Inside the cavernous confines of the Ford Performance Centre on a cloudless Thursday morning, the few Maple Leafs players and personnel in the building were left to pick up the pieces of a crushing 6-1 loss聽to the Florida Panthers and adjust to the reality of having their backs against the wall for the first time this NHL post-season.
Head coach Craig Berube was blunt in his assessment of what went wrong in Game 5 of their best-of-seven series Wednesday night that put his team in a 3-2 hole: The Leafs were constantly overthinking their play.聽
鈥淲e didn’t move our feet, we didn’t compete. We were tentative in the game, you can’t play like that,鈥 Berube said. 鈥淲e’ll be a lot better in Game 6.鈥
When asked how the team responded to a smattering of boos and a jersey thrown on the ice, Leafs defenceman Brandon Carlo said 鈥渢here’s going to be ups and downs鈥 and called the passionate fan base 鈥渙ne of the greatest things鈥 about playing in Toronto.聽
鈥(The fans) have the right to do what they want to do,鈥 added defenceman Morgan Rielly, who has played more games in a Leafs uniform than any player on the roster. 鈥淔or us, we need to improve and play better. We expect to have a team that is going to go out there and win and compete, and when that doesn’t happen, everyone’s upset.鈥
鈥淚’m not focused on the fans, I’m focused on our team,鈥 Berube said.聽
A series that once seemed well in hand for the Leafs is now seriously in doubt after the Panthers’ 6-1 win in a pivotal Game 5 on Wednesday night.
A series that once seemed well in hand for the Leafs is now seriously in doubt after the Panthers’ 6-1 win in a pivotal Game 5 on Wednesday night.
Stolarz unlikely to travel to Florida
Anthony Stolarz skated聽Thursday morning, first on his own and then with the team’s Black Aces, the healthy scratches.
Still, Berube doubted the team’s No. 1 goaltender would travel with the team to Florida for Game 6 Friday night.聽
In Stolarz’s absence, Joseph Woll has posted a 4.02 goals-against average and an .877 save percentage.
Matt Murray, who appeared in just two regular-season games, also made an appearance聽in relief of Woll in the third period of Game 5.聽
Leafs need to get to Bobrovsky
Berube stressed the need for the team to pressure Panthers netminder Sergei Bobrovsky, who rebounded after a rough start to the series to stop all 23 Leafs shots in Game 4 and 31 of 32 shots in Game 5.聽
鈥淲e have to do a better job of making life more miserable on their goalie,鈥 Berube said. 鈥淭his guy’s a good goalie, he’s a first-save goalie. He makes saves and he’s an effort goalie, so we’re going to have to out-compete the goalie.鈥澛
What are the Leafs made of? What can they salvage? What can they prove in Game 6? Their season
Panthers fresh
The Panthers exuded cautious confidence Thursday, with head coach Paul Maurice calling the team 鈥渁s fresh 鈥 right now as we’ve been all year.”聽
鈥淚t’s been a tight series, still is,鈥 Florida defenceman Gustav Forsling said. 鈥淚t’s a lot of patience in our game. We don’t need to score two or three or four goals in the first period. We want to stay with it and play our game, and we know we’re usually getting the result we want.鈥
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