2004.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have not won a first round Stanley Cup Playoffs series since 2004.
“Lots of reasons to be proud, yet lots of reasons to be devastated and upset,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “Feel good about the effort that they put forth, that they gave us everything that they had, but you come up short. We’re in the winning business.”
The Leafs had a chance this year, leading the series, 3-2, they lost the final two games of the first round to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
On Saturday night, the Lighting took a 2-1 win and downed the Maple Leafs, 4-3, in the series.
Nicholas Paul scored both goals for the Lightning.
“Growing up going to the Leafs games, even in the warmup they had the chants going, the electricity in this building was nuts, so to come in and work has hard as we did, there was no doubt in our game,” Paul said. “We stuck together as a team and everyone brought their A-game, blocking shots, being detailed, being hard on pucks, and winning their battles, and to pull one out in a building like this, especially being here with family in the stands, it was a big one.”
His first opened the scoring for a q-o lead in the first period.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 30 saves in the Tampa win.
“That was as evenly matched a series as you’re going to see,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “Adversity rears its head in so many different ways, and sometimes it can, an urgency that’s already there, it kicks something into gear. The Leafs had a good start against us, we had to weather the storm, but when Point got hurt it seemed to lock the entire team in, and I don’t think we looked back after that.”
The lightning advance to the second round in the Eastern Conference to face the Florida Panthers.
“Listen, there is no worse feeling as a player than not being out there with the guys in games like this,” Tampa’s s Steve Stamkos said. “You want to go out there. The most nerve-racking thing in hockey is watching your teammates go and knowing you can’t help them out, especially when you have a player like Point who is just a warrior on the ice and does so many little things and good things for our group. Just to see him in pain like that is tough, but give our group a lot of credit. It could have been a night where we said, ‘Oh Point is done, it is going to be one of those nights,’ but we fell back on the standard that has been set for this group, and that’s just to do whatever it takes to win. It doesn’t matter who does it when, why, it’s just win and it’s certainly a contagious feeling and attitude.”
Morgan Reilly scored the Maple Leafs only goal in another series loss.
“This one is going to sting for quite a bit,” the Maple Leafs’ Mitchell Marner said. “We’ve got to make sure wherever they go home in the summertime, make sure that we come back a better team strength-wise, faster, quicker. I’m getting sick and tired of dealing with this, so we’ve got to make sure we’re ready for this upcoming season.”
His strike tied the game, 1-1, in the middle frame.
“It’s a game of inches,” Toronto’s Auston Matthews said. “Unfortunately, we were on the bad side of things tonight. Yeah, it’s really frustrating and disappointing. Like you said, I thought every guy in there competed and gave it their all. Ultimately, they made one more play than us.
“It’s the back-to-back Stanley Cup champions right there. It’s a team that’s been through a lot as well. They’ve been through a lot of tough losses, heartbreak, and they’ve climbed their way to the top two years in a row now. We’re right there. We’re right there.”
Paul restored the Tampa lead just three minutes later.
Jack Campbell made 23 saves in the Maple Leafs loss, and should sue for lack of support.
You must be logged in to post a comment.