After each game in the series, I tasked myself with finding one positive and one negative takeaway from each game to the beginning. You might be asking yourself, “How is John going to find something negative about the first game?” But I assure you, I am a pessimistic black belt and can get the job done. However, I feel starting with some optimism might be the best course of action today.
+: Jarnkrok on the top line seems to be an improvement
I might have arrived by going with the Leafs’ third on a 7-3 blowout as the positive, but once Michael Bunting managed to throw himself out of Game One (a thoughtful tribute to Nazim Kadri) Sheldon Cave managed to get Jarnkrok back with Matthews and Marner. The fact that they click so aggressively is definitely a plus and we’d have to assume that’s a worthwhile move on the other side of the puck as well. Having Jarnkrok-Matthews-Marner as a line that can be completely trusted in all situations and provides the Leafs with a line that can excel at home and on the road, a line that will be matched and a line that can be matched is a huge plus. Quite simply as long as they are not tired you can throw them back onto the ice.
Bunting has taken himself out of the equation, although it’s still better if he doesn’t get suspended and Toronto can count on him for a possible third line situation maybe give Ryan O’Reilly a chance with him, but I’ll hold off on that for now because we don’t know when we’ll see Bunting once again.
Potential Bunting suspension also opens the door for Matthew Knies and again I’m sure we’d much rather see Knies come in for someone else than 20 goals the kid will get his shot as a result of that a little bit of an unknown in the lineup rather than bring the extraordinary depth of the bottom six he’s on Least little reason for optimism.
Sheldon: How he dropped the ball and that set the tone for the game
Debating how much influence a coach can have on a game is something for another day, but it’s safe to say that in the first period, especially, Sheldon Keefe seemed clueless about matching his streak and ignoring the fact that the Leafs were at their best. The season in which the team sets the pace, not the people interacting with other teams.
Let’s start with ice time. Auston Matthews played under 18 minutes last night, even when the game was completely sideways. This is the playoffs and you want to give your best players the chance to play their way out of it to set the tone for the next game. It would be one thing if only Auston was getting the treatment, but William Nylander had seven minutes through the first two periods and finished the night 16 minutes short. John Tavares had less than 15 minutes, and if it weren’t for his nearly 5 minutes of playing time, anyone’s guess what he would have seen during the icebreaker.
Now, all of those 3 aforementioned players are not penalty killers and Leafs has been reduced 8 times including the main 5 minutes in Bunting. This then raises an important point which is why punish yourself twice? Do you have one player in the penalty area and deliberately take your best players off the ice? Tavares may not be well suited to the penalty spot, but Nylander has made PK changes and Matthews is more than capable of adding value there as well.
Noel Acciari and Alex Kerfoot used more in 5v5 than Tavares or Nylander. I don’t know how you can take this as anything other than bad training.
Plus, you can look at the Leafs starting the game and wonder why Keefe didn’t call a time out to try to calm his team down. I don’t doubt he said something worthwhile in the halftime as the Leafs at least got a dead cat bounce on the opening kickoff of the second half, but the game was lost early and something could have been done to prevent that.
There’s also the goal challenge on Bury’s goal that looked like Keefe was intentional and handed his team an extra slight penalty to deal with while they were already struggling to kill Major for five minutes. I had hoped the coach would be the calming presence or voice of reason at times like this, but it was a definite throw in the towel moment.
So where does the Lives go from here with Keefe? They’re obviously not going to take on Spencer Carberry, and honestly, while I’m not Keefe’s biggest fan, he’s clearly not a bad coach like the one he coached last night.
The truth is, the Leafs need to look at what works for them in the regular season and try to get back to that form. Add a little more intensity to it but get the leaves ready to play their way. Toronto needs to dictate how the game is played and have other teams respond to it and if we see that, then Toronto has a fighting chance.
John Cooper will beat Sheldon Cave 4 times out of 7 if Toronto tries to complicate things. The simple skill of Leafs and putting star players on the ice seems like the safest course of action.
For what it’s worth, the Leafs lost 7-3 to the Lightning in last year’s playoffs, too. Toronto responded by winning 4-3. Nothing finished.