When You’re Not ‘Built’ For The NHL Playoffs

When You’re Not ‘Built’ For The NHL Playoffs

It’s been nine straight years in the Austin Matthews era and one occurring theme throughout has been failure. Despite pushing the defending Cup champs to seven games, the words game seven have been the Toronto Maple Leafs ultimate boogeyman. And with another egg and disappointment, this is likely the end for a group of core players who together are just flatout not built for the NHL playoffs. So, let’s take a deep dive into game seven, the series as a whole, and how the defending Cup champs found a way to stand tall yet again. Now, in game six, the Leafs played their best defensive game of the season. We covered it in our last video, how the Leafs had an answer for the Panthers for check. The biggest response was the rim support for Toronto off the Panthers for check and how they’re able to bypass the Panther pressure by using chips along the wall and then attacking off the rush. However, the Panthers did a few things to just totally suffocate the Leafs. First, the F3 for Florida just played a tiny bit higher in the Ozone. It is very subtle, but whatever hesitancy that the Florida Panthers D had in game six to step up, it was just completely gone because of that support by the F3 of Florida. Anytime Toronto went up the wall, Florida’s F3 was there in support for their defender. Panthers game works when it’s seamless pressure and that F3 is a big component of it. Now, the Leafs won the battle along the wall in game six, but the Panthers made it their mission to not allow that to happen in game seven and own the wall. They dared the Leafs to step out of their comfort zone and make a play into the middle of the ice. That’s something you simply can’t do cleanly against Florida when every guy is where they need to be and the D steps up to pinch. Now, the aggression isn’t perfect. It actually almost led to the detriment of the Panthers. First, watch Florida here get caught cheating along the wall. These types of plays were here to be made in the first period for Toronto. The Panthers get over aggressive anticipating the chip up the boards. They make a play into the middle and Scotty Laden is all Swedish with that finish. He can’t bury. It remains a 000 game. Same thing later as well for the Leaf’s fourth line. The Panthers seal off the wall perfectly, but that leaves the middle wide open. Tanv makes a play into the middle. It creates another breakaway, but the Leaf’s fourth line come up short again. However, the Panthers also made adjustments on how they’re dumping in the puck. In games four, five, and six, we saw Florida spam the hard run. But after losing game six and Toronto having an answer, game seven, Florida was way more methodical and calculated with their dumpins. A lot more soft chips to areas where Florida was either first to the puck or had a good chance of winning the one-on-one battle to do so. And if they did decide to do a hard rim, the Panthers would only do it if they had two players on the far side this time to counteract the support of Toronto. One man to pressure the D on the pickup and another to pressure the support. That way, Toronto can’t use the same dummy plays or chip plays they used in game six that worked as Florida would have someone directly in their face. Everywhere you look, the Leafs were just running into a wall. Now, for how aggressive Florida is, it’s actually Toronto who gets burned with their aggression first. As this play heads up ice, peak Seth Jones activating up the ice. So, now Florida has numbers. They go up the wall. Riley pinches to not give Rodriguez the red line, but he chips it by to advance the puck. And now the Panthers have an aman look. Carlo doesn’t think Martner’s going to get back in time to cover his man. So, he treats it as a twoon-one. Takes away the pass the entire time. And at this point, Martyr and Carlo don’t communicate. You basically got double coverage on the pass. Seth Jones has enough time to sit down, watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and with all this space, he makes no mistake. Now, you’re chasing the game against Florida, and that’s pretty much a losing recipe. Not to mention, the Panthers were forced the Leafs into making brutal dumping plays that often landed on the stick of Babroski. Like Florida, the Leafs rely on their forche to create offense, but they kept playing the puck either directly to Babski and in turn it allowed Florida to quickly counter. Goal number two is all that as Bob plays it quickly up for the controlled entry for Florida. Panthers go low to high, missed assignments for Toronto and Lindell is left like Kevin Mallister all home alone. Florida knew just how much Toronto wanted to use the wall. So even when Tover here gets a tiny bit of space, he goes for the bank plate. But look at how aggressive Jones is on the wall versus Knander. Just out of a cannon, out