The Toronto Maple Leafs have done an excellent job of stringing together some gutsy wins with a lineup that feels like there are more Marlies than Leafs. And, after a four-game win streak that saw injuries to Max Domi, Matthew Knies, and David Kampf on top of the early-November injury suffered by Auston Matthews, they got a bit of a reality check against the defending Cup champion Florida Panthers.
From the moment the puck dropped, the Panthers were playing inspired. They fought off some good chances on an early Leafs power play and responded with a power play goal of their own minutes later. Not long after that, Mackie Samoskevich took advantage of a conga line of traffic in front of Anthony Stolarz to give the Panthers a 2-0 lead. The lead was kept to two goals until a shorthanded goal in the second period from Sam Reinhart made it 3-0.
Despite a Mitch Marner power play goal at the end of the second, the Panthers did what got them a Stanley Cup last season and clamped the boot down on any attempt to come back. A double-minor penalty to William Nylander with six minutes left in the third period doesn’t help that, but they would have been in tough to score three more goals on Sergei Bobrovsky, who was solid as he always seems to be.
To add insult to injury, the Maple Leafs lost Bobby McMann to a lower-body injury during the game, adding yet another player to the ever-growing pile of injuries up front. The bright side to this is that the likes of Fraser Minten, Nikita Grebenkin, and Alex Nylander have all looked comfortable in their first few games, and there’s a good chance both Matthews and Knies return to the lineup when the Leafs visit the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.
All things considered, it’s a tough loss to stomach for the Maple Leafs in what would have been a crucial two points to have for the divisional race, but it’s also worth remembering the number of new faces they have up front and considering that they were likely overachieving a little bit during that four-game win streak. The Panthers had some extra juice as they always do against the Maple Leafs, hungry to snap their four-game losing streak, and they channelled their Cup-winning experience to take advantage of the Leafs’ situation.
The Maple Leafs won’t face the Panthers again until March 13. Let’s see how they fare in a rematch with a hopefully healthier looking group.
