As the boys on Hockey Night in Canada presented Sunday night during the second intermission of the Toronto-Florida match-up (Game 4), we’ve hit the doldrums stage of the 2025 post-season.
I get it. This is the time in the playoffs when a grand chunk of viewers, media and – to some much smaller extent – the skaters are beyond over-stimulation and egregious excitement and in to an-almost state of ‘settling in.’
Well, make that almost all.
Certainly, that’s not the case in Toronto where the noose tightens once again on an organization whose recent ventures past the regular schedule have posted limp results.
Believe this – Toronto never sleeps. Insomnia rules and will continue to be king until this team turns a significant corner. And for the Toronto Maple Leafs and their nation-load of followers, that corner means nothing less than a trip to the final.
(Apologies if this sounds redundant. After all, weren’t we saying the same thing around this juncture of the Toronto-Ottawa series?).
Florida’s Panthers obviously have a separate set of standards though. Yeesh, the team has been to back-to-back finales and took home top prize last year.
Pressure?
What pressure?
Few expected or expect the Panthers to get to the promised land one more time (and for the third consecutive season to boot). The playoff grind is just that tough. Takes the stuffing out of you. But the Cats sit just six wins away from a return trip.
It didn’t have to be that way, Toronto.
Netminder Joe Woll – and the back-up netminder at that – gave his team a game for the ages Sunday night. Spectacular stop after stop, Woll had his team down by just a single goal heading into the third period.
So, where were the rest of the guys to pick up the pace and give their goalie his just due for a job well done?
To sum it up, Sunday’s 2-0 loss was easily Toronto’s worst game of the playoffs; the Leafs worst game in recent memory.
Head coach Craig Berube was oh so kind. Too kind, maybe.
“I thought most guys were engaged,” Berube said after the game. “There are guys who could do more for sure, and we’ll need more out of them. We’ll figure that out.”
That’s what makes Wednesday night’s Game 5 back in Toronto so intriguing. Will we see the Berube rendition of the Buds: calm, cool and composed? The team that time and again has bounced back from challenging outcomes all year long? Or do we see what generally the hockey world has become used to – Toronto morphing into Charlie Brown trying to kick the football?
“We knew it wasn’t gonna be easy,” Toronto captain Auston Matthews said. “We’re playing the defending Cup champs.”
THOUGHT, SEEN AND HEARD: Matthews strikes me as being kind of an odd duck – not much seems to tick him off when clearly it should . . . They calculate pretty much everything these days in hockey. ‘Missed shots’ is a new one for me and not surprisingly, Matthews leads the way with 20 in the playoffs . . . The ticket on Mitch Marner (pending free agent) keeps rising in cost. With the exception of William Nylander at times, Marner’s been Toronto’s best player and leader . . . When Dallas does the inevitable and puts down the Winnipeg Jets, do they send Hallmark thank-you cards to the St. Louis Blues? . . . The Blues played Florida-style hockey in that opening set and the bruising play’s taken the starch right out of the Presidents’ Trophy winners . . . Speaking on walking wounded – newsflash: Matthew Tkachuk is playing at about 50 per cent, if that . . . You heard it here first . . . OK, maybe 2,376th . . . As much as opposition fan bases get their shorts in knots over the rambunctious, on-the-edge play of Brady Tkachuk in Ottawa, he simply doesn’t compare to Matthew in rat-ability . . . The older Tkachuk plays the game much more over-the-edge than Brady. By that we mean – he’s irritating, annoying and dangerous . . . In my day, Matthew would be the kid in the back of the class with a case-full of spitballs who sticks his chewing gum under the desk . . . Tim Stutzle missed the opening two games for Germany at the world championship but is expected in the lineup on Tuesday, reports Postmedia . . . Stutzle joins Ottawa teammates Shane Pinto (USA) and Nik Matinpalo (Finland) at the championship . . . The NHL entry draft is slated for June 27th and 28th in Los Angeles . . . Ottawa is holding onto its pick which will be 21st overall . . . The NY Islanders will select first in what is being hailed as one of the weaker drafts in the past decade.
thegrossgame@yahoo.com
