Tampa Bay dominates Leafs in penalty-filled potential first round preview

TAMPA, FLA—If Thursday night’s game against Tampa Bay was a playoff preview, then the Toronto Maple Leafs will have their work cut out for them.

Steven Stamkos became the Lightning’s all-time scoring leader, part of a barrage of scoring in a penalty-filled 8-1 whitewashing of the Leafs.

“It was clear that the game meant more to them tonight than it meant to us,” Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. “It showed in how they played, how they competed.

“You just get a little sample of how hard you need to play and how well you need to play to be able to beat a team of that quality when they’re playing at that level.”

While the Lightning can skate away believing they’ve sent a message, the Leafs can take heart they weren’t playing with their best lineup. Auston Matthews missed his third game in a row, and Jack Campbell backed up Erik Källgren, who had a good first period but fell apart in the second.

Campbell can go into the playoffs knowing he beat Tampa twice in three chances, including the last time he played them, a 6-2 decision two weeks ago for which the Lightning were seeking, and got, some revenge.

“It was certainly a big game for us,” Stamkos said. “We didn’t play very well against them last time around in our building, so we knew we’d respond. In the grand scheme of things this game probably doesn’t mean much, but it’s something for our group to build on. We can sit here and say they probably didn’t have their best game but we played pretty well. The script was flipped from last time.

“But it is nice to play well against a very good team. And if we happen to see them (in the playoffs), we definitely felt each other out a little more in terms of the physicality.”

Even if they were taking notes and posting reminders to themselves about power-play structure and line combinations in anticipation of a first-round meeting, the coaches themselves didn’t want to get carried away with the results of a regular-season game.

“Don’t read too much into it. It was one game,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said.

bad-loss

Ilya Mikheyev was the lone Leafs scorer as the loss ended Toronto’s four-game winning streak and prevented the Leafs from clinching at least second place in the Atlantic Division. The Lightning are six points behind Toronto with five games remaining. The Leafs have four games left.

“We’re not locked into our seed at all,” Keefe said. “We’re not comfortable in that regard at all. It’s still very much a competition.”

It was the worst defeat of the season for the Leafs, eclipsing a 7-1 loss to Pittsburgh on Oct. 23.

Getting physical

Outside of the one-sided nature of the score, there were indications in the game that a Leafs-Lightning playoff series could be fun. And tough. There were 114 penalty minutes called, including five 10-minute misconducts as the game descended into goonery as the score got out of hand.

Tampa Bay’s Pat Maroon was at the center of it all, calling Wayne Simmonds “soft” in a moment caught on ESPN, getting into a fight with Simmonds (who got the better of Maroon), and then scoring a goal.

“We’re professionals,” Simmonds said of the fight. “It’s part of our job description for the two of us.”

Mark Giordano took down the Lightning’s Anthony Cirelli. Kyle Clifford and Tampa’s Corey Perry got into a stick fight with each other during a scrum. Ilya Lyubushkin and Simmonds laid out big hits for the Leafs, while Pierre Engvall absorbed a few.

Stamkos’s moment

There was a video tribute after Stamkos’s power-play goal in the second period when he passed Martin St. Louis as Tampa Bay’s career scoring leader. St. Louis had 953 points with the Lightning; Stamkos, who added two assists in the third, has 956, including 437 goals.

“It’s funny how things work out right?” Stamkos said. “To do it at home, against the team that I grew up idolizing, and then having Kuch and Heddy (longtime teammates Nikita Kucherov and Victor Hedman) assist on a one-time shot. And my parents were here and my wife was here, and then to have Marty on the video tribute … I don’t really think of myself as an emotional guy but that really hit me.

“It’s not quite skating around with the Stanley Cup but it’s a pretty special moment.”

mutual admiration

The chatter between the Leafs and the Lightning sounded like a meeting of the NHL division of the mutual admiration society.

“If you look back at two (Stanley) Cups in a row, there’s obviously a lot of things that they do well,” Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly said. “They got a good goalie. They play hard. They know how to win in the playoffs. They play with lots of skill. They’ve got a dangerous power play. A team like that, they can beat you in a number of different ways.”

Cooper was a bit more measured, knowing the Leafs still have a lot to provide despite their lofty spot in the standings.

“I don’t think anything you say about the Leafs is going to matter to anybody … unless they do better in the playoffs,” he said. “I see a hell of a hockey team there, a hell of a hockey team that’s run into some bad breaks come the spring. And it seems that, for whatever reason, they haven’t got over the hump yet but they have a team that definitely can.

“The Leafs have a hell of a team. They beat good teams. They play with structure. They’re as good a team as we’ve played all year. But, again, they’ll be probably judged more on how they do in the spring.”

matthews sits

Keefe continued to remain optimistic about the health of Matthews, whose injury has not been disclosed, though the fact he is on the trip suggests he might play Saturday against Florida or Sunday in Washington.

“He’s really close,” Keefe said. “We’re in a similar places to where we were a couple of days ago in terms of it just doesn’t make sense to put him in the lineup at this point.”

Matthews is the NHL goal scoring leader with 58 goals and is aiming for his second Rocket Richard Trophy and possibly his first Hart Memorial Trophy. But the team is stressing it is more important to have Matthews as healthy as possible for the playoffs than to pursue individual achievements.

“We all want everyone to be ready to go when the time comes, so whatever he needs, he needs,” Marner said. “Obviously we do miss him out there but there’s bigger things ahead that we need him to be ready for.”

Calm and confident

Källgren drew the assignment against the Lightning to reduce Campbell’s load. Campbell will probably get the assignment Saturday against the Panthers with Källgren drawing the tougher assignment — the second game on back-to-back nights — Monday in Washington.

In a season in which the Leafs’ goaltending has had more than a few question marks, Källgren has done what he can to impress Keefe. And even though he allowed eight goals over the final two periods, Keefe stood by his goalie.

“He’ll be fine,” Keefe said. “He was excellent in that first period. The reality is they had better chances in the first period than they had in the second and third. If you really look at it, they had two-on-ones or clear shots by some of the best players in the first, and he stood his ground. I thought he was excellent in that regard.

“And then (in the second and third) it’s a backdoor tap-in, two deflections, power-play goals… then it gets away a little bit. He should watch that first period over and over again because, against some of the best shooters in the world, he stood his ground.”

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