muscles him, creates a turnover. It’s 3 nothing just like that. And the wheels are falling completely off. At this point, it is three nothing. Mitch Mner’s telling everyone to wake up. Kind of ironic, but hey, Leafs hockey is all about how he can let down the fans one last time. So, of course, at the start of the third, they score an early goal to make it 3 to one, only to have Florida come back and just say, “Enough of that, kids. We’re done here.” the Panthers just with a perfect response shift from the Marshon online. Instead of the hard rim that we see, it’s another intelligent chip to the far corner. By the end of the game, these 50/50 battles turned into more like 9010 battles. The Panthers were winning every loose puck. They do what they can. They trap the wall again and loose to Rinan becomes Tippy Long Stockings. It’s 4-1. This game is over. Once again, we have three certainties in life. Death, taxes, and the Leafs losing in game seven without fail. Ladies and gentlemen, things were getting ugly near the end of the game, too. Fans are booing the team, chucking beer on the ice, jerseys being tossed, clock winds down, Florida doesn’t even celebrate, and the building is half empty. This is likely the end of a very, very disappointing era in Toronto Maple Leaf’s history. Mitch Mner was visibly emotional at the end of the game. His contract is up, and the lovehate relationship with the fan base has probably reached its tipping point for both parties. He didn’t want to comment on his future as a Leaf after the game, but a lot of past tense in his statements, so probably a see you later special for him. John Tivera, the man who left the island seven years ago, also has no contract, but he said he’d like to stay. Heard that one before. Either way, it looks like big changes are coming to the organization, or at least it should. This team has pushed its fans to the brink of insanity for how things have panned out. nine years, two playoff series wins, countless game, seven losses along with the core four turning into the snore four in the biggest games. The coach thinks the problem is between the years for the least, but in this series in particular, I think they just got outclassed. The Florida Panthers are docks. Their execution and adjustments were topnotch in this series. They came ready to play in game seven and Brad Marshon is actually now just the sole owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs. three points in game seven, eight points in this series and 5-0 all time in game sevens against the Leafs and just the ultimate troll too. Postgame, he said that Leaf fans unnecessarily beat the pressure into their team. Paul Maurice reiterated something similar as well, saying that the Leafs actually don’t deserve all the criticism and narratives that are going to come their way. Now, I’m sure the Panthers would love nothing more than the Leafs to keep running it back without a doubt. But despite them maybe feeling sorry for the Leafs in the media, they weaponized that pressure in game seven. They took away the Leafs safest options up the wall on the breakout and dared them to step out of their comfort zone and make a play into the middle of the ice. When the game is 000, the Leafs seemed a bit more willing to make these types of plays. But as they conceded the first goal, everything just tightened right up for Toronto. You can just see how the Leafs feel the pressure of the moment on home ice. They get ultra safe trying to stick to their system and bypass the Panthers up the wall. But that just further feeds into Florida’s game. The Panthers and Maurice knew that and leaned into it, especially with how things got off the rails in game five. They knew that Toronto wasn’t going to deviate from their so-called game if things went wrong. And so they leveraged that in game seven. However, if the past decade’s results indicate anything about this Toronto Maple Leaf team, it’s that their construction of this current group of core players just isn’t built for playoff success. When you look back when all these players came into the league on this team, it’s crazy to think of all the hype that came with this group. I mean, look at this magazine cover. Lee fans were planning the parade ever since they arrived. And now parade is more cancelled than ever. The Panthers move on to face the Carolina Hurricanes in round three while the Toronto Maple Leafs compact their bags and book the tea times in Cabo. So, what do you think is next for the Toronto Maple Leafs organization? Is Mner staying or leaving? Is there a big trade? Who do you think is going to win between Carolina and Florida? Let us know in your thoughts down below. 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In this video, we take a deep dive into the series between the Toronto Maple Leafs and The Florida Panthers and what happened in game 7

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