You can’t playoff like it’s 1984.
But maybe like it’s 1967?
The Florida Panthers may be an anachronism — throwbacks of menace and mayhem, though still pussycats compared to, say, the Broad Street Bullies of the mid-70s — but matching them bushwhack for bushwhack or getting lured into revenge hockey is a mug’s game in today’s NHL playoffs.
It may be giving Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube agita, given his own adherence to The Code as a player – tit-for-tat roughhousing as required, immediate payback for a harmed teammate. But he cautioned and re-cautioned his crew against retributive conduct. Smart enough to know that would be sliding right into the hands of his opposing number, Paul Maurice.
Don’t turn the other cheek but let the Panthers kiss your arse, preferably from the penalty box.
However rattled by the blow to the brainpan of Anthony Stolarz — likely concussed and who knows when again fit for duty — the mostly grimly disciplined Leafs put their faith in Joseph Woll, No. 2 in Toronto’s superb one-two goaltending tandem. Third year in a row he’s been summoned in post-season relief of injured net bros. And he pulled out 25 saves on 28 shots as pc28put the boot to Florida 4-3 at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday night, taking a 2-0 lead in their Atlantic Division second-round wrangle.
“Joey just comes in with such a calming presence,” said Mitch Marner, who scored the winning goal in what the new dad called “a whirlwind” week. “There’s never any worry with either guy in net.”
And what was going through 26-year-old Woll’s mind, especially in the chaos of the final 10 minutes, last two with the Florida net vacated for an extra attacker?
“Not a whole lot. Just trying to stay in the moment, stick to my process.”
A tad anticlimactic, per verbiage anyway, compared to a couple of gobsmacking saves in the crunch. “I thought the team was great in front of me. It’s special to see … the guys putting their bodies on the line, forwards and defencemen.”
What nobody was expecting, what Berube doubtless did not X ‘n’ O on the whiteboard, was how to avoid the stumble-bumbles. Which is what the Leafs displayed during a huge chunk of the opening period, amidst at least four giveaways and numerous brain-dead passes. To the effect that a pair of power plays came and went with no impairment to the visitors. On the first, Leafs had two shots — one less than the penalty-killing Panthers. They have one mood, one posture: aggressive.
Like Aaron Ekblad, restored to the lineup after completing his two game-suspension for knocking Tampa Bay’s Brandon Hagel into concussion orbit in the opening round, taking out Woll’s feet behind the net.
With Bobby McMann cooling his heels for a stapling thump on Brad Marchand — clean, for criminy sake, maybe drawing a violation merely for sound effect — Florida needed only five seconds of man advantage before Aleksander Barkov gave the Panthers their first lead of the series, beating Woll with a quick shot from the top of the circle.
A dopey flip of the puck over the glass awarded pc28a third power play in the period, with the crowd getting testy over way too many errant shots and seeming reluctance to shoot, for all Berube’s urging. Max Pacioretty — worth his weight in silver in the post-season — took two whacks at the puck on the crease because he apparently wasn’t sure (nor was anyone) if the first one had done the job. The ref appeared to be in the process of raising his arm to indicate the PPG — under the crossbar— when Pacioretty gave it another smack off the boing into the gaping open net behind Sergei Bobrovsky at 18:19.
Fifteen seconds into the second frame is all it took for Marchand to further entrench local hostility, availing himself of another turnover. And yet another cough-up just barely ducked a few minutes later when Simon Benoit bounced the puck out into the slot in front of Woll. But both Pacioretty and Nylander giddy-upped all the way down the ice. Nylander took Pacioretty’s pass off his skate, then chipped it on the backhand past Bobrovsky. Knotted 2-2.
Coaches can’t say this but I can: The officiating was atrocious throughout.
The second period did get far more hotheaded, kind of a cockfight really, but the Leafs side-stepped most of their bloops. With 2:25 left, Max Domi buried a nice feed from Steve Lorentz and Bob’s-your-uncle, 3-2.
Woll got stronger as the game progressed, including a magnificent stop on Marchand and a stunner off Mackie Samoskevich. Not his fault when Anton Lundell was left unmolested abreast of the cage early in the third, pulling Florida even once more. But lickety-split, Marner restored the lead on a yowza shot from the high boards that caught Bobrovsky cross-eyed.
It felt like this back-and-forth ragged-around-the-edges hockey could go on ad infinitum. Leafs didn’t crack though.
Last sighting of Stolarz he was vomiting into a bucket at the Leafs bench. Whether the damage was caused by a slapshot off his forehead in the first period that sent his mask flying or the elbow to his head later flung by Sam Bennett remains unclear. But two severe cracks to the cranium has rendered Stolarz a bystander.
Get well card from Woll: I got you.
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