海角社区官网

William Nylander is hilariously skilled, and is becoming the kind of guy Patrick Kane used to be in an overtime: the kind of guy the opposing GM is absolutely terrified of every time he touches the puck, because you never know.

In the third, Rielly hit a post; Barkov hit a crossbar. Leafs deserved the tying goal, flukey as it was; Florida took their foot off the gas, and paid for it.

So now it’s overtime, and boy, would you rather be the Leafs here than the Panthers. If 海角社区官网loses, no real problem: you came close. If the Panthers lose, they’re more or less cooked.

Every hockey game is a living, moving thing, but the swings in this game have been fascinating. It’s a rhythm, traded back and forth, built puck battle by puck battle, clean pass by clean pass, building and building.

Toronto’s back in the driver’s seat right now. It could switch back. It could switch either way. And everyone is about to get a little more careful, in a 4-4 game with less than six minutes left.

Sometimes, you gotta get lucky, and this is why you throw shots at the net sometimes. Matthew Knies with a Panthers-like puck battle win; Rielly with the bank shot that hits Bobrovsky, Seth Jones, and goes in.

Win or lose, this Leafs team is pushing Florida to the edge, and if you are the Panthers, you don’t feel like you’re in control even if you get this one.

Also, Rielly has two goals and four points in the series so far.

Chris Tanev returning to the ice is a relief. The Leafs are doing fine: not overwhelming, but definitely not being overwhelmed.

Florida’s second period push is over, and now the bigger worry is they flip the tables and hit on a counterattack. But so far, the Leafs have responded.

Tanev to the room after getting mashed in the corner by Gadjovic, but it was hard to tell how exactly that may have hurt him.

Tanev, of course, may be the most irreplaceable Leaf.

You may not like the Florida Panthers - you almost certainly don’t like the Florida Panthers - but man, you have to respect this team.

Down 2-1 after one, dominate for a few minutes, take a penalty, go down 3-1, and then play a heavy, precise, desperate and controlled period.

Shot attempts at 5-on-5 in the period were Florida 20, Leafs 6; take out blocked shots and it was 12-3. Shots on goal were Panthers 8, Leafs 3, and the Panthers scored three goals to wrest back control of the game. (Thank you, Natural Stat Trick.)

And the Leafs aren’t getting to the net, and Florida is. If not for the two penalties, it could have been worse. So in the third, how hard does a Leafs team that’s up 2-0 in the series push? How hard can they push? I don’t think you want to let go of the rope here: I think win or lose, the one-sided nature of the period means 海角社区官网needs a response in the third.

Felt like that was inevitable, though the way it went in, less so. A fluttering wrist shot from 40 feet from Tomas Nosek, even partly screened, for a fourth-line goal against the Matthews line?Not great.

The Panthers have comprehensively picked up the rink and tilted it towards Toronto’s end of the ice, and maybe more importantly, they aren’t leaving themselves as open to the Leafs counters that have caused them problems in the series so far.

海角社区官网was trying to tread water for a while. Can’t keep doing that.

Well, Florida didn’t listen to me about not taking penalties: they just took their second penalty of the period, and it was not strictly necessary.

That’s the last time I try to give you advice, fellahs. (It may not be the last time I give either team advice.)

If you had to pick one horse to pull you and your one skate blade to the bench, Matthew Knies would be pretty high on the list.

This has still been a Florida period; if the Panthers stopped taking penalties they’d be in control, relatively, of this game.

Apres ca, le deluge. When that Verhaeghe goal crossed the line, Panthers had 11 shot attempts in the period at 5-on-5. The Leafs had zero.

The game is tied, and it’s tilted as much as it has tilted in the series. Florida’s playing like a championship team with its season hanging in the balance, basically.

Brandon Carlo definitely played that puck - and maybe saved a goal - with a broken stick. He may also have gloved the puck in the crease. Also, the puck may have been in the goal.

Leafs fans with good memories will chuckle darkly at Florida, which was creating one-way traffic to start the period, getting called for a pick in the offensive zone, and they will positively guffaw at the Leafs scoring on the power play on a Marner-Tavares-defenceman pinball tip.

The Panthers are having trouble getting out of their own way tonight, and 海角社区官网is taking advantage. 3-1.

The Leafs absolutely dusted the Panthers for about 10-12 minutes, and then Florida slowly wrestled the game back in their direction. But that’s the second time in the series 海角社区官网has shown an extended upper gear, and made the Panthers look a step slow.

Significant.

And again, Toronto’s top players are delivering: Matthew Knies and John Tavares scored their fifth and fourth goals of the playoffs, respectively, in the first period, and the Matthews line was territorially effective.

You keep waiting for the Panthers to hit their extended high gear, and in the second half of the period you saw more self-assured play: the Panthers are so good at winning puck battles and turning it into extended zone time when they’re on their game, and there was some of that. But that was a terrific start to a game the Leafs want to win, and the Panthers can’t afford to lose.

I mean, that was a cross-check, but in the context of the playoffs, it also felt like two minutes for making someone fall down after the cross check.

