Leafs lose to Lightning in Game 1: Yes, the refs were awful, but Toronto was even worse
The Leafs started the first game of the Stanley Cup Playoffs as poorly as possible. The rest of it wasn't much better, losing 7-3.
Less than 90 seconds into game 1 of the first-round series between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning, Zach Ashton-Reese made a blind pass to Corey Perry, who despite wearing a sweater with the same colours as his own, was not on his team.
Perry carried the puck around the Leafs net, took a shot on goal, then Pierre-Edouard Bellemare buried the rebound, giving Tampa a 1-0 lead. This would serve as a microcosm of what would follow, as the Bolts won 7-3, sending a sold-out Scotiabank Arena crowd home with a bitter taste in their mouth and a rot in their stomach.
After a heartbreaking game 7 last season, which followed a heartbreaking game 7 the year before, which followed another heartbreaking… well, you get it… fans of this team carried a jaded attitude throughout the 2022-23 regular season.
“Just wait for the playoffs.” Any positives or career years would be followed with “Yeah, but,” and justifiably so. “We’ve seen this before, we’ve been hurt before, so just show us in April.”
They showed us something, alright. They damn well showed us something.
The first 10 minutes of the game was one of the Leafs’ worst effort of the year. After the Bellemare goal, a bad flip-pass from Mitch Marner led to an Anthony Cirelli goal off another juicy rebound from Ilya Samsonov.
The Leafs actually looked slow, with awful pursuit and seemingly little-to-no effort. They were too slow to even finish their checks. Nikita Kucherov scored on the power play with two seconds left in the frame, and the Leafs entered the first intermission of the Stanley Cup Playoffs down by three.
After a start like that, there’s nowhere to go but up. The Leafs opened the second period with great shifts from their bottom-six forwards, highlighted by big hits from Jake McCabe and Noel Accairi. Michael Bunting drew a penalty on Erik Cernak, and Ryan O’Reilly scored the Leafs first goal on the power play.
William Nylander made it 3-2, sniping his own power play dart through traffic, and before you know it, Toronto had all the momentum with under seven minutes to go in the second period.
But there’s a reason Tampa Bay has been to three straight Stanley Cup Finals. And there’s a reason why Corey Perry has been to three straight Stanley Cup Finals with three different teams. The 37-year-old was about as useful as a fourth-liner could be, with a goal and two assists in just under 14 minutes of icetime.
He drew what felt like a thousand penalties, the most important coming after the Nylander goal, with a feather-like slash from David Kampf. Brayden Point scored on the power play to make it 4-2. You couldn’t forge a more blatant TSN Turning Point.
Fans will yell at the referees for some of the penalties called. I tweeted over and over about what I thought was a horrendous display of officiating, letting fandom and hyperbole get the best of me.
But here’s the secret: bad penalties will always be called against your team, regardless of the sport. And things that should be called for a penalty will be missed. Always.
And in the playoffs, you just have to get over it. I know, easier said than done, and I know I’ll commit hypocrisy when I get mad at the refs in game 2. But you can’t let it get the best of you.
Ask Bunting if it got the best of him.
Bunting, doing a spot-on Nazem Kadri-as-a-Maple Leaf-impression, threw a dirty elbow on Cernak, forcing him to leave the game. Bunting was ejected, and will likely be suspended. Toronto, now facing a five-minute penalty kill, gave up two goals before the end of the period, sealing their fate in the first game of this best-of-seven.
Head coach Sheldon Keefe replaced Samsonov with backup Joseph Woll. The volume of rebounds given up by Samsonov is worrisome, who gave up six goals on 29 shots. Toronto can only hope that the Russian netminder bounces back in game 2, as Matt Murray continues to be sidelined with injury, and tasking Woll with saving the franchise’s season seems a bit unreasonable.
The Lightning lost number one defenseman Victor Hedman to injury. As Rachel Doerrie noted on Twitter, Hedman played with a torn meniscus through the playoffs last year, so him not being able to play tonight speaks volumes. If he and Cernak miss any time in this series, it could be a turning point.
After a game like that, it might not make a difference. Playoff hockey is no stranger to blowouts; coaches tell the teams to shake it off and move onto the next. But the effort shown in this game left you wondering what’s in the tank for the next one.
All the noise following this team into mid-April was deafening, and after game 1, it’s somehow louder. Now it’s up to them to tune it out.