Achi news desk-
With their backs against the wall and without Auston Matthews, the Toronto Maple Leafs played their best game of the series in Game 5 securing a 2-1 victory to extend the series.
Mitch Marner played his best game of the series, leading a top line that was brilliant all night. John Tavares and Matthew Knies combined on the OT winner, while Joe Woll made a good save in net, even on a night when Toronto won the territorial battle overall. In the process, the Leafs overcame the Matthews-sized hole in the lineup and another sudden game from Jeremy Swayman to send the series back to Toronto.
Turning points
In a low-scoring game like Game 5, there aren’t too many flashpoint moments that we can turn to what turned the game apart from big saves made by the goaltenders. As a result, I’m going to do just that and use this section to talk about it Joe Woll, whose performance in net kept the Leafs alive long enough to win in OT. The goal he allowed in the first period was a hard luck rebound – trickling into the slot and straight onto Trent Frederic’s stick, it was an incredibly difficult shot for Woll to stop. I don’t blame him; it was a rough turnover and a bad bounce.
Woll was otherwise clean, making 27 saves on the night. Your starting goaltender needs to rise to the occasion in the biggest moments in the playoffs, and Woll did just that in the first start of the series. He wasn’t asked to do much in the first period, but the Leafs needed Woll’s ability to deliver throughout the next 2.5 periods. In the second frame, Woll made a huge stop on tight end Jesper Boqvist, who backed up Morgan Rielly and received a perfect pass from Brad Marchand. Woll also stuck to his toes to get a piece of a huge shot to help kill Boston’s lone power play of the game in the second period.
The level of difficulty increased to the third as the intensity of the game increased. Charlie Coyle and Marchand created a close-range chance, but Woll stood his ground and remained calm as Marchand’s shot flew wide. Later, with the game still tied at 1-1, Woll made the signature save of the night, extending his pad to deny Trent Frederic, who was all alone. Frederic took the lead, looking to put the puck far post, but Woll’s fluid extension caught the post, and Frederic didn’t lift the puck. It was Boston’s best look after the game was tied at one stretch. Woll’s save sent the game to OT by herself.
That’s when the real turning point came. The Bruins owned the first overtime shift and held the zone in the Toronto end, creating an opportunity for Charlie Coyle who needed a good save by Woll. It wasn’t an A+ highlight reel save like the one on Frederic in the third, but it was an example of what Woll did so well in this game: calm and composed, saving a situation that limited second chances and continues to provide the Leafs with opportunities to win. This save in overtime was the one the Leafs needed to put them over the top.
When John Tavares drove the net around Matt Grzelyck, the puck kicked out to the far side with Jeremy Swayman down, and Matthew Knies turned the puck into the yawning cage. All of this was possible because each of Woll’s saves was a small turning point in itself – a central play was needed to give the Leafs opportunities to break Swayman’s code and scratch the necessary second goal. The Leafs don’t win this game without a sharp and consistent Joseph Woll in net.
Notable Performances
The biggest non-Joseph Woll story this game is the play of the Leafs’ top line, which includes Mitch Marner, Tyler Bertuzzia Max Domi. Although Marner did not score a goal, he played his best game of the series by far, and cleaned up that line in the base numbers. Shot attempts were 23-12 in favor of Toronto with those three on the ice, and from an eye test perspective, Marner was as alive as we’ve seen him in the series. Bertuzzi and Domi looked as sharp next to #16 – as they did on the old line next to #34 – but Marner’s transformation was the biggest deal. The Leafs need that version of Marner – buzzing around, succeeding confidently as his line swerves at the opposition – to keep going (hopefully) for the next two games of the series.
The line y John Tavares, William Nylandera Matthew Knies just as well, and they scored the big score that won the game. I thought Nylander looked much closer to normal, sharper with the puck than he was in Game 4 as the night went on. He still took a bad penalty – and I would have liked to have seen him cut around Swayman on his little break out of the box instead of going to the short side (he hit the post) – but Nylander had several sweet passes. One in the Boston zone to set up Joel Edmundson — for a shot that didn’t even come close to the net — could have been highlight reel material if Edmundson was a better shooter. As for Tavares, you have to give him and Knies credit – it’s the same combo he combined on the OT winner against Tampa in Game 6 last season. They have shown quite a clutch gene.
Unfortunately, as good as the top two lines were, the fourth line was up against it in the run of play. Dafydd Yllad centralize Connor Dewar a Ryan Reaves underwater to the tune of two shot attempts against 11 against. It felt like those three were basically chasing the play around by themselves every time they were on the ice, and several big saves came from Woll during fourth line shifts. It feels like a lineup change might be in order for Game 6; something needs to change in this regard, or Toronto could sink in a future game of this series. Keefe shortened the bench to three lines and ran Dewar – Kampf – Jarnkrok instead of continuing to trot this line-four combination.
