‘Our guys will be ready:’ Maple Leafs open playoffs against 2-time defending champs

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Playoff hockey returns to Toronto on Monday night when the Maple Leafs begin their first-round playoff series with the Tampa Bay Lightning — exactly 55-years to the day of their last Stanley Cup win in 1967.

The Leafs are coming off a successful regular season by any metric, the greatest in franchise history by the numbers with a record 54 wins and 115 points.

But five straight first round exits, and the longest Stanley Cup drought in the league, means this team is measured by what happens starting tonight, and not over the last six-and-a-half months.

After two years of pandemic shortened seasons played in front of empty, or mostly empty arenas, fans will once again be able to cram inside and outside Scotiabank Arena for playoff hockey.

“We know we’re in a special market, special fan base that is going to add a lot of fuel for us and push us along,” says team captain John Tavares. “That’s the special part about being here.”

The Raptors were eliminated from the NBA Playoffs last week, so now the blue and white will take over as Jurassic Park becomes Maple Leafs Square. Mobile passes are required to access the outdoor viewing parties for the playoff games this year and Game 1 is already at capacity.

The puck drops at 7:30 pm and fans at home can catch the game on Sportsnet and CBC.

Is this a different Maple Leafs team heading into the playoffs?

At a glance it appears so. Of course, this team will ultimately be measured by its playoff performance, but the strengths of this team in comparison to past years goes beyond just looking at their regular season record.

The top two stars reached levels not previously seen. Auston Matthews has quite possibly been the most valuable player in the NHL this season and will be a finalist for the Hard Trophy, the league’s MVP trophy.

Matthews was the first NHL player to score 60 goals in a season in a decade and set the Leafs franchise record for goals in a season. Mitch Marner returned from a COVID-19 sabbatical in January and went on a tear, leading the league in scoring since that time.

Both players, particularly Marner, beared the brunt of criticism following the team’s playoff lost to the Montreal Canadiens last year. Both will need to answer the call against Tampa for the Leafs to have success, but each of them are entering the playoffs on an entirely different level than in year’s past.

“The best players in NHL history almost always breakthrough in the postseason, at some point,” writes Sportsnet’s NHL Analyst Justin Bourne. “Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner are just too good at hockey not to do the same.”

The club also boasts more defensive depth and better special teams than they have in prior seasons. General Manager Kyle Dubas shored up the backend depth at the trade deadline in a deal with the Seattle Kraken that netted them veteran D-man and Toronto native Mark Giordano.

The Leafs come into the postseason with the top power play in the league and a top 10 penalty kill to boot. The club finished in the bottom half of the league in both special teams categories last season.

The biggest question mark is still the goaltending. Jack Campbell will get the nod as the starter and has looked the part for long stretches this year. He has also seen spurts where he looked less formidable, and some where he appeared borderline unplayable.

Campbell has appeared to right the ship after the blips in his play earlier this calendar year. He will be backed up by rookie Erik Kallgren, whose play he has also steadied recently after earlier struggles.

The Leafs will likely start the series without their top-line left winger Michael Bunting. Bunting has been an impressive compliment on the line with Marner and Matthews, he is listed as doubtful for Game 1. Forward Ondrej Kase, who has been out of the lineup for six weeks with concussion issues, is listed a questionable.

The opponent: Tampa Bay Lightning

So what does Toronto get for its franchise-best regular season performance? A first-round date with the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning.

Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe calls it “a massive challenge.”

The Lightning have won 15 playoff series since head coach Jon Cooper took the helm in 2013. The Maple Leafs haven’t won a single playoff series in 18 years.

If the Leafs hope to advance past the first-round for the first since they defeated the Ottawa Senators in 2004, the team will need to do it against the de facto best team in hockey over the last five years.

The Lightning had a shakier regular season than in years past and the Leafs are actually the betting favorites in most sportsbooks heading into the series. But this team still boasts elite talent.

The Lightning still have arguably the games top goaltender in Andrei Vasilevskiy, one of its elite defenseman in Victor Hedman, and a top trio of scorers that matchup with anyone in the league in Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, and Brayden Point.

“The Lightning have been the perfect mix of those styles for years,” says Bourne, commenting on the team’s blend of skill and physicality. “(It) leaves them with very few questions about their group. They can get it done, period.”

The two teams split wins in their four head-to-head regular season meetings this year. The Leafs played one of their best games of the season during a 6-2 win in Tampa in early April where Auston Matthews netted one of his four hat tricks this year.

That was followed up with an 8-1 drubbing back in Tampa on April 21, a physical game that got out of control. Both coaches seemed to downplay that result when asked if there is anything they can take from it heading into a first round meeting between the two clubs. Regardless, the one-sided loss two weeks ago is likely enough to make most Leafs fans nervous.

“I expect it to be a very physical, borderline violent series in a lot of ways,” says Keefe. “And our guys will be ready for that.”

“We have absolute respect for the Tampa Bay Lightning in what they’ve accomplished and who they are. Yet we have great belief in our own group.”

If not for nothing, the Leafs get home ice advantage thanks to their regular season success. A Game 7, if necessary, would be played at Scotiabank Arena.



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