In a game where you’re caving the Panthers in, no need to give them the oxygen of a power play.听

So, that is a goal that pops in off Morgan Rielly’s stick. Live it looked like Sasha Barkov went into Superman mode, and that was only mostly true.

But at some point, this is what you expect from Florida, in theory: killer forecheck, elite puck control. I mean, they have been punched in the face already, and that can be adrenalyzing. 2-1, Leafs.

This is how it looked in Game 1, which is to say, Florida looks outclassed. The Leafs are pushing so hard, and are faster to the puck; the defence is handling the Panthers forecheck with relative ease; and then, when 海角社区官网attacks Florida looks vulnerable, like their aggressiveness is working against them.

Max Pacioretty keeps making plays, and has seven points since Game 6 in Ottawa; William Nylander now has 14 points in the playoffs, tied with Connor McDavid for second in the league to Mikko Rantanen; John Tavares makes it 2-0, Leafs. Again, this isn’t a fluke: the Leafs just look better.

It’s not that they’ve all been his fault, but it sure is like he’s been permeable. Bob has traditionally gotten better later in a series, but first the Panthers need to get deep in the series.

Matthews drives the puck deep, 海角社区官网gains control, Marner gets a puck through off a player and the post, and Matthew Knies is crashing around in the right place. 23 seconds flat. If you want to talk about how this Leafs team is different, they don’t just try to survive to start the game: they attack.

That’s noteworthy,听if only because Hildeby looked proper nervous on the bench in G1.

But playoff hockey isn’t big-sample hockey, and the bottom line for the Leafs so far is this: at 5-on-5 Morgan Rielly’s been on the ice for 10 goals for, five against.

Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner? Eight for, one against.

William Nylander and John Tavares? Eight for, three against.

Matthew Knies? Seven for, two against.

Chris Tanev? Eight for, four against.

Some of Toronto’s best players might be getting outshot and outchanced, but the combination of blocked shots, defensive structure and goaltending, and their high-end skill coming through at key moments has produced a 2-0 series lead against the defending champs.

Maybe there’s a trap door, but right now it doesn’t feel that way. But then again, when you’re getting goaltending, everything else feels foreordained. Anyway, Game 3 should be a Florida win, you’d think. But it doesn’t have to be.

The Florida Panthers are going to come heavy in Game 3. They were the better team in Game 2, but 海角社区官网cashed in on counterpunch rushes, didn’t get rattled, and did get goaltending. It was enough.

If you wanted to worry, you would look at the numbers and say, the Leafs have given up far more dangerous chances than they have gotten, but have been even in actual high-danger goals, per Natural Stat Trick; that they have the third-highest shooting percentage in the playoffs, and that could cool down; that the goaltending has been so good 鈥� third among teams left in the post-season at 5-on-5 - and that could always go sideways, too.

Yes, it feels different. The Leafs have won six of their first eight playoff games, and the Leafs hold a 2-0 series lead past the first round for the first time since 1987. So the Leafs have a chance to go up 3-0 and then perhaps to reach their first conference finals since 2002, in a conference where the other side of the Eastern draw doesn’t look too imposing. It’s enough to make you wonder

Six wins into what鈥檚 already the best playoff run of the Shanaplan era, it couldn鈥檛 be going much better for the Maple Leafs. But there鈥檝e been moments when fans will be forgiven for imagining a handful of those wins taking a turn for the worst.

For all their success, including a 2-0 series lead over the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Maple Leafs have been watching third-period leads disappear on the regular.

In Wednesday鈥檚 Game 2, for instance, 海角社区官网watched a 3-2 advantage turn to a 3-3 tie early in the final frame on a goal by Anton Lundell. For past iterations of this Leafs team, that tying goal might have turned the tide, with the Leafs proceeding to drown under the weight of a blown lead. On Wednesday it took all of 17 seconds for Mitch Marner to restore the 海角社区官网lead on the way to a 4-3 win.

It was hardly the first time this spring that the franchise with the extensive history of collapsing in the clutch found a way to meet a big moment, looking relatively comfortable in the post-season鈥檚 inevitable chaos.

Read more from the Star’s Dave Feschuk

Max Pacioretty started the playoffs in the press box.

Now it’s hard to imagine the Maple Leafs without their veteran winger punishing opposition defencemen, hounding pucks in the offensive zone and scoring important goals.

Pacioretty has found a home on Toronto’s second line alongside John Tavares and William Nylander this spring after watching his team’s first two post-season games in a suit.

Read the full report from听Joshua Clipperton of The Canadian Press

Seventeen seconds in听Game 2 against Florida. One hundred and one seconds in Game 6 against Ottawa.

It鈥檚 been lickety-split for the听Maple Leafs听to restore a game-winning one-goal lead after being scored upon in the playoffs.

The glass half-full might suggest 海角社区官网can鈥檛 hold on to an edge in the third period. But the fact is they鈥檝e nearly always surmounted a pushback by the opposition in the crunch. And they鈥檝e been doing it all year:听19 one-goal wins in the regular season versus eight losses, four times in the post-season, plus popping a pair in five late minutes to eliminate the Senators.

Read the full column from the Star’s Rosie DiManno