What Toronto Maple Leafs players said after coughing up 2-0 series lead
After jumping out to a 2-0 series lead against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, the Toronto Maple Leafs suddenly find things all tied up.
On Sunday night, there wasn’t a whole lot to be excited about from a Toronto standpoint, with a 2-0 loss in Game 4, the Leafs’ second time being shut out in the playoffs.
Postgame, much of the conversation online and at the rink revolved around a late-game fracas caused by a hit from Max Domi to Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov.
In the moments after the scrum, Florida forward Matthew Tkachuk was seen yapping towards the Toronto bench, apparently having some choice words for Leafs winger William Nylander.
“He’s just talking. I mean, that’s what he does,” Nylander said. “He’ll probably do whatever he can to get a player off their game.”
For Toronto coach Craig Berube, he wasn’t worried about his team’s effort level in a loss where they couldn’t find the back of the net.
“In the end, I really liked our physicality and compete out there. The guys played hard. It is a tough series. They are a very good team. We know that. It is a battle,” Berube said.
Toronto captain Auston Matthews echoed Berube’s comments.
“We just need to move forward and go on to the next game and bring the same mentality that we’ve had throughout these playoffs, of coming into the games and giving our best shot,” Matthews said. “We knew it wasn’t gonna be easy. We’re playing the defending Cup champs. They’re a good team.”
For Matthews, who has won the Rocket Richard Trophy as the NHL’s leading goal-scorer on three different occasions, goals have been hard to come by these playoffs. Through 10 games, he’s scored just twice for Toronto, though he has picked up eight assists to be on a point-per-game pace throughout the playoffs.
“The chances have been there. I think I just got to do a better job of bearing down on some of them,” Matthews said.
Toronto goalie Joseph Woll had his strongest performance of the playoffs to date, stopping 35 of 37 Panthers shots in his third start of the series.
“It’s a tight game, one-goal game for most of it,” Woll said. “I think we took it to them pretty good [in the third period]. Just couldn’t score.”
For Woll, he takes confidence that the Leafs will bounce back better in their 6-4 playoff record and Atlantic Division-winning regular season.
“I don’t think we’ve strayed too far from our game,” Woll added. “I think we know our identity, and we’ve played pretty consistently throughout the season. I think our record so far in the playoffs, we proved that. We’re a capable team, and we just have to continue to do what we know and what we’ve done all year.”
Game 5 goes Wednesday night at Scotiabank Arena back in Toronto.
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