Toronto’s Stanley Cup drought is long and extremely difficult for the team’s fans: the last time the Maple Leafs won the Cup was in 1967.
There will be no cup victory this year either. 2-3 in overtime against the Florida Panthers in front of a disappointed home crowd at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday night, another miss in pursuit of the coveted dent for many Maple Leafs fans
Florida won the series 4-1.
– We lost the series in the first three games. In match 4 (2-1 win) I thought we played very well. Even today I thought we played well enough to win the game. But the first three games we didn’t manage well and we didn’t take advantage of our chances. And the margin for error was basically none because of the results in the first three games, Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe analyzed.
William Nylander gave Toronto hope when he tied the Panthers’ lead at 2-2 with just under four and a half minutes left in Game 5. But 15:32 into overtime shattered Nick Cousins brutally all Toronto dreams of continued playoff life.
Video: TOR-FLA, M5: Nylander equalizes in the bottom of the third
– It’s really tough In this team… every single guy here has fought for each other and worked for each other. It’s the tightest group I’ve played in during my seven years (in the league and with the Maple Leafs). I think they’re really good people, really good teammates, and we’ve had a great bond, Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews noted.
– So of course this stings… that it ends like this and that we don’t get another chance to do something, said Matthews.
So why are the Maple Leafs out of the playoffs? NHL.com/sv goes through why, finds some of the reasons why the Maple Leafs’ many fans can look to the future with optimism, and looks at the Swedish contribution to the team now and in the future.
Therefore, the Maple Leafs are eliminated from the playoffs.
The first, and of course the biggest reason, is that the Maple Leafs faced a team that was able to neutralize their opponents’ big stars, that knew exactly how to minimize their opponents’ opportunities. And while Toronto’s players were forced to act with enormous pressure on their shoulders – after 56 years without even coming close to the Stanley Cup, this team was finally going to do it – Florida, which made the playoffs with an emergency call, could play relaxed and completely without pressure. The team already showed that in the first playoff round against the huge favorite Boston, and it continued against Toronto.
In a much less star-studded team than the one the Maple Leafs put together, the Panthers’ leading players have delivered. You can’t say that about Toronto’s. It’s simple math: in the regular season, the quartet did Mitchell Marner (40 goals), William Nylander (40), Auston Matthews (40) and John Tavares (36) a whopping 52 percent of the Maple Leafs’ total of 279 goals.
Video: TBL-TOR, M6: Matthews gives Maple Leafs lead
In the six games against the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round, Toronto scored 23 goals and the star quartet above scored 13 of them. It gave fans hope. But in the match series against the Panthers, it was more difficult: the Maple Leafs managed two goals in each game, a total of ten. Nylander made two of them and Marner one. Matthews and Tavares combed zero. And not only that: all of the star quartet went through the Florida series with minus statistics: Marner, Nylander and Tavares minus-2, Matthews minus-1.
In the Russian goaltending matchup between the Torontos Ilya Samsonov and Panthers Sergei Bobrovsky it was only two games for Samsonov (87.7 save percentage) before he was injured and replaced by Joseph Woll. Bobrovsky was a wall throughout the series, recording a 93.8 save percentage in the five games.
In the special teams game, the Maple Leafs were significantly worse in the box play game in the playoffs compared to the regular season: 73.3 percent to 87.9. In the game in the power play it was the opposite: 22.8 in the regular season against 25 in the playoffs. But most of what is behind that figure can be found in the match series against Tampa; against the Panthers, the Maple Leafs managed to score just two goals in eleven numerical superiority. Failed, of course.
Reasons to look optimistically at the future.
Since 2006, the Maple Leafs have missed the playoffs ten times and failed to survive the first round the remaining seven times. The 2023 playoffs were thus the first in 17 years where the Maple Leafs advanced from the first round. A good experience for the team and the players ahead of a summer which is usually about which players will return for next season. The core group is also under contract for next season: Tavares and Marner will become Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA) during the summer of 2025, Nylander and Matthews during the following summer. It also applies to running back TJ Brodie while important Morgan Rielly have contracts until 2030. Players like Ryan O´Reilly, Noel Acciari and Michael Bunting who stepped up well during the season, gets UFA status already now.
Video: TOR-FLA, M2: O’Reilly and Marner team up in PP
But there are players to fill in: the 20-year-old Slovakian-born American Matthew Knies was drafted by the Maple Leafs in the second round in 2021: Knies, 191 centimeters and 96 kilograms, is a junior national team player for the USA and a power forward of classic cut. He has played three games in the NHL this season and scored 42 points (21+21) in 40 games for the University of Minnesota.
21-year-old forward and goalscorer Nick Robertson is a huge promise: Robertson has been moved up and down between the farm team Toronto Marlies in the AHL and the Maple Leafs and managed 15 games and five points (2+3) before a shoulder injury put an end to the season. There could be more next season if the rehab training goes as planned.
Fraser Minten is only 18 years old, but is predicted to have a bright future: the center from Vancouver, who was drafted by the Maple Leafs in the second round in 2022, is pouring in points with the WHL team Kamloops Blazers. In October, he signed for the Maple Leafs.
The Swedes in the Toronto Maple Leafs.
William Nylander scored 40 goals and was only beaten in the Swedes’ scoring league in the NHL by the Los Angeles Kings Adrian Kempe (41 goals). Nylander is one of the Maple Leafs’ big stars and will likely be next year as well. Calle Järnkrok has a contract until 2026 and there is no reason to change anything there: the 31-year-old forward from Gävle has played in the NHL for ten years, and his first in Toronto after eight years in Nashville and the 2021-22 season split between Seattle and Calgary, was a complete hit: a career-best 20 goals for an equally career-best 39 points. On the flip side, 24-year-olds have Timothy Liljegren contract for one more year before receiving RFA status.
Video: TOR-TBL, M1: Järnkrok is last on the puck
However, the future is realistically uncertain for Erik Gustafsson who will be a UFA this summer. The 31-year-old from Nynäshamn came to the Maple Leafs from Washington during the season; Toronto is Gustafsson’s sixth club in the last four years.
Deserving goalkeeper Dennis Hildeby, 21, was drafted by the Maple Leafs in the fourth round last time and signed with the club immediately: after 21 games on loan in Färjestad, Hildeby has played two games in the Toronto Marlies with a not so good result. Hildeby is in the organization and is hardly relevant for the NHL.
2023-05-13 14:53:06
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