The Maple Leafs’ stars have disappeared – and it’s probably too late for redemption

Credit: Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner (© James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports)

The Joseph Woll narrative was right there. ‘Rookie enters playoff game, saves Toronto Maple Leafs’ bacon.’ And for a while, it looked like it just might happen in Game 3 between the Leafs and Florida Panthers at FLA Live Arena. But it wasn’t to be Sunday, and Woll wasn’t to blame.

It’s hard not to get romantic about the idea of a rookie goaltender, called into action in the middle of the Stanley Cup playoffs, changing his team’s fate. Cam Ward is the famous example most people cite, having taken the 2005-06 Carolina Hurricanes to a Stanley Cup. The Toronto Maple Leafs are never a team lacking for drama, nor are their fans lacking for hyperbolic intensity, so, yes, it was an event when Woll, the team’s top goaltending prospect who excelled late in the regular season, was suddenly called into duty early in the second period of Game 3 with while Toronto held a 1-0 lead. After Leafs defenseman Luke Schenn and Panthers left winger Carter Verhaeghe got tangled up, the hulking Schenn tumbled into starting Leafs netminder Ilya Samsonov, appearing to catch him in the head and shoulder and knocking him out of the contest.

Woll entered with the unenviable task of killing a fresh penalty and was then hung out to dry on an Anthony Duclair breakaway for the tying goal. Not ideal. After the Leafs took a 2-1 lead when blueliner Erik Gustafsson bounced a pass off Marc Staal into Florida’s net for an own-goal, the pinball machine paid Florida back on a deflection off Verhaeghe’s backside to knot the game 2-2. But Woll settled in after that, stopping a second Duclair breakaway and coming up big with a pair of saves during a late-period penalty kill.

Woll kept the Leafs alive with an excellent third period in which he made several game-saving stops, the best coming on Duclair and Sam Bennett. And it was all the off-brand Leafs giving them a lift Sunday. Another new addition to the lineup, Gustafsson, had Toronto’s second goal. And the Leafs’ two-man fourth line of David Kampf and Sam Lafferty played easily their best game of the playoffs, with Lafferty burying the opening goal and Kampf going 13-1 on faceoffs.

But it’s not always the best omen when a team’s backup goaltender, fourth liner and seventh defenseman are the biggest contributors. The plan simply isn’t sustainable. And when coach Sheldon Keefe passively started his third line to open overtime, pretty much telegraphing a “play not to lose” mentality, it didn’t bode well for his confidence in his top-six forward group. At 3:02 of overtime, Sam Reinhart weaved his way through three Leafs and beat Woll on a wraparound through the five-hole before he was set, ending the game to open up a 3-0 series lead for Florida.

In no way was the loss on Woll. Flashing in big, neon lights is the fact Toronto’s marquee forwards simply haven’t been good enough in this series. Auston Matthews dinged a shot off the crossbar in the Game 3’s opening minute, but it was mostly hibernation for Toronto’s top players after that. The Panthers held a check-to-make-sure-it’s-not-a-typo advantage of 18-4 in scoring chances at 5-on-5 against Selke Trophy finalist Marner Sunday night. The margin was 18-7 against Matthews. Those are embarrassing results for two world-class players.

“I feel like we’ve had good chances, a couple of posts, things just aren’t falling,” Matthews told reporters Sunday. “We don’t want to get discouraged. (But) we’re in a tough spot, it’s do or die now.”

Sure, one could point to Bobrovsky’s excellent goaltending or the fact the Leafs had zero power plays in Game 3 as the reason they trail 3-0 in the series. Keefe suggested to reporters after the loss that “It’s a team game,” protecting his stars. But that’s poppycock. The Leafs’ stars are the problem. They have simply disappeared, with the exception of William Nylander, who has easily been their best forward in the series and had a 14-4 scoring chance advantage on-ice at 5-on-5 in Game 3.

The primary reason Toronto pushed through the Tampa Bay Lightning in Round 1 was its stars’ ability to elevate in crucial moments. Marner set the tone for the Leafs’ win with a goal 47 seconds into Game 2. Morgan Rielly had the overtime winner in Game 3 and tying goal in Game 4. Auston Matthews took over Game 4 with two third-period goals in the Leafs’ rally from a four-goal deficit. Tavares delivered the series-clinching overtime goal in Game 6. The ~~‘core four~~’ core five of Marner, Matthews, Tavares, Nylander and defenseman Morgan Rielly have combined for 0.0 goals against Florida. The only Leafs to bulge the twine in the series thus far are now-injured rookie Matthew Knies, Lafferty, Gustavsson, Ryan O’Reilly, Michael Bunting and Alexander Kerfoot.

Keefe has been a step too late with his adjustments in his series, having chosen not to split up Marner and Matthews in Game 3 and then mothballing them to start the overtime. And if their coach can’t find a way to optimize their production, the Leafs’ best players have to take matters into their own hands and find a way to create something themselves.

The problem is: it’s more than likely too late. Matthews or Marner could be Mark Messier incarnate in Game 4 and it probably won’t matter. Only four teams in the 105-year history of the NHL have come back from 3-0 deficits to win playoff series. The moment for Toronto’s icons to step up came – and went – in Game 3.

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The Maple Leafs’ stars have disappeared – and it’s probably too late for redemption

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