With the Leafs in desperate need of offense from the blue line, Jake McCabe scoring a big goal, a point shot through traffic that reminded me of the goals the Leafs scored on Andrei Vasilevskiy last year. They need to take more of those shots and play for rebounds against a goalie like Swayman dialed in. Hopefully McCabe’s goal will be visual evidence of that. He and Simon Benoit continue to hang in there against very difficult minutes – critical parts of Toronto’s effort in this series. I thought McCabe was very solid and consistent in this game, but Benoit was a little more rocky, turning over a puck that led to Boston’s lone goal. Adjusting to playoff hockey has been a bit of a tumultuous ride for the relatively green Benoit (to no one’s surprise), as the pressure of Boston’s forecheck has been too much for him to handle. It hasn’t been death yet, but it’s something to keep an eye on going forward.
Storylines for Game 6
1. Auston Matthews’ health. After three columns where William Nylander’s health was the #1 talking point, Matthews’ health is now the talking point for obvious reasons. It remains unclear what the ailment is — some kind of mix between illness and injury, it seems — but it’s clearly serious if it keeps Matthews out of an elimination game. Can it be resolved before Game 6? The Leafs showed they could win without AM34 in Game 5, but it will be much harder to win two more against a Bruins team without him. The Leafs need Matthews back soon.
2. Homemade ice cream. This story has become all too familiar to Leafs fans, with Toronto losing six straight home games in the playoffs. Their last win was Game 2 over Tampa Bay last season, a problem that has gone on for far too long. While the players own some responsibility for it, it’s hard not to look at the scope of Sheldon Keefe’s tenure as Leafs head coach and not conclude that the last change has become a liability for Keefe, who could be overthinks and interferes to the point where it disrupts the team’s rhythm.
Losing the way the Leafs have at home in the playoffs is unacceptable. Something needs to change, plain and simple. The players need to embrace the home crowd and not get too caught up in the energy, looking for reckless hits as we have seen in the past. Likewise, Keefe needs to ease off the helm, stop hunting for games, and instead trust his lines. Leave the players in the middle of the game and let them talk on the ice. The players, for their part, need to embrace the simpler, packed-lunch approach they’ve displayed on the road – chipping pucks behind the defense in the neutral zone and funneling pucks to the net with traffic, a formula that has led to success at TD Garden.
3. The goal fight. The biggest change between Game 4 and Game 5 of this series came in the nets, with Joe Woll raising his game to match (and best) Jeremy Swayman. Obviously, Woll will go back in the jersey for the Leafs and Swayman is very likely to stay there for Boston, but it is still up in the air whether Woll can repeat his Game 5 effort – And can Swayman stay this dominant, for that matter . The Leafs finally defeated Swayman in Game 5, their first win over him all season (regular season and playoffs), but they only scored two goals. He’s hitting .952 in this series, and across the full season against the Leafs, Swayman has saved 211 of 221 shots for an almost inept .955 SV%. He has allowed a total of 10 goals in seven games against Toronto.
Although we’re wondering, “Can Woll still get along with Swayman?” we should probably be asking, “At some point, the Leafs are going to have a breakout game against Swayman, right?”. Swayman is a good goaltender, but no goaltender can maintain .955 over a large sample. With each passing game, the sample size grows larger, and the likelihood that the Leafs catch Swayman on an off night for once increases. Maybe Game 6 can have that off the night.
4. Lineup Configurations. It was a banner game for Toronto’s top six but not so much for the bottom six, who struggled mightily. Will Sheldon Keefe make a line change? If Auston Matthews returns, someone will have to come out of the lineup, and the obvious candidate would be Ryan Reaves, who hasn’t contributed much in recent games offensively and his turnover in Game 4 is still fade The fourth line needs a refresh after the terrible effort in this one, so a change on that line makes the most sense.
Beyond the fourth line, however, there are other questions. Will the Leafs go back to a three-line spread attack if Matthews returns, after playing Nylander with Tavares and Knies – especially given the success Marner had with Domi and Bertuzzi? And if Matthews doesn’t return, could we see someone like Noah Gregor pulling in for Reeves anyway? I don’t foresee any changes on defense after the way TJ Brodie played in his test in Game 4, but maybe Keefe throws a curveball and brings in Mark Giordano. We will see.
5. Bruins and the mind games. Despite the well-known playoff failures that have been deeply ingrained in the Leafs’ psyche over the years, the demons of the past playoffs are now in Boston’s minds as much as Toronto’s. The Bruins blew a 3-1 series lead to Florida last season, doing it almost exactly the same way. The Panthers won G2 last year, lost both at home, then went into TD Garden and won Game 5 in OT to send it back home. The script is far too familiar for the Bruins, and the Leafs, as the underdog, can now play freely. On the other hand, it’s possible that the Bruins will grip the sticks a little tighter and start to doubt themselves. The pressure is now on one team, and it’s not the Leafs for the first time in ages. We’ll see how those mind games and pressure factors can affect Game 6.
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