Mirtle: 5 reasons the Maple Leafs have the defending champs on the ropes

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TORONTO — Two playoff wins in the second round. A 6-2 start to the postseason.

Trumpeting those stats might sound odd in some NHL markets, but it’s been a good while since any of this has happened in this city. In fact, the Toronto Maple Leafs have only started the postseason with six wins in their first eight playoff games twice in the modern era, in 1987 and 2001.

In a span of 58 years.

In fact, this is the first time the Leafs are up 2-0 in a series that isn’t in the first round since 1987!

There’s still miles to go, obviously. The Florida Panthers remain the defending champs and they have yet to play a game at home. They were the favorites coming in for a reason. And even though the Leafs are up 2-0 in the series, both games have been a battle decided by a single goal. No one expects Aleksander Barkov and company to go quietly.

But as the series heads to Sunrise for Game 3 on Friday, I think it’s worth taking a moment to appreciate how the Leafs have pushed to here, a place this core group of players has never been, and to take a closer look at how they’ve done it.

1. Nylander has been a star 

All the buildup and apprehension that this series might look like when the Leafs were trounced by the Panthers two years ago dissipated rather quickly when William Nylander ripped two pucks past Sergei Bobrovsky in the first 13 minutes of Game 1 on Monday night.

Nylander followed up that brilliant performance with another huge goal in Game 2, scoring on a play maybe a handful of players in the world could convert on in that situation.

He now has six goals and 13 points in eight games, trailing only Dallas’ Mikko Rantanen leaguewide in the scoring race. Nylander is doing things that haven’t happened in Toronto in a very, very long time, including 1.63 points per game, which is the best for a Leaf in the playoffs since Doug Gilmour in 1993. (Which, let’s just say, a few people remember in these parts.)

“There is no too big a stage for this guy,” head coach Craig Berube said. “He thrives on this stuff. He looks forward to it. He wants to be in all of those critical situations.”

And it’s not just this year. Nylander has pulled away from the other members of the Core Four in general in playoff production, with 21 goals in the last five postseasons. It’s a nearly 50-goal pace over 82 games and eight better than anyone else for Toronto.

Among NHL players with at least 30 playoff games played in that span, only Nathan MacKinnon has a better goal-per-game average.

There aren’t any demons here.

Matthew Knies beats Sergei Bobrovsky in Game 1. (John E. Sokolowski / Imagn Images)

2. They’re getting to Bobrovsky 

I wouldn’t peg the Panthers’ 2-0 hole entirely on their multi-Vezina winning netminder, but the Russian Gumby has been beatable so far. He’s allowed nine goals in two games, which is far more than the most optimistic Leafs fan would have predicted, and seemed to get off his game on Wednesday as the traffic and physicality picked up around him in Game 2.

The stats websites have the Panthers up considerably in high-danger chances so far (31-18 by this count), but it really hasn’t felt that way in part because Anthony Stolarz was solid for the first 30 minutes of Game 1 and Joseph Woll stepped up big in Game 2 to the point that the Leafs have overall had the advantage in goal in the series so far.

Part of that, however, is the Leafs have found a way to generate quality chances off the rush against an elite defensive team. It’s clearly frustrated Florida how efficient Toronto has been offensively so far.

“We have our work cut out,” Brad Marchand said after Game 2. “They’re playing really well, and obviously, their top guys are capitalizing on every opportunity, it seems like.”

Yes, yes it does. But it’s definitely not just the top guys…

3. Offensive contributions from everyone 

This was one huge key to the series win over the Ottawa Senators in Round 1, and it’s continued so far for Toronto in this series.

The Leafs got two more huge goals from the Maxes, Pacioretty and Domi, who were both game-winning-goal heroes in the first round and tallied the first and third goals in Wednesday’s 4-3 win.

The blue line, meanwhile, has found a way to contribute again, as Morgan Rielly and Chris Tanev scored big goals in Game 1. The Leafs are first the NHL in goals scored by defenders (7) in this postseason and first in defensemen points among teams still playing (19).

This after finishing dead last in goals and 25th in points by defenseman during the season.

What makes that even more impressive: the Leafs don’t even use a defenseman on their top power-play unit. Part of what we’re seeing is the Leafs taking advantage of some quick-strike opportunities (i.e. Rielly’s goal), but there’s also an element of Toronto just chucking some point shots at the net and getting good results with traffic in front (e.g. Simon Benoit in overtime in Round 1 and Tanev in Round 2).

Getting goals from the back end and some other contributors up front has been big given captain Auston Matthews has been pretty quiet and the Scott Laughton-led checking line still hasn’t scored. (Even though the latter have helped set up a couple key goals.)

4. The veteran block party on the blue line

The Leafs have blocked a ridiculous 49 shots so far in the second round, 30 more than the Panthers. (To put that in context, the heaviest shot-blocking team during the regular season only got in front of 17 per game.)

Yes, Florida has carried play for stretches, but the shot totals are fairly even thanks to how hard Toronto’s new-look D corps is making it to get to the net and get rubber through.

Chris Tanev, Simon Benoit and Morgan Rielly alone have blocked 25 shots in this series, and they’re now 3-4-5 in the league over the entire NHL playoffs with a combined 65 blocks. (And Jake McCabe and Brandon Carlo aren’t far behind.)

The Leafs have the oldest blue line in the postseason, and you can see it in their demeanor when games get hairy late. There’s just no panic in this group, not when the newcomers (Tanev, Carlo and Oliver Ekman-Larsson) have been in these situations before.

Adding Carlo is looking like the real missing piece for this team, what with how much better Rielly is playing and how OEL looks on the third pair. You could see when Marchand wanted to get running around in Game 2 that Carlo was able to diffuse that pretty quickly, too.

I’ve said this before, but he’s exactly what this team needed. (Thank you, Boston?)

Craig Berube yells. (John E. Sokolowski / Imagn Images)

5. They’re following their coach 

Mitch Marner, the Game 2 hero, offered this praise for his coach after the win.

“His calmness,” Marner said of what has stood out about Berube in his first postseason behind the bench in Toronto. “Just his readiness for every single game, to get us ready. His pregame talks. His during-game talks. Just to keep the intensity up. He brings that intensity but that calmness all in one.

“That’s something that as a player you love. We’re just trying to react off that. He’s done a great job with everyone.”

In previous postseasons, sometimes games like Wednesday’s would get away from the Leafs. Nerves would take over, or they would have been caught up in the Sam Bennett nonsense from Game 1 or the pressure of trying to hold off a hard-nosed team like the Panthers.

There just doesn’t seem to be much panic in these Leafs so far, however, and a lot of that certainly seems to be coming from not only all their new veterans but also their coach.

(Top photo of Max Pacioretty: Nick Turchiaro / Imagn Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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