The Toronto Maple Leafs face the prospect of a first round elimination at the hands of the Montreal Canadiens in Game 7 at Scotiabank Arena on Monday and as well as Carey Price, Nick Suzuki, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Cole Caufield and the Habs club have played over the last couple weeks, the reason that this series has reached a seventh and deciding game is due to the failures of the heavily favored Leafs.
This current incarnation of the Maple Leafs is not the club that forced the Bruins to Game 7 in 2013, 2018 and 2019 or that went to a deciding game against Columbus in the bubble last August. Toronto does not have the excuse of bad goaltending, as Jack Campbell has performed admirably in the series, a porous defense with disasters like Jake Gardiner and Martin Marincin giving up the puck, as veterans TJ Brodie and Zach Bogosian have provided experience and stability to the blueline, or lack of depth at forward, with veterans Nick Foligno, Wayne Simmonds, Alex Galchenyuk and Jason Spezza providing quality minutes.
Their shortcomings have been the inability of top liners Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner to break through offensively against a Montreal club built for playoff-style defensive hockey and the failure of their talent-laden power play to produce.
The criticism of the on-ice performances of Matthews and Marner based on their regular season production and salaries is justified, but not to the point of attacking their character and qualities as people as has occurred on social media in the last few days. There is probably no one in the city of Toronto who wants to come through in Game 7 more than the Leafs dynamic duo, it is just a question of whether can they do it.
“When you come off of the loss the other night, it's tough to come down from that, tough to go through the recap of what had happened, and then how to prepare your team the next day. It's tough to find time and get in the right frame of mind to be able to get appropriate rest and sleep. That's all part of going through the playoffs.” Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said. I've coached in a number of game sevens and elimination games before throughout my career. In fact, I was reminded this morning, I had somewhat forgotten, that the year we won the Calder Cup with the Marlies, best-of-five first round, we were up 2-0 in the series and lost two to force a game five
on home ice in the first round. That was a pretty anxious time, but we found our way through that and went on to win the Calder Cup.”
The task of advancing to the second round became a little tougher for Toronto, as head coach Sheldon Keefe revealed that defenseman Jake Muzzin will be out a minimum of three weeks with a lower body injury.
Muzzin left in the second period of Game 6 after suffering what appeared to be a groin injury and his absence will be felt as a matchup defender against Montreal’s top forwards and clearing the front of the net on the penalty kill, but the length of the recovery will likely keep the Leafs blueliner out for the entire second round series with Winnipeg if Toronto advances.
Keefe indicated that Rasmus Sandin will replace Muzzin in the lineup for Game 7, with Travis Dermott moving up into the top four to pair with Justin Holl. It should be expected that Sandin will play the point on one of the Toronto power play units, most likely the first to lessen the load on Morgan Rielly, who will probably play heavy minutes in the absence of Muzzin.
*******If you are interested in sponsorship or advertising your business in the Greater Toronto / Southern Ontario area on this column, please send a message for more information by clicking on the “Contact” button at the top of the page.*******
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»