Judging by the jeers, Toronto’s rabid fan base appears to sense another Maple Leafs Stanley Cup bid unraveling, especially after watching some of the players sniping at each other on the bench. Keeping that in mind, captain John Tavares was asked how the team can stick together while facing the reality of winning the next three games or going home.
Again.
“You know, a lot of guys have been here for a while and are just continuously pushing each other for more,” Tavares said. “Obviously this is an important time here. So, there’s a lot of belief in each other.
“The bonds here are really strong, to fight through adversity and to challenge each other and be able to be better.”
They’ll have to be if they want their season to continue.
It’s difficult enough to face the task of going into the raucous TD Garden for Game 5 on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, NESN, SNP, SNO, SNE, TVAS, CBC) knowing you have to win three consecutive games against a well-disciplined, structured Bruins team or go home.
But how do you do that with a sputtering power play that has gone 1-for-14 in the series and often spends more time in its defensive zone than in the offensive one?
Moreover, how do you do that when a team that is known for its scoring, can’t?
Consider this: The Maple Leafs have devoted almost half of their NHL salary cap to four players: Matthews, Marner, Nylander and Tavares. They are being paid handsomely, for the most part, to put pucks in the net. It’s what the team is known for.
At least in the regular season, anyway.
Come the postseason however, that penchant evaporates. The proof is in the numbers.
Toronto has now gone 10 of its past 11 playoff games scoring two goals or fewer. The exception was their victory in Game 2. They scored three in a 3-2 win. That’s hardly an offensive explosion.
In the meantime, while the Maple Leafs marquee players continue to sputter, Boston’s best players keep performing as such. Forwards Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak scored Saturday and have now combined for five goals in the series. That’s just two fewer than the entire Toronto team has accrued in four games.
In fact, the entire Maple Leafs team has scored just seven times in the series. Compare that to Edmonton Oilers forward Zach Hyman, formerly of the Maple Leafs. He alone already has six goals in three games in the Western Conference First Round against the Los Angeles Kings.
Marner said any perceived discontent within the team is nothing more than a passionate outlet to find solutions to the present struggles. Interestingly, he was involved in an exchange on the bench in which TV cameras caught Nylander telling him to stop “crying.”
“We’re grown men. We’re talking about plays out there that we want to make sure we’re all 100 percent on,” said Marner, who scored Toronto’s lone goal.
“Know what we’re doing. We’re just a little off page there. We’re not yelling at each other because we hate each other. We just want to all be on the same page to help each other out to try to get the best offensive chance.”
The Maple Leafs have been anything but on the same page. And they are quickly running out of time to alleviate that situation.
