LEAFS – THEIR FINAL BULLET

Leafs Nation – here are my concerns:

The Floridians are up 2-0, they have home ice advantage, their goalie is better, their top 6 D is better, their top 6 forwards are at least as good and so are their bottom 6.  And, I think the Panthers are little tougher.

Sheldon Keefe went back to his 11 forward, 7 defenseman strategy for this one.  Liligen and Ashton Reese were out, Gustafson and Holl were back in.  The Leafs started as you might expect – with their hair on fire.  AM34 hit a crossbar in the first minute and the so-called extra forwards, Kampf and Lafferty came up big at the 17:34 mark.  Keefe employed a stretch pass strategy to negate the strong Florida forecheck and that seemed to work for the first half.  But, The Panthers came back strong, penetrating deep in to Leafs zone.  1 zip Tranna after one – that will NOT be enough !

An early rush by the Panthers may have sealed the deal.  A goalmouth pile-up forced Sami back against his own post effecting his left knee.  He was done.  In came the competent Joseph Woll.  Not long after, Anthony Duclair scored on a nice breakaway goal to tie things up.  Erik Gustafen proved his worth with a goal to put the Leafs back up 2 to 1.  But, Leafs Nation couldn’t help but wonder, “how are you going to win such a big game with just 8 SOG ?!?”  Carter Verhage tied things up again later.  The second question to the above is “if your ‘Core Four’ aren’t clicking, how could you possibly expect a victory !”

As has been the case throughout these playoffs in Florida, The Toronto Maple Leafs have hung on to take things to overtime.  They held the majority of the play early, evened up the shots on goal (7-1 SOG) and Joseph Woll stood tall when he needed to with 17 saves on 19 shots.

Sam Reinhart – OT Winner !

HOPPER NOTES:  I may regret saying this:  but maybe the LEAFS just aren’t good enough – top to bottom….I just realized, this may be my second LAST hopperonhockey.ca EVER !