Panthers eliminate Maple Leafs in Game 7 with dominant second period: Takeaways

New York Times

19-05-2025

It was supposed to be different.
But in the end, the same Toronto Maple Leafs core who lost five straight Game 7s lost their sixth in a row in a humiliating 6-1 defeat to the Florida Panthers.
And they got there in a similar fashion as they have in the past: Over the span of six minutes and 24 seconds in the second period, the Leafs stopped skating, stopped defending and stopped trying to change the depressing narrative swallowing them whole. They allowed three goals in that time span, a quick knockout blow. Boos rained down, once again, in the second period.
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This is the same Panthers team that won a Stanley Cup last season. When it mattered, the Leafs never looked in the same weight class as the Panthers.
The same movie played out in front of a disgusted fanbase that had seen it so many times before. And as the seconds of the season ticked away, the same playoff demons cackled from the top of Scotiabank Arena.
In a little over six minutes, a series of avoidable errors sunk the Leafs.
Morgan Rielly's failed pinch attempt in the neutral zone eventually led to the Panthers' first goal. Joseph Woll struggled to get his glove hand on Brad Marchand's shot from distance and Anton Lundell scooped up the rebound. William Nylander stopped moving his feet while trying to defend in his own zone before the Panthers' third goal.
But you could feel these mistakes coming, too. How to sum up how relentless the Panthers assault on the Leafs was to start the game?
After 40 minutes, the Leafs had allowed the most shot attempts through two periods of any team in any game all season. It didn't matter that most of those attempts failed to hit the net. What mattered was that the Panthers simply wore down the Leafs and the home side had no answer.
The most troubling aspect was that they acted like it, too. The Leafs looked far too tentative while defending and failed to mount any sort of pushback when it mattered.
For any NHL franchise that finds itself down and out, the Panthers are the new gold standard for how swiftly fortunes can be turned around.
Consider that when head coach Paul Maurice was hired on June 22, 2022, the Panthers had four series victories to show for their entire 28-year existence.
Since then?
They've won nine of their last 10 series heading into the Eastern Conference Final against the Carolina Hurricanes. Maurice took over a team known for run-and-gun hockey that won the Presidents' Trophy and turned them into the suffocating, forechecking beast they are today.
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Florida has played 303 games over the last three seasons and still they battle on.
'I was that guy that was born on third and brags about the triple,' said Maurice. 'They had 122 points before I got there and I coached that down to 92 the next year. It's there. It's in the men. And really the other story is (GM) Bill Zito and the people he's brought into our group.'
Still, Maurice deserves immense credit for pushing all of the right buttons.
With his team trailing 2-0 in this series, he replaced his entire fourth line for Game 3 and saw them score a big goal. He also flipped wingers on his top two forward lines and changed up the defensive matchups to slow down Toronto's second line after a red-hot start from Nylander.
After not experimenting with his forward lines all that much through the regular season, Craig Berube began throwing darts at the board with the game all but over in the second period, including pairing the likes of Max Domi and Max Pacioretty with Matthews and Marner.
In the third period, a Hail Mary emerged in the form of Tavares beside Matthews and Marner.
Nothing worked.
Hindsight is 20-20, but the second and third periods were a reminder of the benefit of trying different combinations through the regular season to have options in your back pocket. Instead, the new combinations stunk of desperation from a team that was just treading water by the third period.
Brad Marchand was a man possessed in the 13th Game 7 of his NHL career, grabbing a fifth Game 7 victory against the Maple Leafs alone.
The oldest man on the ice finished with XXa goal and two assists to run his personal total to 37 playoff points against Toronto – second-most all-time behind only the 53 scored by Detroit Red Wings legend Gordie Howe.
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Marchand, a trade deadline pickup from the Boston Bruins, finished with a team-leading seven points in the second-round series.
As for his approach to Game 7, the 37-year-old says he's learned to enjoy these moments, win or lose. It allows him to play free and leave it all on the ice.
'I mean, these are the games that you talk about forever,' said Marchand. 'They're the moments that, if you go on to have a run, that you always look back on and you talk about the moments within the game that allow you to win. Teams that win them and go on to win a Cup, they're the moments where you look back and everyone's like 'If you don't win that your Cup run's over.''
By winning the series, the pick Florida is required to send to Boston in the Marchand trade upgraded to a 2027 first-round pick from a 2027 second-rounder.
That's a price the Panthers will gladly pay.
Did Woll allow two goals he probably should have stopped? Yes. Did he give his team a chance to build some sort of lead with stellar play through the third period, though? Also yes.
And so while blame will – and should – be spread around, another terrible old habit emerged in Game 7: The Leafs failed to find the back of the net.
For the fifth Game 7 in a row, the Leafs scored one measly goal.
That one goal from Max Domi out of the gates in the third period gave Scotiabank Arena life. But the four players who failed to give the building life? The same four players who failed to produce and live up to their sky-high contracts. Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares and Nylander combined for zero points in Game 7.
This is not a matter of a small sample size anymore. This poor performance from the Leafs' stars in the biggest game of each of their careers should be cause for massive organizational change.