‘This one hurts more.’ Maple Leafs don’t choke, but they still lose Game 7

John Tavares raised his arms triumphantly, the Scotiabank Arena crowd roaring with jubilation at his individual effort. The Leafs captain had used his trademark puck protection ability to wait out Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy and uncork a perfectly placed wrist shot. Tavares had tied the score midway through Game 7. Maybe the moment would finally not be too big, too crushingly scary for the Toronto Maple Leafs, 18 years after their last playoff series win.

And before Tavares’ teammates could finish embracing him, the moment disappeared. Defenseman Justin Holl took an interference call on Lightning center Anthony Cirelli that referee Eric Furlatt decided had an effect on the goal.

Rug: pulled.

Not that the call, whether we agree with it or not, ended up being the deciding factor in Game 7. Perhaps the jaded, beaten down Leafs fans will believe so, that the Lightning’s 2-1 victory might’ve been a 2-2 score at the end of regulation, but there’s no way of knowing how the rest of the game would’ve played out had Toronto tied the score on Tavares’ goal at 8:32 of the second period and not on defenseman Morgan Rielly’s goal, which came at 13:25 of the second when he converted a tic-tac-toe rush with Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews.

So why mention Holl penalty at all? We’re not here to create a new postage stamp of failure for a franchise that immortalizes things that go wrong as much as things that go right, from the Kerry Fraser missed high stick of ’93 to the 4-1 third-period lead blown to Boston in ’13. But the fleeting moment of happiness symbolized just how close Game 7 was, how much every tiny little bounce or call could’ve tipped the scales the Leafs’ way. Per naturalstattrick.com, at 5-on-5 in Game 7, the Leafs finished with a 56-33 edge in shot attempts, 22-18 edge in shots on goal and 30-21 edge in scoring chances. They were pounding their fists on Round 2’s front door hoping it would finally spring open – like when goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, who stopped 30 of 31 shots and saved his two best performances for Games 6 and 7, stoned Tavares on the doorstep with the game scoreless; when Marner hit the post on a rebound with the game scoreless; or when William Nylander fought through a check at his blueline to create himself a partial breakaway with the score 1-1 in the second period, flirting with giving Toronto the lead only to lift the puck just over the crossbar.

The Lightning, meanwhile, playing their 55^th postseason contest in the past three seasons, had the poise to make just enough of the right plays in the right instances – despite losing star forward Brayden Point to a leg injury late in the first period, from which he unsuccessfully tried to return after testing it for a shift in the second. Hulking third-liner Nick Paul, who had been threatening all series without a goal, buried a chunky rebound from Leaf goaltender Jack Campbell to put Tampa up 1-0 in the first. Paul broke the deadlock again in the second, splitting through Marner and defenseman Jake Muzzin to beat Campbell with a wrist shot – right after Vasilevskiy had thwarted a Matthews chance with a blocker save.

Paul and the Bolts came up big on two specific plays. The Leafs came up big on one play. That was the paper-thin difference in Game 7 and in the entire series. The Leafs didn’t melt down like they did at the TD Garden in 2013, 2018 and 2019. They didn’t ghost like they did at home to Columbus in 2020 or fumble away the opportunity like they did against Montreal in 2021. Toronto threw everything at Vasilevskiy in the third period of Game 7, when, including power plays, the Leafs outchanced the Lightning 20-4.

But it still wasn’t enough.

The 2021-22 Leafs made progress. They smashed their franchise record for wins in a season by five and points by 10. They pushed the back-to-back defending champions to Game 7 of a series decided by one goal. It arguably constitutes a step forward. But the wound is far too fresh for the team’s core members to see that yet.

“When the outcome is the same in the playoffs, it makes it difficult to reflect on it much differently than you have in the past,” Rielly said. “But with time, I think we’ll get a chance to think a bit more clearly and try to find positives.”

“No doubt the belief is strong in this locker room and how tight it is and how hard we’re working and trying to find our way and break through,” said an emotional Tavares. “But it’s hard to deal with the circumstances right now. It’s really difficult considering the belief we had in our team and the way we played this series and how close we were.”

The Leafs held a 3-2 series lead and 3-2 third-period lead with 10 minutes left in Game 6. They outchanced Tampa in overtime of that game, too. But The Lightning got the better of them when it counted and repeated the feat Saturday. Can Toronto learn from seeing the champions handle adversity up close for seven games? Coach Sheldon Keefe said after Game 7 he admired the way the Lightning committed to team defense, clogging shooting lanes and blocking shots, especially with the lead in the third period. Matthews saw in Tampa a team that was also once maligned for its inability to break through and eventually did it.

“It’s the back to back Stanley cup champions right there,” Matthews said. “That’s a team that’s been through a lot as well, a lot of tough losses, heartbreak in the playoffs. They climbed their way to the top two years in a row. And we’re right there.”

Right there, yes. But still not there. Still a first-round loser on paper again. So what does it all mean? A year ago, the sense around the franchise was that 2021-22 was a do-or-die year, that failing to escape the opening round of the postseason would finally cause heads to roll, whether that meant breaking up the Leafs’ core of young stars, making a coaching change or removing GM Kyle Dubas. But is that still the case when Toronto pushed the champs to the brink? As Lightning coach Jon Cooper put it Saturday after the game, “It took everything to knock these guys out.”

“It’s a great hockey team, no doubt,” said Lightning captain Steven Stamkos. “They’ve got all the pieces. It’s just, it’s not easy this time of the year. We’ve talked about it as a group before. We’ve had some failures in the past, and you just move on, and you’ve just got to get over that hump. That’s the thing. Sometimes it becomes mental. It’s certainly wasn’t because they’re not worthy of it. They are. That was probably one of the toughest series we’ve played.”

As Marner put it Saturday, “We’re getting sick and tired of feeling like this,” yet the word “belief” came up again and again in postgame comments. This team didn’t crumble under the pressure of expectations. It merely lost an incredibly close series against a team that hasn’t lost a playoff round since 2019. And that’s what made this particular Game 7 defeat cut differently than the others.

“Yeah, it feels different, it hurts a little more, to be honest,” Keefe said. “Because there was so much disappointment in our failure last season. This one hurts more because this was a really good team that really played hard. And the fact that they come that close against that team? You can debate the merits of any sort of credit that you might want to give our team, but I don’t know if you debate anything you give the Tampa Bay Lightning, who they are, what they stand for, what they’ve accomplished. We’re right there standing up with them.”

Standing up with them, yes. Toronto’s offseason mission: building a team that steps past them next time.

_____

POINTSBET CANADA IS LIVE IN ONTARIO

PointsBet Canada has officially launched in Ontario! Get more details right here!

_____

‘This one hurts more.’ Maple Leafs don’t choke, but they still lose Game 7

POINTSBET CANADA IS LIVE IN ONTARIO

Recently by Matt Larkin