Maple Leafs pushed to brink of elimination after Game 5 loss to Panthers: Takeaways

New York Times

15-05-2025

TORONTO — Game 7 came early this season.
With their season and, quite likely, the future of their core on the line in Game 5, the Toronto Maple Leafs failed to show up on home ice against the Florida Panthers.
There were zero positives to find in a humiliating 6-1 loss that saw the team play all the old hits for a crowd that knows them well. Most of the lineup tightened up, their stars did not produce, their goaltending faltered at times and their effort was shockingly poor.
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Shot attempts at five-on-five ended with a 66-44 advantage for the Panthers, per Natural Stat Trick. The numbers matched the eye test, provided Leafs fans hadn't always closed their eyes in horror.
Yes, the Leafs could still have two chances to win this series if they can force a Game 7. But if Game 5 is any indication, it's tough to see them getting there.
And it's even tougher to see this team as assembled returning next season. They provided little reason in Game 5 to prove they should.
The Maple Leafs were at home, not down in a series and had, you would think, no reason to come out tight.
Yet history is a great teacher and as in past pivotal playoff games, the Leafs' top players looked tight and offered little to no creativity and spark with the puck. You could practically feel the ghosts of past playoff failures peering down from the Scotiabank Arena roof. The tone was set early on for the entire game. The Leafs looked like a team not playing to win but instead playing not to lose. And where did that get them? In the first period, the Panthers had 33 shot attempts at five-on-five to the Leafs' eight shot attempts. The Panthers had a deafening 11-1 advantage in shot attempts when the Auston Matthews line — ostensibly the Leafs' best line — was on the ice in that period. And things didn't get any better.
Matthews' best chance came midway through the second period when he brought the puck just outside of the blue paint and could only stuff the puck into Sergei Bobrovsky's pads.
Midway through the second period, Mitch Marner looked like a junior player with an unnecessary blind pass up the middle of the ice and then zero effort defensively to prevent the Panthers' third goal.
Two players don't lose you a game, to be sure. The Leafs' poor effort should fall on nearly 20 pairs of shoulders. But the Leafs are built to have their best players win them games. Just as in years past, those players looked incapable of doing so.
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The crowd inside Scotiabank Arena started strong. But then, much like the online world following the Leafs, things turned.
Then Leafs fans buried their heads in their hands. Then the boos emerged in the second period of a playoff game. Then the Bronx cheers followed when Joseph Woll made an easy save late in the period. A fan threw a Matthews Leafs jersey on the ice after the Leafs allowed their fifth goal against. The crowd reflected the online vitriol that was spreading like wildfire. You could practically feel an entire fan base turning on the stars they'd supported for years. And it's a turn that feels justified: this was a putrid effort that fans did not deserve.
An Auston Matthews jersey was just thrown on the ice at Scotiabank Arena. pic.twitter.com/lLP1pfpRFl
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) May 15, 2025
Remember Game 5 against the Ottawa Senators, when the Leafs had a chance to win the first round at home and laid an egg? Remember, well … you could use so many different failures from this core. Leafs fans inside the building felt more frustrated than ever at watching the same movie, once again. If the Leafs lose in Game 6, and Game 5 is the last time the home crowd sees their team, they wanted them to know how disappointed they were. Enduring images and sounds that could, and should, last long into the offseason.
There were glimpses of hope that manifested in rushes and energetic checks from William Nylander and Matthew Knies, respectively. Those two players looked capable of turning the game in the Leafs' favor. But come the second period, just like the rest of the team, their energy completely dissipated.
And that's the point: No Leaf showed any of the fight and emotion that's necessary in a late-series game. It doesn't matter if this is an intangible that's impossible to quantify. At the very minimum, effort and belief from an Atlantic Division-winning team are expected.
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As the second period dragged on, it was clear no Leaf had the moxie to make that happen.
The Leafs — again, all of them — deserved the boos that came their way. Yes, Woll should not have allowed the fourth goal. But pinning anything on him alone is futile. The way the team as a collective folded was embarrassing.
Wherever MLSE boss Keith Pelley was sitting, he should have learned a lot about who can play and survive in Toronto and who can't. Because if Game 5 was any indicator, that list is way too short. In a long list of playoff failures, Game 5 might be the toughest to stomach.
The Panthers started clawing their way back into this series when Bobrovsky turned into a brick wall.
He didn't surrender a goal from the third period of Game 3 until there were 66 seconds left in Game 5 — a stretch lasting 143 minutes 25 seconds.
Bobrovsky had to be sharp before this one got out of hand, stopping Nylander on a first-period breakaway before reaching back to deny Knies on Toronto's first power play.
Making his stretch even more impressive is that Bobrovsky wasn't at his best form when this series began. He allowed 13 goals in the first three games. But his teammates never lost faith in a man who was integral in their reaching consecutive Stanley Cup Finals.
'What was the word you just used?' defenseman Aaron Ekblad asked a reporter to repeat when questioned about Bobrovsky earlier in the series. 'Legend. Yes. God-mode. That's what we have come to love about 'Bobby,' not to mention he's the greatest person on Earth as well.'
Bobrovsky is one win away from securing his ninth series win since 2023.
Jesper Boqvist entered the game without a playoff goal on his resume. He last scored in the regular season on Jan. 25.
So it was only fitting that Boqvist was among Florida's unexpected offensive heroes after replacing the injured Evan Rodrigues in the lineup for Game 5.
He made it 3-0 midway through the second period, effectively ending any chance Toronto had of making things interesting.
THAT'S THREE UNANSWERED ‼️
Jesper Boqvist finishes off a Sam Reinhart feed to give the Panthers a 3-0 lead in Game 5 pic.twitter.com/3zab7M2Cg7
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 15, 2025
It says something about the Panthers' culture that head coach Paul Maurice was comfortable dropping him directly onto the left wing of the top line. And it says something that Boqvist managed to score such a surprising goal — against Toronto's top line, no less.
Maurice effectively called it before the game when discussing why Boqvist was being called on to replace Rodrigues.
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'He's got some experience,' said Maurice. 'When we bring guys in from the outside, they've had big impacts for us. They've been critical. I think a big part of that is they're never really on the outside. They're all part of the chirping and the practicing and all of the things that go on that feel like they're a part of it.'
Among Florida's other Game 5 scorers were three defensemen not known for putting the puck in the net: Aaron Ekblad, Dmitry Kulikov and Niko Mikkola.