SIMMONS: Sleepy Maple Leafs not sharp enough in Game 1 loss to Panthers (2024)

There was anticipation in the air, inside and outside a noisy Scotiabank Arena, but mostly there was nervousness on the ice.

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Nervousness and sloppiness. Nervousness and too much open ice. This wasn’t the kind of beginning the Maple Leafs were looking for against the Florida Panthers, being here in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time in 19 years. This wasn’t the kind of beginning, with a city all ready to go where it hasn’t gone before.

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But the game didn’t look right, really from the beginning. It didn’t feel right for most of the night. There was too much open ice. There was too much gambling on the part of the Leafs. There was not enough energy, not enough intensity.

“They did to us what they did to Boston,” said coach Sheldon Keefe.

The Panthers won their fourth game in a row. They’ve scored 19 goals in four games. They made it look occasionally easy and natural offensively.

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And the opportunity was there for the Leafs. They just didn’t take advantage of it.

There was not nearly enough top-of-the-roster terrific play — the kind of work you require in the playoffs in order to succeed. And really, there wasn’t enough quality from the bottom of the roster.

Some nights you don’t play well enough to win a playoff game and the Leafs didn’t play well enough to win this one. It wasn’t a drubbing, like the opening game against Tampa Bay in the previous round. It was a game with some possibilities. It was a game with occasional hope, just not enough of it. And it was a game that looked for only about three minutes like the Leafs were going to win.

But when you’re playing 60 minutes and you get behind 2-0 early in the second period and you come back and tie the game in the next seven minutes, that’s when it’s time to take advantage. That’s when it’s time to utilize the home crowd and jump into the lead. The opportunity was there for the Leafs.

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They allowed it to slip away with the realization — Tuesday night and certainly via video sessions on Wednesday morning — that they have to find a better way to handle Matthew Tkachuk, who was expected to be the most impactful player in the series and he didn’t waste any time becoming that.

Tkachuk made Mitch Marner look weak defensively on a night the Leafs winger was nominated for the NHL award for best defensive forward when he set up Florida’s first goal. He was then in on Florida’s second goal — this one by the former GTHL Marlie Sam Bennett. On a delayed penalty in the third period — with the game still in doubt — it was Tkachuk’s pass to Brandon Montour that made it 4-2 Panthers.

That was basically it for Game 1. Tkachuk had three points, a game-high nine hits, and three shots on goal. H even was rocked a few times — still being the highly skilled pest when he needed to be.

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Tkachuk had three points. Marner, Auston Matthews, William Nylander, John Tavares — the Core Four — combined for one point. That was Game 1. That was the night.

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The Leafs didn’t respond well to the crowd. They didn’t respond all that well to the speed of the Panthers. They seemed too willing to make big hits, leaving themselves vulnerable in the process.

“I thought we made mistakes,” said Keefe.

This isn’t the way the Leafs succeed at their best. They play a cleaner game than they played Tuesday night. They take care of details far better than they managed in Game 1. Keefe talked about letting players “get on the inside” in the defensive zone and he talked afterward about a “lack of communication” on loose pucks.

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“And we gave up a breakaway to the one guy you don’t want to give a breakaway to (Carter Verhaeghe). We cannot make that mistake,” he said.

This isn’t at all like the first round against Tampa Bay. Florida is faster and more skilled up front, weaker in the back end, and probably weaker in goal. Toronto had chances to score on Sergei Bobrovsky, who played well enough to make stops on shots that mostly weren’t good enough.

On some nights like this, Matthews might be talking about scoring two or three goals instead of having none. He had the chances. He missed some, and was stopped on some. But there was a certain sharpness missing. Across the board for the Leafs.

And now the battle becomes all the more challenging. Even if winning Game 1 seemed to mean almost nothing in the first round of the playoffs.

“I thought we were good tonight,” said Panthers coach Paul Maurice. “I didn’t think we were great.”

That should bother the Leafs. They lost on a night the Panthers weren’t great. That’s not how you want to begin something new.

ssimmons@postmedia.com

twitter.com/simmonssteve

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