Can the Maple Leafs recover from Game 5 embarrassment? We've certainly seen this curdle before

Toronto Star

15-05-2025

Florida has the edge. Toronto is on the ledge. Actually, maybe free-falling halfway down to that splatter on the pavement already.
The Maple Leafs are staring down into the abyss of playoff elimination. How the heck did they get here, trembling on the brink and embarrassed to the gills, rag-dolled 6-1 at home? And the single goal came with 1:06 left in regulation.
By the end, the gruesome end, this game had become so dirty that it should have been viewed on Pornhub.
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The second round of the Atlantic Division playoffs was never going to be a walk in the park for either team. But now it's turned into a perp walk for the Leafs. Booked for blowing a two-games-to-none lead over the Florida Panthers. Without the stellar goaltending required to bail them out. And with the playoff-shrinking Auston Matthews — six shots in Game 5 Wednesday night, firing blanks again — and the playoff-shrivelling Mitch Marner unable to muscle this all-important game, arguably the most important game in their playoff careers, into submission. Nothing short of a disgrace, frankly.
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'The way that they play, I think that we just fed into what makes them successful,'' Matthews said afterward, not looking particularly stricken by the outcome, but then we've hardly ever seen a glimpse of the captain unmasked. 'They competed harder, more puck battles. That's the game. I think it's really as simple as that.''
But how can he reckon with that performance, given the rotten playoff history of this team and their to-a-man assurance that everything had changed: the lineup, the resilience, the annealing scar tissue?
'I don't think there's really any excuse or explanation,'' Matthews said. 'The only thing we can do is regroup and reset. We've got to win a game to keep our season alive.''
Good luck with that.
After dropping a pair in Sunrise, Fla., the Leafs returned to the warm embrace of Scotiabank Arena only to come down with a case of the shivers, too easy prey for the much hungrier Panthers, who have completed their restoration — retransformation — into defending Stanley Cup champions mode.
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In command and in control, which is pretty much where everybody expected the Panthers to be this deep into the post-season. Before the Leafs, who haven't got past the post-season second stage in a generation, threw up a chimera of giant-killing scrim. Except they don't have a killer gene, not really, not even now, despite all the sinew and snot and blue-line bona fides that GM Brad Treliving has added to the squad.
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We've seen this curdle before. It all looks very familiar. Thought they had it out of their system? More fool you.
While Joseph Woll turned back into a pumpkin, neck glowing red from the goal lamp rather than orange as Florida turned him inside out. While Sergei Bobrovsky is showing off his Vezina Trophy pedigree, finally.
What are they made of, these Leafs? What can they salvage? What can they prove of themselves in Game 6 on Friday?
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'Some sloppy play, not hard enough working, gave them way too many opportunities around our net,'' Marner said. 'Nobody's happy about it. Time to reset, refocus, be ready for our flight tomorrow, go into Florida and win a hockey game.''
The Leafs had been whining throughout about how stingy the Panthers are, their heavy forecheck stifling zone exits from the Toronto end, chasing slivers of daylight in the neutral zone. But that's a close approximation of Toronto's game, too. The difference on this night was that Florida looked way more stable in their game plan and critically got scads more out of their sorties into the Toronto end.
Toronto always felt a little bit in trouble, from puck drop, taking no advantage of an eager and raucous crowd puffing wind beneath their sails. William Nylander did have a Grade A scoring chance early but his shot grazed the top of the post.
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Meanwhile, Woll was kept rather busy 200 feet away, looking steadfast. But a head-shaking sequence of events that developed off hesitancy and loose puck battles lost around the cage culminated in Florida's first goal. Matthews had won the defensive zone faceoff yet the Leafs never managed to manoeuvre the puck into safe space. Outmanned, the Panthers nevertheless came up with the puck off the boards three times within a matter of seconds before Aaron Ekblad pounced on the relay off a rebound, up and over Woll.
Florida's defence corps is certainly getting its licks in. Dmitry Kulikov made it 2-0 off Scott Laughton's stick — a lot of that going on in this bouncy-bouncy series. A neutral-zone turnover end up in Toronto's net by Jesper Boqvist. Niko Mikkola, batting cleanup, beat Woll with a slapshot at 14:01 of the second.
After a frozen Jake McCabe merely watched A.J. Greer skin Woll alive for a fifth time, the Toronto starter was lifted, mercifully, and Matt Murray dispatched to the goal ramparts. The Panthers just kept coming, Sam Bennett making it a half-dozen on the power play, before Nick Robertson finally got Toronto on the board.
As ugly as it's ever been.