FORT LAUDERDALE — The Toronto Maple Leafs’ $24.2-million combination of Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, each of whom watched a turnover directly result in a Florida Panthers goal, was ghastly in Game 5’s 6-1 defeat.
Matthews hasn’t scored all series, and Marner has just one shot on goal over this current three-game losing skid.
Still, Craig Berube will keep his two most important and two most under-pressure stars together in Game 6. The Leafs’ fate hangs in the balance.
How seriously did the coach consider a split? Throwing the Cats a fresh look?
“It’s always a consideration,” Berube said Friday.
“I’ve split them up this year at times, and I never felt that it really did anything, to be honest with you. These guys have been a combo for a long time, and they’ve had a lot of success.
“So, I trust them. I trust them. I believe in them.”
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To be fair, the performance of the entire Leafs roster was uglier than a Cybertruck on Wednesday.
This team has yet to lose four straight or three in a row on the road. Friday’s hope lies in knowing they can execute better and compete harder than they’ve shown over the past four days.
Asked what went awry for his line Wednesday, Matthews widened the scope.
“The puck battles weren’t great for us as a team, and those are so important. They’re a big, heavy team, and they’re strong,” Matthews said, following morning skate in Fort Lauderdale. “I’m just going to keep shooting and keep believing that the next one’s going in.”
Marner spoke of the challenge of working for offence against the well-structured Panthers and a dialed-in Sergei Bobrovksy.
He’s thinking of ways to stretch out and break down their D-zone setup so he can filter pucks from distance for tips and rebounds.
Marner — a pending UFA, if you hadn’t heard — maintains he is focusing on the process of winning, not the implications of losing.
“I’m not thinking of the past. This is a totally new team, totally new moment. We’re excited for the moment. We know it’s not going to be an easy game. We got to make sure we bring our best,” Marner said.
How does he clear his head after a brutal night at the office like Wednesday?
“Go home and hang out with my son (Miles) and hang out with my dog (Zeus). They don’t have a clue what’s going on in this world,” Marner said. “Talking and hanging out with him and just enjoying those moments. And that’s really what matters in life, and that’s what makes you kind of forget what happens, a bad day or a good day. So, something I’m thankful for and that’s how I kind of just go home and reset and get my mind right.”
Mindset will be huge for the Maple Leafs once the sun goes down in Sunrise tonight.
“Anytime you play a team whose backs are against the wall, you never know what you’re gonna get,” Florida defenceman Nate Schmidt says.
“This is the time of year when you really find what you’re made of.”
So long, Kämpf and Robertson
Berube’s decision to remove wingers Pontus Holmberg and Calle Järnkrok for the well-rested David Kämpf and Nick Robertson in Game 5 was tentative at best.
Yes, Robertson was the only Leaf to score Wednesday, a spinning beauty in garbage time, and one of two Leafs to leave with a plus rating. But Kämpf (minus-2, 36 percent in the faceoff dot in 12:37) and Robertson (9:27) were the least-used players on Toronto’s bench.
Berube is going right back to Järnkrok and Holmberg — who jumps to John Tavares’ second line — with the season on the line.
“I liked our game with the other guys in the lineup,” Berube says. “Other guys are rested, ready to go. And we played good hockey with that lineup we have tonight.”
Depth scoring issues
While focus remains on Toronto’s underproducing big guns, and rightly so, the Maple Leafs’ bottom-six forwards and defencemen are getting outscored 11-5 by Florida’s supporting cast in this series
Anton Lundell’s “third” line has been particularly lethal.
“It really creates a mismatch,” Schmidt says.
Thing is, the Maple Leafs got by Ottawa in Round 1 on the strength of big goals from role players like Max Domi, Simon Benoit, and Max Pacioretty.
Domi and Robertson (who will be watching Game 6 from press row) are the only members of the bottom six to beat Sergei Bobrovsky in this series.
