MORE TAKEAWAYS: Straying from the script to the sin bin sinks Maple Leafs

Yahoo

14-03-2025

The fight for first in the Atlantic Division leaves little room for error.
Toronto found that out Thursday when it stumbled into special teams' troubles that the Cup-champion Florida Panthers long ago learned to deal with under stress.
Our takeaways on a 3-2 Maple Leafs' loss, close but disappointing nonetheless, as the Cats opened a four-point lead for top spot.
The Leafs were lamenting two power play goals against, but the deeper issue was the nature of the penalties.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson thew a gloved fist at a Panther who was digging away at Anthony Stolarz, an instinctive move to protect his goalie, but one that referee Garrett Rank deemed crossed a line.
'We talk about (Florida) is going to do all this stuff, the whistles and they get in there and get involved,' said coach Craig Berube. '(OEL) punched a guy, but they two-handed one of our guys there and they take just us off. But we have to more disciplined, no doubt about it.'
That infraction accounted for one Sam Bennett goal, the other coming when Toronto mucked up a line change. On that ensuing power play, the Leafs were three seconds from a kill, but Seth Jones won a blueline trench battle with new Leaf Scott Laughton to keep the puck alive.
'You can't do that. Those (bench minors) are the ones that kill you,' Berube lamented.
The Colorado loss on Saturday could be traced to an offensive zone turnover that resulted in Mitch Marner going to the box, while Thursday's first Toronto penalty was on David Kampf for goaltender interference.
'We have to execute better, (Thursday's result) shows the margins are small,' said alternate captain John Tavares. 'We have to be a little bit better in some areas to tilt play in our favour.
On the two fateful calls, Tavares opined 'you have to stand your ground, play with an edge, play physical. The level of detail shift-to-shift, the structure with it in all areas — that's on everyone. All of us can be a lot better.'
Chris Tanev's unexpected clearance gave Berube and general manager Brad Treliving a look at their near-complete full roster, along with the home debuts of Laughton and Brandon Carlo. The even-strength Florida goal by an uncovered Niko Mikkola came against Toronto's fourth line.
Tanev played 18:15 and, interestingly, did not have to block a shot, but was charged with two giveaways. Carlo saw lots of kill duty in his 17:34 of ice, ditto for Laughton. The pair combined for nine of Toronto's 24 hits, though Florida nearly doubled the home team with 40, all but Anton Lundell getting at least one.
Berube made an interesting third-period line change, sending Domi back to middle of the third line and promoting Laughton to an effective shift on wing with William Nylander and Tavares.
Maybe it was the plethora of kids attending during this March break game or regular subscribers simply missing their team in its two home dates since Jan. 29. But the 19,100 at Scotiabank Arena were high on Tanev's introduction and that of Marner after his affirmation this week he wanted to sign here.
Max Domi's hit and follow-up fight was another crowd-pleaser, as was his third-period goal when he once again exhorted the fans to get loud.
'As close to a playoff game as you're going to get,' Domi said of the evening. 'We'll get some confidence from this game because we started to play our best hockey in the third and we were all over them.'
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