The Toronto Maple Leafs entered Wednesday’s matchup in opposition to their Atlantic Division rival Florida Panthers on a little bit of a sizzling streak with out their captain within the lineup. In reality, the story early on for the Maple Leafs this season has been their have to dive into their depth with quite a few starters out of the lineup.
Properly, on Wednesday, the Maple Leafs added insult to extra damage when Bobby McMann was pressured to go away the sport in opposition to the Panthers whereas those self same Panthers went on beat the depleted Maple Leafs with a 5-1 victory.
As for the Panthers, the story was their particular groups as they received it executed at even power, on the powerplay and whereas killing penalties as effectively. In reality, the Panthers had a objective in all conditions in opposition to their former teammate, Anthony Stolarz, who didn’t appear fairly just like the Stolarz we’ve seen this season.
For individuals who missed it, although, right here’s a fast rewind on the Panthers’ newest victory.
Panthers’ Particular Groups Have been the Story
It took just below 5 minutes for the Panthers to leap into the lead and it got here on the powerplay as Aleksander Barkov ripped a one-timer previous Stolarz for his fifth of the season. Lower than a minute later, Mackie Samoskevich scored his fourth at even power to place the Panthers up 2-0 — a lead that the Maple Leafs wouldn’t have the ability to come again from.
Associated: How NHL Groups Are Navigating the Damage Bug This Season
The Maple Leafs opened the second with some robust play, however with just below three minutes left within the body, it was a Sam Reinhart shorthanded objective that put the dagger within the away workforce. The Panthers added one other powerplay objective within the third interval together with an empty-netter to cap it off and whereas Mitch Marner was ready so as to add a powerplay objective of his personal within the second body, it was the Panthers’ particular groups that drove the tempo of play.
At instances, the sport didn’t seem to be a 5-1 recreation, however the scoreboard did inform a distinct story for the Maple Leafs.
Maple Leafs Lose McMann
As for the continued assessments the Maple Leafs have been pressured to face this season by way of their depth, the workforce performed the third interval with out McMann who left the sport with a lower-body damage.
He turns into the eighth ahead on the Maple Leafs to be out with an damage and whereas there was no actual replace after the sport, head coach Craig Berube did say that he was day-to-day and that they might re-evaluate on Thursday.
It was clear on Wednesday that the Maple Leafs are missing depth scoring, however how a lot of that may be attributed to their accidents? Properly, with Max Domi, Auston Matthews, Matthew Knies amongst others out, it’s clear that the Maple Leafs have some inexperience within the lineup.
“It’s irritating, however hopefully we get some guys coming again right here subsequent recreation,” stated Berube relating to the workforce’s unhealthy luck with the damage bug this season following the loss.
Stolarz Takes the Warmth
Forward of the sport, three former members of the Panthers’ acquired their Stanley Cup rings from the workforce — together with Stolarz, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Steven Lorentz.
Whereas it was an thrilling second for the trio, who have been all function gamers on final season’s Cup-winning workforce, Stolarz admits he would’ve favored to see a distinct consequence for his membership.
“Feelings have been excessive, however we clearly would have favored a distinct consequence particularly early on for me,” stated the Maple Leafs’ goalie. “I believe I may have made a type of saves early and saved it a bit of tighter. You look on the opposite finish, and [Bobrovsky] was making some saves to maintain them with a two-goal lead.”
Stolarz stopped 19 of the 23 photographs he confronted and completed with an .826 save proportion and a 4.14 objectives in opposition to common — which is, by far, his worst outing of the season.
The Maple Leafs will look to rebound on Saturday evening once they tackle the Tampa Bay Lighting in Tampa, whereas the Panthers will look to make it back-to-back wins in opposition to the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday after snapping their four-game skid.
