The Toronto Maple Leafs entered Wednesday’s matchup against their Atlantic Division rival Florida Panthers on a bit of a hot streak without their captain in the lineup. In fact, the story early on for the Maple Leafs this season has been their need to dive into their depth with numerous starters out of the lineup.
Well, on Wednesday, the Maple Leafs added insult to more injury when Bobby McMann was forced to leave the game against the Panthers while those same Panthers went on beat the depleted Maple Leafs with a 5-1 victory.
As for the Panthers, the story was their special teams as they got it done at even strength, on the powerplay and while killing penalties as well. In fact, the Panthers had a goal in all situations against their former teammate, Anthony Stolarz, who didn’t seem quite like the Stolarz we’ve seen this season.
For those who missed it, though, here’s a quick rewind on the Panthers’ latest victory.
Panthers’ Special Teams Were the Story
It took just under five minutes for the Panthers to jump into the lead and it came on the powerplay as Aleksander Barkov ripped a one-timer past Stolarz for his fifth of the season. Less than a minute later, Mackie Samoskevich scored his fourth at even strength to put the Panthers up 2-0 — a lead that the Maple Leafs wouldn’t be able to come back from.
Related: How NHL Teams Are Navigating the Injury Bug This Season
The Maple Leafs opened the second with some strong play, but with just under three minutes left in the frame, it was a Sam Reinhart shorthanded goal that put the dagger in the away team. The Panthers added another powerplay goal in the third period along with an empty-netter to cap it off and while Mitch Marner was able to add a powerplay goal of his own in the second frame, it was the Panthers’ special teams that drove the pace of play.
At times, the game didn’t seem like a 5-1 game, but the scoreboard did tell a different story for the Maple Leafs.
Maple Leafs Lose McMann
As for the continued tests the Maple Leafs have been forced to face this season in terms of their depth, the team played the third period without McMann who left the game with a lower-body injury.
He becomes the eighth forward on the Maple Leafs to be out with an injury and while there was no real update after the game, head coach Craig Berube did say that he was day-to-day and that they would re-evaluate on Thursday.
It was clear on Wednesday that the Maple Leafs are lacking depth scoring, but how much of that can be attributed to their injuries? Well, with Max Domi, Auston Matthews, Matthew Knies among others out, it’s clear that the Maple Leafs have some inexperience in the lineup.
“It’s frustrating, but hopefully we get some guys coming back here next game,” said Berube regarding the team’s bad luck with the injury bug this season following the loss.
Stolarz Takes the Heat
Ahead of the game, three former members of the Panthers’ received their Stanley Cup rings from the team — including Stolarz, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Steven Lorentz.
While it was an exciting moment for the trio, who were all role players on last season’s Cup-winning team, Stolarz admits he would’ve liked to see a different outcome for his club.
“Emotions were high, but we obviously would have liked a different outcome especially early on for me,” said the Maple Leafs’ goalie. “I think I could have made one of those saves early and kept it a little tighter. You look on the other end, and [Bobrovsky] was making some saves to keep them with a two-goal lead.”
Stolarz stopped 19 of the 23 shots he faced and finished with an .826 save percentage and a 4.14 goals against average — which is, by far, his worst outing of the season.
The Maple Leafs will look to rebound on Saturday night when they take on the Tampa Bay Lighting in Tampa, while the Panthers will look to make it back-to-back wins against the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday after snapping their four-game skid.