“We do need them to chip. That’s important, for sure,” Berube says. “It’s not like they’re not trying to score, you know? They just got to keep doing what they’re doing.
“But you’re right. We do need contributions from everybody.”
Panthers learning to finish the job?
Florida needed all four chances to eliminate the Edmonton Oilers in the 2024 Stanley Cup Final and narrowly dodged a historic reverse sweep.
In Round 1 of this post-season, the Cats pounced on the Tampa Bay Lightning first chance they got and went one-for-one in clinchers.
“The first lesson was against Toronto two years ago. We had a 3-0 series lead. We went home and wanted it so bad that we tried to make it happen every time we touched the puck. We were just throwing hope plays. It takes a bit of patience in the game,” coach Paul Maurice reflects.
“If you learn something, you usually don’t forget it, right? If you learn how to tie your shoes, two years later, you won’t forget. We thought we learned it two years ago, and then we forgot it for three straight games in the Final last year. It is nothing you get to keep. It is something you have to live through, and maybe you recall pieces of it.”
Schmidt says the trick is to not adapt your approach or force an impact because the result is suddenly so definitive.
“The game is going to come to you, and you have to understand and be ready for it,” Schmidt says, “but not try and go out and do something extra special.”
Brad Marchand reminds that flukes and penalties and mistakes ensure that nothing is guaranteed. Yet if Florida sticks to the gameplan it executed in Games 4 and 5, they’ll give themselves a shot.
Suck as much chance out of the outcome as possible.
“The biggest thing with this group is everyone trusts each other to do their job, and we have the trust in ourselves,” Marchand says.
“It’s just about really being extremely diligent in all areas for our structure. And we show when we do that, we’re good.”
Ekblad on fire
A very well-rested Aaron Ekblad activated down to the slot to get the Panthers on the board early in Game 5, thus extending the defenceman’s playoff point streak to five games.
A healthy Ekblad — second to Seth Jones in average ice time this series — simply slots all the blueliners more appropriately.
“It just takes the pressure off the rest of the group. It takes the pressure off (assistant coach) Sylvain Lefebvre in terms of the matchup. We have a different matchup depth. If you look at the minutes last night,” Maurice says, “we don’t have to push people outside of a normal range.
“And then he is just good. The progress Aaron has made over the last three years is remarkable in terms of changing his style of play and then excelling in that new style. He is a physical, hard-gap man. The points are secondary to how we value his game, but it is interesting, then, that he puts up more points.”
Leafs fans chirp Marchand
Marchand refused to detail the exchange he had with a couple young Leafs fans toward the end of Game 5 at Scotiabank Arena, where the shift disturber was given a misconduct and shown the door early.
“A little love,” Marchand smiled. “That’s all that was.”
Whatever the kid in the Tavares sweater said, he was pretty proud about it. Looks like he got a high-five from Mom afterward:
One-Timers: Anthony Stolarz did not fly with the Maple Leafs to Florida…. Evan Rodrigues hasn’t played since Oliver Ekman-Larsson took him out with a hard neutral-zone hit but skated Friday and continues to progress… The Panthers will stick with the same lineup that won Game 5…. Nate Schmidt and Brad Marchand ran into each other pretty good earlier this season, when the latter played for Boston. The teammates found common ground as a couple of outdoorsy types and dressing-room energy guys. The hostilities “slowly erode away” over time, Schmidt smiles. “Any time I see him, the decibel level goes up in the room.”
Maple Leafs Game 6 lineup vs. Florida Panthers:
Knies – Matthews – MarnerHolmberg – Tavares – NylanderMcMann – Domi – PaciorettyLorentz – Laughton – Järnkrok
Rielly – CarloMcCabe – TanevBenoit – Ekman-Larsson
Woll startsMurray
More from Sportsnet How the Panthers took back control of series vs. Maple Leafs‘Looks like confidence is low’: Why Maple Leafs must flip mindset for Game 6
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