puck a lot, which suggests that his elite linemates (both at 5-on-5 and on the powerplay) are getting him the puck as they normally do. The lack of goals can only be a result of either a drop-off in the quality of shots, or simply bad luck.
It's probably a combination of factors, but a handful of goals from Matthews would greatly improve the Toronto Maple Leafs chances of success.
If Matthews continues to struggle, goals will have to come from elsewhere. Mitch Marner, the 102-point man, has only two goals this post-season. Fortunately, William Nylander has six tallies, John Tavares has five, and Matthew Knies also has five.
Surprisingly, the defense (which combined for only 21 goals during the regular season), has chipped in with eight goals, of which Morgan Rielly has accounted for four.
The bottom six forwards have just Max Domi’s two goals to show for ten games’ work, which just isn’t good enough. Someone like Bobby McMann or Scott Laughton needs to step up and generate some offense.