Leafs roar back to tie series
Toronto nets five straight goals in dominating win as series shifts to Montreal. Coverage,
Step up. Man up. Giddy up.
The Maple Leafs have all the horses they need — steeds, studs, stallions and even donkey-work equines — to prevail in this playoff derby with Montreal. Gallop out of the first round for a change, like.
If they don’t make post-season asses out of themselves.
On Saturday they didn’t. Just mulish — doubling down on stubbornness and will, wrapped around skill, bumping off the Canadiens 5-1 to knot the series at one game apiece.
With goals from their retro end, their rookie end and their superstar gut.
As psychically traumatizing as it was to have their captain and leader ripped from the lineup by a freak collision in Game 1 — concussed, suffering a knee injury that will require at least a fortnight of recovery but otherwise apparently convalescing comfortably at home; it could have been so frighteningly worse — the job hasn’t changed.
Neither has the team’s manifest superiority over the Habs.
What are they made of ? What is their pith?
The right stuff, they’ve proclaimed to a man. More sinewy than playoffs of yore. Some sand injected into their veins. And weary of that sick feeling in the pit of their stomachs, punted to the post-season roadside.
Game 2 of the opening engagement with Montreal at Scotiabank Arena was designated as a must-win. If not mathematically in a best-of-seven, then unquestionably existentially. Two in the hole is a tall order to invert, with the Habs gaining muscular belief at every stage.
Harness the emotion, the certitude of destiny developed over an outstanding season, even the dismay of John Tavares wrenched from their midst, and convert it into energy, into doggedness. Pull up socks to pull up even.
They’d had 48 hours to gnaw on this, to ponder and reset and remind themselves how darn good they are. Now prove it in playoffs prime-time showtime.
Notes to selves: Score first (they didn’t). Come out hitting (check — outhit Montreal 20-17 in the first period). Dominate in the special-teams battles. Added dimension: an impressively strong performance from the bottom-six forwards.
In a word: Respond.
Vintage Jason Spezza did, putting Toronto on the board at 12:25 of the opening frame after Jesperi Kotkaniemi had drawn first blood. Six seconds after Spezza jumped on the ice for that shift, on the change, beating Carey Price short-side. Solved the Price booga-wooga early, at least.
Shank of the second period, the Leafs got their first lead of the series, Auston Matthews off a Justin Holl rebound. Then Rasmus Sandin with a Howitzer from inside the blue line, first powerplay goal for what has been a decidedly incoherent man advantage — disadvantage — Toronto PP. Third consecutive power play for the Leafs, which had Montreal coach Dominique Ducharme in conniptions. And general manager Marc Bergeron, up in the suites, in heated objection.
An ill-advised coach’s challenge — on grounds of goalie interference — confirmed the call on the ice, thereby tacking on a punitive penalty for the timewaster exercise.
“I was a little nervous to be honest,”
Sandin said afterwards, after the review that felt like an eternity. “I haven’t scored in a year and a half, or something like that. So obviously I was pretty happy when they called it.”
He described it thusly, chops to Mitch Marner on the set-up. “It got right in my wheelhouse. I took a step into it and hit the right spot this time. Just superhappy.”
Matthews, with three points in a superb performance, preferred to shine the light on Sandin and Spezza.
“He’s so poised and he’s deceptive, he’s extremely skilled,” he said of the 21-year-old Swede whose phone was blowing up with texts from home. “For how young he is, it doesn’t seem like the big moments shake him at all.”
On 37-year-old Spezza: “He’s so calm, cool, collected out there. For a guy like that to continue to make a difference every single night has been pretty incredible to watch.’’
A second power-play goal in the third, pair of goals in the series now for William Nylander, who was the best Leaf on Thursday. Plus an empty-net cherry on top by Alex Kerfoot.
“Tonight was very characteristic of how we’ve been all year,” observed Spezza, with a particular shout-out for Sandin. “To see one drop for him gives him even more confidence.”
But full credit, he added, to the stars, none shinier than Matthews.
“Auston was our best player. Our best players have been Auston, Mitch, Willy, every night. John. That’s why our team was in first this year. Those guys have been clutch for us all year.”
This version of the Leafs, more recognizable, was animated and flying from the get-go.
Matthews set the tone, taking the body at every opportunity, notably a resonating thwack on Brendan Gallagher.
Even at their not-finest in Game 1, Toronto had withstood all the physicality Montreal could throw at them.
A message was sent from drop of the puck Saturday, with hard-nosed Wayne Simmonds sent over the boards — fleetingly, symbolically — on a starting line with Matthews and Zach Hyman.
Watching from his domicile — cleared of structural damage to head, neck and spine — Tavares was surely heartened by what he saw.
Galchenyuk — Chucky, as he’s called, like the demonic doll in those horror movies — was dusted off the sideline shelf, inserted into the second forward unit with Nylander and Nick Foligno. Galchenyuk, who’d been discarded by the Canadiens and revived his career when acquired by Toronto in February after winding his way through five other clubs.
Six-foot-five winger Pierre Engvall seized the spot vacated by Riley Nash, who’d looked so drastically out of his element in the opener — and understandably so, playing his first game as a Leaf, out of commission for two months with a lowerbody injury.
GM Kyle Dubas had prudently provided a safety net for his club, apart from grit additions aimed at making the Leafs harder to play against, although he could not have foreseen the calamity of Tavares injured.
Thing is, the Leafs abound in leadership, with so much highend talent that disruption via injury, even the absence of such a key component as Tavares, should not drastically bewilder or fatally sabotage.
The cliché holds true: Your best players have to be your best players.
Further, the players should be able to draw upon the admittedly mild adversities they’ve experienced this season. To say nothing of the wising-up, one would think, from the dumpster fires of four consecutive first-round dispatchments.
Keefe had claimed to take assurance from that, the character and mental ripening of his group.
“Just the way that the team has remained calm. Remains confident in themselves, that the vibe and the mood of the team has been good,” Keefe said following Saturday’s optional skate. “Whether we’ve lost one game and bounced back or when losses have piled up, the mood of our team has stayed very good, very confident.
“One of the best parts of the playoffs, frankly, is the opportunity to respond. When the other team has an edge and the urgency rises a bit. You get a chance to push back.”
Push, pull and prevail.