Auston Matthews and Morgan Rielly react after Boston Bruins' Brad Marchand scored an empty-net goal during third period action in Game 3 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup first-round playoff series in Toronto on April 24.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
The Maple Leafs went down with a whimper on Saturday. They didn’t put up much of a fight against the Bruins, instead they sparred among each other. It was a puzzling performance with the season hanging in the balance, and one worthy of the boos received from their own fans.
Toronto now trails the best-of-seven series 3-1 and gets another kick at the can on Tuesday in that madhouse known as TD Garden. It will be as loud as Scotiabank Arena was mostly muted during Game 4. It is hard for a crowd to be engaged when it watches the home team roll over.
Historically speaking 333 teams have fallen behind 3-1 in the Stanley Cup playoffs and 32 have come back to win a series. The Florida Panthers ousted the Bruins in those circumstances last year. There is hope but it is as faint as the light on Pluto.
If Toronto’s season comes to an ignominious end it won’t be because Gary Bettman dislikes them. Or that refs are out to get them. It will be because its special teams are not very special. It will be because they take bone-headed penalties. It will be because they lack a firebrand like Brad Marchand, a goalie like Jeremy Swayman and a true grinder around the net like Zach Hyman. Remember him?
He has six goals in Edmonton’s first three playoff games. As a team, the Maple Leafs have scored seven.
And one other thing: Except on the odd occasion they don’t play as a team. The Bruins, on the other hand, don’t play like a bunch of disparate parts.
The 3-1 loss on Saturday may as well have been 10-0. That is how close the Maple Leafs came to winning. They lost too many puck battles to count. They barely had a pulse and when they got one it was too late.
Auston Matthews played as though he was sick on Saturday, and he is. He has been battling a bug for three or four days. With a couple off, maybe he will recover. The NHL’s top scorer took only one shot and was deemed too ill by doctors to take the ice in the third period.
“It is not one of those run-of-the-mill type of illnesses,” Toronto’s coach, Sheldon Keefe, said on Sunday. “The effects have lingered and have gotten worse when he gets on the ice and asserts himself.”
It is a bit of bad luck when your 69-goal scorer comes down with the flu during the postseason. But there is this, too: Matthews has one goal in his past nine playoff games. It came in Game 2 in Boston when the Maple Leafs evened the series at 1-1.
That seems like a long time ago now.
Mitch Marner scored his first goal of the series in Saturday’s defeat. Earlier, he had a hissy fit on the bench and threw his gloves like an angry kindergartener. For the most part he has performed like a lost boy, mostly pushed to the outside and to become a spectator.
William Nylander hasn’t had a goal yet but he deserves some slack. He played on Saturday after sitting out the first three games with an unspecified injury. Max Domi has shown signs of life – and a lack of discipline. He has taken dumb penalties at bad times. Ditto for Tyler Bertuzzi. John Tavares is a steady hand but not the player he was only a few years ago.
The worst part of Saturday’s loss is that afterward the players had no answers to what has happened during this series. Mostly blank stares. Keefe, too. He talks in circles but never comes to a conclusion.
If the season ends in frustration like so many others, what will come next? Usually not much. I suspect this time will be different.
Until then the Maple Leafs have a wing and a prayer.
“We are still alive in the series,” Keefe said. “There are reasons for optimism. This series and these games are far closer than they appear.”