The Toronto Maple Leafs earned 'Jekyll and Hyde' comparisons in the playoffs again, writes Adam Proteau. But they bounced back more often in the regular season.
Sheldon Keefe and the Toronto Maple Leafs bench follows the action in a Game 2 win.The dismal, utterly flat way the Toronto Maple Leafs played in Game 1 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series against Toronto this past Tuesday, you would’ve been forgiven for projecting they were on course to get swept against the more composed, more disciplined teams in the NHL in the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Bolts absolutely creamed the Leafs in Game 1, which was played on Toronto’s home ice, by a 7-3 score. Toronto failed in almost every element of the game: goaltender Ilya Samsonov did not have a strong performance, and neither did the Leafs’ defense corps. And at the other end of the ice, the Buds pulled within one goal of Tampa’s lead in the second period of Game 1 but never took the lead and wound up only getting their third goal of the night when it no longer mattered.
It would’ve been perfectly understandable, then, to be a Leafs fan that was hoping for the best but expecting the worst in Game 2 against the Lightning. But their best hopes turned out to be what the Leafs delivered Thursday, as Toronto pulled a 180-degree turn and demolished Tampa by a 7-2 score to even the series at one game apiece. Out of the eight playoff series currently being contested, the Leafs’ Jekyll-and-Hyde showing against the Bolts has been the most drastic and dramatic of any team. And the way things are going, Leafs fans are right to be wary that the same pattern could repeat itself for the rest of the series.
Indeed, all you have to do to see Toronto’s pattern of following up a stinker with a winning effort is look at their regular-season results. They lost at least three games in a row just once this season – a four-game losing skid that happened within their first 10 games of the year. But the last time they lost two straight games was March 15, and they finished the regular season on a 10-3-2 run.
Far more often than not, Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe figured out how to keep his team on a quick rebound after a defeat, and that’s exactly what happened in Game 2 on Thursday.
From the beginning of the game, the Leafs dominated the Lightning and never gave the visiting side a true opening to try and even up the score, let alone get on the winning side of the ledger.
With the series moving to Florida for the next two games, the Leafs’ challenge is clear: win Game 3 Saturday and put themselves in position to secure a commanding 3-1 series lead in Game 4 Monday, or put themselves behind the eightball by losing Game 3 and being in almost a must-win spot.
Really, you can see them going both ways, can’t you? Nobody is going to count out the Lightning, even if they are injury-depleted and not nearly as deep as the team that won the Eastern Conference post-season last spring.
There’s still enough talent for Tampa Bay to get back to their Game 1 form and put Toronto on the ropes. But you can also see the Bolts disheartened and lacking in confidence after the Leafs’ thorough beating of them in Game 2. If they don’t have star D-man Victor Hedman in the lineup for the second straight game, the Lightning will have even bigger odds stacked against them.
But there’s every chance the Leafs can lay an egg in a game they should win. That has happened during the regular season when they lost to teams far beneath them in the standings – Arizona, Montreal, that type of bottom feeder this year. Toronto tends to play up or down to the level of their competition, and it’s certainly within the realm of possibility that happens again in the next couple of games.
When the Leafs are at their very best, they can be the best team in the league – yes, even better than Boston. But there are so many mitigating factors for them that it’s never advisable to bet the house on them, one way or the other.
From night to night, they’re unpredictable, and the difference between how good they can be and how bad they can be is the largest difference between any team still playing. Saying you know how they’re going to respond on any given night is simply not telling the truth.
The truth is, nobody knows, and that’s simultaneously a source of hope and fear for Leafs fans for the foreseeable future.