Tampa Bay Lightning left wing Nicholas Paul scores against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 5 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, on April 27.Nick Turchiaro/USA TODAY Sports via Reuters
With six career playoff series wins – including a run to the Stanley Cup final with Nashville in 2017 – Calle Jarnkrok is one of the few members of this Toronto Maple Leafs team to have experienced the joys of postseason success.
But with the Leafs headed back to Florida for a second crack at eliminating the Tampa Bay Lightning – after falling short in a 4-2 home loss in Thursday’s Game 5 – the Swedish winger isn’t sure his track record is of any use.
“I haven’t won anything,” he said Friday before the team left for the airport. “Close, but like I said, I didn’t win anything. So I don’t know how much help I am.”
Given the unusual twists and turns of this year’s postseason, he may well be right. For example, home ice – something NHL teams have spent the past six months fighting tooth and nail for – has so far proved to be no advantage whatsoever. Before Friday night’s slate of games, road teams had gone 24-16 in these playoffs, tying the NHL record for road wins through 40 games of a postseason, set in 2011 and 2012.
In the Leafs-Lightning series, the road team has won four of the first five games, with only Toronto holding serve, thanks to the 7-2 rout in Game 2 at Scotiabank Arena.
But the back-to-back overtime wins at Amalie Arena, victories that have the Leafs one win away from advancing to the second round for the first time since 2004, could provide something of a comfort blanket, if not a psychological advantage. Add to those the 4-3 win there in the penultimate regular-season game, and Toronto is aiming for a fourth successive victory on Tampa ice.
“I think both teams have shown they can win in either building in any situation,” Toronto head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “Certainly [that track record] helps our cause but you can’t just lean on that. We’ve got to still play better and that’s the big focus.
“I think where the confidence might come from is that we got two wins on the road despite not playing our best hockey.”
It’s certainly some way removed from one year ago, when the Maple Leafs lost two out of three games at Amalie Arena on their way to a seventh consecutive first-round playoff exit.
Another portent extending in the Leafs’ favour is just how long Tampa can dodge the bullet against Toronto.
Thursday’s win was the third consecutive time that the Lightning have won a series-elimination game against Toronto, extending to last year’s victories in Games 6 and 7 of that opening-round series. One more would tie the mark against Toronto, jointly held by Boston and Detroit.
Of course, down 3-2 once again and with its back against the wall, Tampa would need to establish a new high to escape the first round this time.
While Toronto’s lack of killer instinct is well documented (the team is 0-11 in elimination games dating to 2013) Keefe recognizes the magnitude of the team’s predicament, if you can even call it that.
“We still have a great opportunity here to win a series and we’ve put ourselves in a good spot through the work that we’ve done over the course of the series,” he said. “And I think the guys recognize that based on the mood here today. There’s excitement to get it on the road and get back to it.”
Playing a more complete game would certainly do no harm to the team’s cause. Despite scoring the opening goal of the game on Thursday, Toronto’s lead lasted all of 26 seconds as Anthony Cirelli set Tampa on the road to victory with the equalizer.
And while Auston Matthews’s fourth goal of the series with 3:34 to play gave life to the home fans in the hope of seeing another late flurry translate into a third straight overtime, the comeback fell short.
John Tavares, the Maple Leafs captain, is at a loss to explain why his team can look so listless at the start of games and yet so relentless down the stretch.
“The game obviously builds throughout 60 minutes and the situation kind of arises because obviously time starts to tick away and the urgency picks up on both sides,” Tavares said. “But no doubt I think we want to come out and take control the game.”
As well as ending the Leafs’ three-game win streak, the Game 5 defeat also raised questions about a return for Leafs forward Michael Bunting, who served his three-game suspension after a questionable Game 1 hit on Tampa defenceman Eric Cernak, who hasn’t played since. Although available to return, Bunting was a healthy scratch for Game 5.
Rookie forward Matthew Knies has played admirably at left wing alongside Tavares and Mitch Marner in Bunting’s absence, registering two assists.
But Keefe admitted that Bunting has been a topic of conversation in the hours since the Game 5 loss, and listed the positives that the 23-goal scorer could bring if he were to return to the lineup.
“He would bring the energy, that’d be the first thing obviously, both in how he plays and also the fact that he hasn’t played,” Keefe said. “The series as it goes on weighs on everybody in terms of the grind that it is, so having a guy that hasn’t played come in can give us a boost that way.”