3 Ways to Ensure the Toronto Maple Leafs Beat the Florida Panthers in Round One
By James Tanner
3 Ways to Ensure the Toronto Maple Leafs Beat the Florida Panthers in Round One
1. Keep the Focus on Offense
The reason that offensive teams don't tend to do well in the playoffs is because of a self-fullfilling prophecy.
The coach thinks his team has to be more defensive, because it's the playoffs after all, so the team dresses a different lineup and plays in a different way than they usually do.
It's not that the playoffs demand this, it's that the teams do. They put aside what they know works and try to play completely differently.
How else do you explain the playoff careers of Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner to date?
The guy who's been flirting with a goal-per-game in the regular season for years can't seem to even get a point per game when the games start to count.
Now, some of this is just dumb luck. But some of it is strategy.
This year, the Leafs are the highest scoring 5v5 team in the NHL.
So my advice? Lean into it.
When the playoffs start, don't ignore Nick Robertson and Timothy Liljegren, Bobby McMann and Max Domi.
Don't start thinking that Joel Edmundson is better than he is.
And never, ever, dress Simon Benoit, Joel Edmundson and Ilya Lyubushkin in the same game.
The optimal strategy of any game is to focus on what you're good at. When a team like the Leafs gets to the playoffs and tries to be someone they are not, bad things happen. We've seen it time and again.