Where do the Maple Leafs go from here? Plus: Mark Scheifele’s remarkable moment

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Good morning to everyone except fans who yell “SHOOT” when their team’s had the puck on the power play for, like, six seconds. We’ve got our conference final matchups, and it’s looking pretty familiar.

While You Were Sleeping

(Claus Andersen / Getty Images)

Panthers take the Leafs to school

After a feisty Friday night win to stay alive, the Toronto Maple Leafs looked like a team ready to take a step into the uncharted territory of a winner-take-all win. The problem? Their opponents were the Florida Panthers, who haven’t just charted that territory but have their own toothbrush in the bathroom and have hung a few posters up in the living room. And last night, it was no contest.

The Panthers dominated from start to finish, recording the first 25 shot attempts (and first five shots on goal), then building a three-goal lead (which should have been four) by the end of the second period. After giving up an early goal in the third, they took all of 47 seconds to restore their lead and start adding to it. It was a near-perfect performance worthy of the defending champions and one that might have a few experts rethinking their conference final picks.

That final will match the Panthers up with the Hurricanes, the only conference finalists who aren’t returning from last year’s final four. The series starts tomorrow in Carolina.

• 🥇The other winner last night: The Bruins, whose conditional second-round pick from the deadline’s Brad Marchand trade now becomes a first.

What now in Toronto?

To summarize: In the first round, the Leafs jumped out to a 3-0 lead against an overwhelmed wild-card opponent and flirted with blowing the series before closing it out in six. In the second round, they won the first two against Florida before collapsing. They played quite possibly their two worst games of the year in games 5 and 7, both on home ice, both touted as “the biggest Leafs game in 20 years.” They’re out again — a round later than usual but nowhere near what they claim the ultimate goal is.

So now what? Big changes, we’d assume, although we’ve assumed that before. The bad news is that the end of this series confirmed every narrative about this Leafs team being a soft group that wilts when the games get toughest. The worse news is that if you don’t buy that, your only other option is to accept that these Leafs just aren’t anywhere close to being able to compete with a legitimate championship-caliber team. Pick your poison.

(Claus Andersen / Getty Images)

The big story will be 28-year-old free agent Mitch Marner, who certainly didn’t drive his asking price up over the last week. John Tavares needs a new deal, too. While it’s an unconfirmed rumor, I’m told that contending teams sometimes do these things called “trades” to try to get better. And Leafs president Brendan Shanahan has been widely assumed to be on the hot seat. Basically everything about this team could change, with the exception of its owner, which will remain Brad Marchand.

It’s the Leafs, so you know we’ve got plenty of coverage. Joshua Kloke on fan anger in Toronto. James Mirtle on why change is needed. Jonas Seigel on the end of the era. And Chris Johnston on what’s probably Marner’s last game as a Leaf.

Coast to Coast

🏒 We tend to focus on the advancing team in the playoffs. But what about the losing team? Here are the lessons learned about the four teams eliminated in Round 2.

😴 The Carolina Hurricanes might be boring, but they don’t care, nor should they.

🥅 Goalie nerds, assemble! The league average save percentage in the playoffs was only .898 entering Sunday, making Frederik Andersen and Jake Oettinger’s performances all the more impressive. Jesse Granger explores their approaches.

🔥 “The Athletic Hockey Show” crew discusses how Bill Zito built a “ruthless” model franchise in Florida — plus whether Marchand should replace Marner in Toronto.

Serious Matters

(Sam Hodde / Getty Images)

Some things are bigger than hockey

With apologies to the Leafs and Panthers, the most dramatic game of the weekend came in Dallas on Saturday, with the Stars eliminating the Jets with a Game 6 overtime win. While the outcome was massive — sending the Stars to their third straight conference final and prematurely ending what had been a dream season for the Jets — it all took a back seat to the Mark Scheifele story.

The star forward’s father died Friday night, devastating the Jets organization and calling into question whether Scheifele would play that night. He did, explaining that it was what his dad would have wanted. The 32-year-old then went on to score the opening goal, an emotional moment that hit hard no matter who you were rooting for.

The Stars later tied the score, and in a cruel twist, Scheifele was sitting in the penalty box when Thomas Harley scored the OT winner on the power play. It was a devastating outcome to a horrific day, and I encourage you to read Murat Ates on what it all meant for the Jets.

As for the Stars, they move on with a well-earned series win and will host the Oilers on Wednesday in a rematch of last year’s Western final.

No Dumb Questions

We believe that in hockey, as in life, there are no dumb questions. So if you have something you’ve always wondered about the sport, ask away by emailing us at redlight@theathletic.com.

(Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)

Which penalties can linesmen call?

Can the linesman call a penalty if they think the ref missed a call? Example: A guy behind the play cross-checks a guy, and only the linesman saw it. Can they call it? – Collin R.

The short answer is yes, linesmen can call penalties. The longer answer is that this is the NHL, so of course it’s more complicated than that.

Linesmen’s duties, as far as penalty calls go, are laid out in section 32.4 of the NHL rulebook. Technically, a linesman can’t call a penalty at all — they can only report what they’ve seen to a referee, who then makes the actual call. But the rulebook explicitly lays out five scenarios where the linesman can stop the play to report a penalty. Of those five, the only one that’s remotely common is a too-many-men penalty. (The others mostly deal with interference from the players’ bench.) Later, the rulebook also mentions linesmen stopping the play for a missed high stick, although only if there’s an injury involved.

But while linesmen’s ability to stop the play is limited, they can also report other infractions to the referee, including any major, match or misconduct, plus unsportsmanlike conduct or abuse of officials. In those cases, the linesman has to wait for the play to end before informing the referee of what he saw.

You’ll note that most minor penalties are not included in either of those areas. So to answer Collin’s question about a missed cross-check: No, a linesman couldn’t make that call or even suggest it to the referee, unless it was severe enough for a major. (And because that leads us into the question of what’s a minor versus a major, let’s just say it gets confusing.)

As with a lot of NHL rules questions, fans don’t really need to know every line of the rulebook. Just remember that linesmen can basically only call majors, too-many-men minors and high-sticking doube-minors, and you’ll cover 95 percent of realistic scenarios.

• Trivia time💡: The word “referee” appears 371 times in this season’s rulebook. How many times combined do the words “linesman” and “linesmen” appear? The answer is at the end of this newsletter.

What to Watch

📺 Nothing

For the first time since the playoffs began, there’s no NHL hockey to watch tonight. Not a single game. So what should you do instead? I have a few suggestions:

• Do you have kids? If so, tonight would be a good time to check in on them. If you’re not sure, it would be a good time to ask around and find out.
• If you’re married, try to remember the last time you saw your spouse, and where they might have gone.
• There’s probably an NBA playoff game tonight, right? *Checks schedule* Oh, man.
• It’s a great chance to catch up on any home renovations or repairs. For example, any fist-sized holes in the drywall could be patched up. (Unless your team is still alive, in which case don’t bother.)
• Let’s face it: six hours of binge-watching old hockey highlights on YouTube.

Trivia Answer

💬 The words “linesman” and “linesmen” do not appear at all in the current rulebook — not even once. As of the 2023-24 season, all references have been changed to “linesperson.”

📫 Love Red Light? Check out The Athletic’s other newsletters.

(Top photo of Mitch Marner: Claus Andersen / Getty Images)

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