Tampa Bay Lightning forward Steven Stamkos works the puck around Auston Matthews of the Maple Leafs during a game at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on April 4, 2019.John E. Sokolowski/USA TODAY Sports via Reuters
The Leafs’ last home game of the regular season had the feel of a high-school class during the last week of June. It had to be played but the participants were anything but fully invested in the process.
However, Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Mitch Marner of the Toronto Maple Leafs did their best to entertain what was a hometown crowd for both of them. Stamkos managed to get in the last move, though, setting up the winning goal by Alex Killorn with five minutes and 48 seconds left in the third period for a 3-1 Lightning win. Nikita Kucherov added an empty-net goal in the final minute.
There were intermittent bursts of excitement, mostly from the two Toronto-area natives, Stamkos and Marner. They scored the goals in the first 40 minutes, as the 1-1 tie stood heading into the third period, and they also provided most of the highlights.
But the Leafs were loath to admit they put on anything less than a good show against the best team in the NHL.
“It was obviously frustrating not coming out with two points but we played a good hockey team and overall, I thought we did pretty good,” Leafs centre Auston Matthews said.
Marner was close to offering a dissenting opinion but still maintained the Leafs put on a good show in seeing their home record finish up at 23-16-2. If they managed to win their final game of the regular season Saturday in Montreal against the Canadiens, the Leafs will finish with one more road win than they have at home.
“We’ve got to stop making mistakes. People are scoring on them,” Marner said. “But I thought our team played well together.”
Stamkos and linemates Ondrej Palat and Tyler Johnson dominated the Leafs at the start of the game, although it was Marner who broke through for the game’s first goal.
Leafs forward Zach Hyman forced a turnover at the Toronto blue line and sent Marner away on an odd-man rush with John Tavares. Marner kept his head turned toward Tavares all the way down the ice and Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy fell for it, anticipating a pass to Tavares on the right side. But Marner, with his gaze still headed sideways towards Tavares, fired a shot that found its way between Vasilevskiy’s legs at 4:41 of the first period.
Marner said it was the first time he tried that move in a game after having some success with it in practice against Leafs goalies Frederik Andersen and Garret Sparks.
“I’m never really sure on two-on-ones, so I thought I’d try it,” Marner said. “Usually it’s a hard save for goalies. I wasn’t trying to look at him so he couldn’t see where I was looking. It got through.”
Vasilevskiy was a lot sharper the rest of the way and so was Leafs’ goaltender Frederik Andersen, an encouraging sign for fans who have been hyperventilating about his play of late. But neither goaltender was pushed to the limit, to be honest.
The Leafs power play suffered a meltdown early in the second period, making one of those mistakes Marner talked about, which allowed Stamkos to tie the score. The unit served up a short-handed breakaway to Stamkos, as Tampa defenceman Ryan McDonagh grabbed the puck and fired a long pass up to Stamkos at centre. He moved in on Andersen, who got a piece of his shot but not enough of one, as the puck trickled into the net at 5:37.
Actually, the most notable thing about the game going into it for the Leafs was it marked the return of defenceman Jake Gardiner after an 18-game absence due to back problems.
This allowed Gardiner to get his skating legs back in the Leafs’ last two regular-season games before they open the playoffs next Thursday in Boston against the Bruins. The defenceman compared his return to playing for the first time in a pre-season game.
“Any time you’re playing a first game in 20-something games, you just want to get out there and start rolling,” Gardiner said following the morning skate. “Make simple plays, really, and the rest will come to you. Pre-season is always a little rusty. I haven’t had that much time off so hopefully I’m better off than that.”
Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said he wasn’t expecting much from Gardiner, although he allowed the Leafs missed him in a big way while they stumbled through March. “In the room, on the ice, everywhere. He’s a really, really good player.”
While Gardiner is a polarizing figure among Leafs fans because of his tendency to make big, glaring mistakes, there is no doubt the team is better when he is playing.
“He moves the puck real good, he’s way better defensively than people think,” Babcock said. “He’s a 50-point guy who is plus-20 or something like that. You just can’t get them. You’ve seen how hard it is to be a good D-man in the National Hockey League. He is one of them.”
Gardiner’s ice time was limited, as he played for 16 minutes and 51 seconds with partner Nikita Zaitsev. He was not his flashy self, as expected, although he did not make any big mistakes either.
“I thought he was really good,” Babcock said after the game. “He obviously hasn’t played in five weeks, right? But he made lots of plays and he created space, he made forwards better, and he didn’t give up anything, so he was good.”