There are many nicknames listed on Brad Marchand’s Hockey Reference profile, presumably given to him by friends and foes alike over his 16-year career. The most appropriate of the 11 monikers listed is “Rat”, because next to Corey Perry, the 36-year-old is the most annoying, aggravating player in the National Hockey League. To the Toronto Maple Leafs, his nickname should be “King Rat” because the former Boston Bruins simply owns them, especially in the playoffs.
The Leafs had an opportunity to take a 3-0 stranglehold on the Florida Panthers best-of-seven second-round series, and jumped out to early leads of 2-0 and 3-1, but a disastrous three-goal second period gave the home club life, and after Toronto tied the game midway through the third, they could not close the deal in overtime, as Marchand scored his 12th career goal and 31st career playoff point against the Maple Leafs to get the Panthers off the mat in a 5-4 victory at Amerant Bank Arena on Friday.
John Tavares scored twice, Matthew Knies and Morgan Rielly had goals for Toronto, and Joseph Woll made 31 saves in a game where the Panthers played desperate hockey and labeled the Leafs with 62 hits.
“(The Panthers) had a good second. We felt that we weren’t direct in a second, turned too many pucks over, allowed them to come back at us and play their game and got hemmed in too much,” Leafs head coach Craig Berube said after the game. “(Marchand) just adds more creativity to the (Panthers’ third) line. He’s a good player, makes plays. The subtle little things he does on the ice, it makes it a more dangerous line offensively.”
Toronto did a lot of positive things in the game, including being able to recover and tie the game in the third period on Rielly’s third of the playoffs that went in off of Panthers defenseman Seth Jones, but in the second and in overtime, they were unable to escape the defensive zone for long stretches and absorbed significant punishment from the forechecking Floridians.
The goaltending on both sides was spotty and was also victimized by some weird goals. Sergei Bobrovsky allowed four or more goals for the third straight game, which calls into question whether the 36-year-old is fatigued after long playoff runs the last two seasons, but cannot be faulted for the tying goal that went off his own defenseman. Woll suffered a similar fate on Aleksander Barkov’s opening goal and Marchand’s game-winner going off of Rielly, as well as the fourth goal that deflected off of Jonah Gadjovich.
The Leafs will have once again need to show the similar level of composure displayed after Game 5 against Ottawa, where another loss may have spelled doom. Toronto also has to be more forceful in clearing a path in front of Woll.
Auston Matthews had a pair of assists in the contest but missed some excellent scoring opportunities in the game. The Leafs captain’s shooting has been wildly inaccurate and especially noticeable in the playoffs, which calls into question the obvious injury issue he has been dealing with most of the season. While his defensive game, penalty-killing, and face-off work have been excellent, Toronto is likely going to need Matthews to find the mark sometime in this series to get them past the Panthers.
