The Maple Leafs took care of first-round business. Now for the hard part

New York Times

02-05-2025

KANATA, Ont. – There was total jubilation — euphoria, really — in and around the Toronto Maple Leafs' dressing room in Tampa two years ago after they beat the Lightning in Game 6 to advance to the second round.
'It was special,' Morgan Rielly recalled recently. 'I know in the big picture it's only one round, but it felt like a big moment for our group.'
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This time around? Not so much. Craig Berube described his team as having a 'businesslike' mentality heading into Game 6, and that's how it felt after they survived a scare from the Ottawa Senators to advance to the second round.
The celebration was almost muted. Chris Tanev barely smiled when we spoke.
'You win and you're happy and then you move on,' Tanev told The Athletic in a dressing room that was quiet and fairly empty as team staffers packed up the last bits of gear, the odd one holding a can of Molson. 'It's round one of a journey. You enjoy it for a little bit, and you move on and get ready to play the defending Stanley Cup champions.'
Which, of course, is where the real test begins for this team.
In the end, they handled their business in Round 1. It wasn't always pretty. It wasn't without a series of hiccups, including giving up another 2-0 lead in Game 6, but the Leafs did what they were supposed to do. They beat a team they were supposed to beat, the past be damned.
'It's about the 2025 guys that are in our room and the belief in one another, doing it for one another, just going out there and competing,' Auston Matthews said afterward. 'This one feels good.'
It took a lot to push that puck across the line.
A season-defining game from Max Pacioretty, for one thing.
Promoted to the second line with John Tavares and William Nylander for the first time all series, Pacioretty bodied Nick Jensen off the puck in the second period to set up Nylander's first goal of Game 6. The 36-year-old, in only his 41st game all year, threw a team-high seven hits. And because Berube swapped him out for the speedier Bobby McMann in the third period — a defensive-minded change tied to the Tavares line's matchup against the Sens' top unit — Pacioretty ended up on the ice with Max Domi and Pontus Holmberg. Which is how he found himself on the other end of a Domi pass that he promptly fired into the net.
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It was Pacioretty's 26th career goal in the playoffs. Eight of them were game winners.
The Leafs needed and got big games from two of their stars, Matthews and Nylander, who combined for three of the four goals.
Nylander ended up leading the team with nine points in the series. Two, three and four for the Leafs in scoring: Mitch Marner (eight), Matthews (seven), and Tavares (five).
Matthews' goal came on a power play that was, in the end, probably the biggest reason for the Leafs getting past the Sens. The Leafs converted at a 35 percent clip with the man advantage, with six goals on 17 chances.
It took contributions from up and down the lineup, from unlikely overtime winners by Domi and Simon Benoit, to Scott Laughton blocking a Jake Sanderson shot with 27 seconds left in regulation of Game 6 to spur Nylander's empty net dagger.
The Leafs blocked 128 shots in the series and played strong defence throughout, especially from the top pair of Tanev and Jake McCabe, but also the all-defence line of Laughton, Steven Lorentz and Calle Järnkrok.
'It's a grind,' Tanev, who reached the Stanley Cup final with Vancouver in 2011, said of the journey it takes to even get there. 'Every series, you expect it to go six, seven games. Throughout the journey, different guys step up at different times and that's a huge part of it.'
And so the Leafs survived a series that got dicey for a minute.
'I think going through adversity, it builds character,' Tanev said. 'You learn things about your team and yourself.'
What had Tanev learned about this team over the six games? 'Just resilient,' he said. 'Stick to the process. Play the way that we want to play and do the little things right. Huge block by (Laughton) — that's the stuff it takes to win at this time of the year.'
As that Tampa series in 2023 demonstrated, though, it's only what comes next that will matter for the Leafs.
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The jubilation that came with beating the Lightning and finally winning a first-round series was dead and gone when the Leafs got rolled in five games in the second round by the Panthers. Organizational chaos ensued — the same kind of organizational chaos that could follow another second-round defeat this year.
Winning in the first round should not be enough for this team. The bar should be so much higher.
But the Panthers, again, pose a monstrous challenge.
The Leafs struggled to generate quality five-on-five offence against the Sens. Breaking through against the Panthers, who boast giants on defence and two Selke Trophy candidates at forward, will be that much harder. Florida ranked second in the league during the regular season in the quality of their five-on-five defence (expected goals against per 60 minutes).
The Panthers held Tampa, the highest-scoring team in the league during the regular season, to 12 goals in five games. They kept Nikita Kucherov, a finalist for the Hart Trophy, from scoring even once, doing so in part by killing off nearly 90 percent of Lightning power plays.
The Panthers boast all kinds of depth, maybe the best depth in the league, from Sam Reinhart and Aleksander Barkov up top, to the better Tkachuk (Matthew) and Sam Bennett, to a swift and competitive third line that includes longtime Leaf pest Brad Marchand. They are physical, mean and full of confidence. They go hard on every forecheck.
Another series win will require Matthews, Marner, Tavares and Nylander to outduel Barkov, Reinhart, Tkachuk and Bennett.
The Leafs will need their stars to come through again and again (and again) in a way they could not back in that 2023 second round, when Matthews and Tavares were both notably held without a goal.
The Leafs' power play will have to remain a weapon, and Anthony Stolarz will have to hold his own against Sergei Bobrovsky, the guy he backed up en route to a Cup last spring — a tall task indeed.
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'Extremely tough,' Tanev said of the matchup. 'If you watched them in that series (against Tampa), how well-connected they play, how well-coached they are. We talk about sticking to the process, and you watch that team play and they do the same things over and over and over again and try to wear teams out.'
Florida won three of four meetings between the two teams during the regular season, looking like the clear-cut better all-around team.
The Leafs will prove a lot — if they can somehow upend the champs and advance to the conference final for the first time since 2002, and more crucially keep their hopes alive of ending a too-long championship drought.
Gotta beat the champ to be the champ.
(Top photo of Auston Matthews and Thomas Chabot: Marc DesRosiers / Imagn Images)