TORONTO FINDS THEIR GROVE ?

The Florida Panthers have clawed their way back in to playoff contention despite a slow start and coming off a President’ Trophy year.  They are just one point out of the final Wild Card spot in the east with 79 points (Pittsburgh 80 and the Islanders 82).  Their big acquisition in the off season was Mathew Tkachuk.  He has 15 points in his last 6 games leading the Panthers to a 6-1-1 record in their last 8 games.  He has plenty of support around him including centreman Sacha Barkov and top point man (60) on defence in Brandon Montour.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are coming off perhaps their ugliest loss of the season on Long Island – a real tape burner.  They are .500 since the trade deadline and with all the experimentation, some are calling to just pick your 18 guys and go with it !  The 11 and 7 alignment was back in play on this evening and the most alarming deletion was Morgan Reilly.

Austin Mathews got things rolling on the scoresheet at 5:05 when he buried his 33^rd from Marner and Giordano.  That was AM34’s 5^th goal in his last 8.  A no goal was issued due to incidental goalie contact which negated a score by Mathew Tkachuk.  Later what seemed like a spectacular athletic series of saves by Matt Murray, it was ruled that the puck had indeed crossed the line to redeem Tkachuk’s place as the team’s leading scorer.  1 – 1 after one.

The second period had just begun when William Nylander got the monkey off his back to open the scoring.  John Tavares was in on the play and recorded his 70^th point.  Not 97 seconds later, AM34 continued his return to form netting his 34^th from Giordano.  My favorite (and only) NHL player that I have ever coached (see HOPPER NOTES below) pressed a strong forecheck line to pot his 7^th goal to tighten things up briefly.  The trend for wide open end to end action continued.  The Leafs (unbelievably) got their very first 5 on 3 late in the period and made short work of that as Michael Bunting got right in to score his 21^st from a very productive Captain Johnny.  4 – 2 after two. 

 These Florida Panthers were not ready to give as they started the third period with grit and determination.  On several occasions they forced offensive zone turnovers that kept the visitors back on their heels.  It wasn’t until the long, lost goal scoring prowess of Alex Kerfoot scored his first in 26 games (again from Tavares) put the nail in the coffin.  That is, until Mitchell buried an empty netter (on a shorty no les) with 4:44 to go.  Great win for TRANNA.

HOPPER NOTES:  While most Leafs fans, including my little pal Glennie, are calling for a “pick your 18 guys and go for it”,  Sheldon Keefe continues to pull out the “blender”…where in the world did they find that anthem singer ?  If it wasn’t for the thousands of Canadian fans in the building to rescue him, that could have been the highest rated butchery of an anthem since Roseanne Barr ! …nice to see what Guffstansen can do anchoring the #1 PP unit without Reilly – I though he played fairly well overall…guys I wish I had on my team – Carter Verhagee…stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but I was a very proud coach of the TIMBITS (4 and 5 year olds) for a number of years back in the day…beautiful children who just wanted to have some fun and learn the very basics of hockey…Florida Panthers 4^th liner Nick Cousins was one of many who crossed my path…a great competitor who just loved to play…he went on up through the Belleville AAA Red Devils to play in the Sault and eventually in to the bigs – great kid…Question, are there any current Leafs that played while Paul Maurice was Head Coach in this town ? …TML is now 5 points up on Tampa Bay with 2 games in hand….34 saves for Matt Murray – not too shabby…APRIL 17 is NOT that far away – CHEERS !