Breakaway blog: Leafs dominate Lightning through two periods


After two periods, the Toronto Maple Leafs lead the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-0 in Game 1.

great start

Leafs fans take their hits for sitting on their hands, but to their credit they showed up big time in the first playoff home game played to a full crowd in three seasons.

Whether it was chants of “MVP” for Auston Matthews, “Soup” for every Jack Campbell save, or informing the referees they were wrong, the Scotiabank Arena crowd was rocking.

And the first period didn’t really go to script, but was somewhat predictable: big hits and even a game misconduct to the Leaf player wearing No. 43. In years past, that was Nazem Kadri. This time it was Kyle Clifford whose physicality got him into the lineup, but his boarding hit got him out of it.

The Leafs killed the accompanying five-minute major and even had the best scoring chances, with Alex Kerfoot and Mark Giordano each hitting the post while the Lightning seemed not to know what struck them in terms of Leaf penalty killers.

The Lightning killed two Leaf penalties as well. And just when it looked like goals were going to be hard to come by — because shots on net were hard to come by — Jake Muzzin’s slapshot eluded a screened Andrei Vasilevsksiy for a 1-0 Toronto lead.

By the time the second period was over, all sorts of narratives had ended thanks to the Leafs’ 4-0 lead. Marner had his first playoff goal in 19 games. Matthews also got on the board, too. And David Kämpf scored, shorthanded, on a breakaway.

And Tampa’s heroes looked human. Vasilevskiy seemed entirely beatable, especially on slapshots (Muzzin, Matthews). Even Steven Stamkos was jeered after fanning on a shot with an empty net mere feet in front of him.

Spezza sits

Jack Campbell has been solid so far in Game 1, as the Leafs have taken a 4-0 lead.

It was a cutting blow for the Leafs who weren’t playing, chief among them Jason Spezza. The 38-year-old had not missed a playoff game since coming to Toronto and has rotated in and out of the fourth line for the last month or so. That will continue, even if it’s not an easy conversation for coach Sheldon Keefe to have with the player.

“You’ve got a veteran guy who wants to win as bad or more than anybody, and has given a lot,” said Keefe. “He’s going to factor in. This is a pattern that we’ve been following for quite some time. We’ve liked the fact that the players have moved in and out on that fourth line.”

The other major absence was Michael Bunting, who’s been practicing but has not been fully cleared to play since suffering an undisclosed injury April 23 in Florida.

Marlies called

With the Marlies failing to make the Calder Cup playoffs, the Leafs called up a bunch of players who will form the Black Aces for the playoff run, each hoping to get the call if only for one game. Those getting the call: goalie Michael Hutchinson, defensemen Filip Král, Mac Hollowell, Kristian Rubins, and Dmitry Ovchinnikov, and forwards Pontus Holmberg, Joey Anderson, Alex Steeves and Brett Seney.

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