TORONTO -- It was a tale of two dressing rooms at Scotiabank Arena on Monday.
Hooting and hollering could be heard in excess on the Toronto side, the result of an improbable 6-5 come-from-behind win, thanks to Calle Jarnkrok’s goal 46 seconds into overtime.
Down the hallway, it was a different story. The doors were shut tight. The Tampa Bay Lightning were holding a team meeting, searching for answers after blowing a 4-1 lead they held 15:13 into the game.
“It’s embarrassing,” despondent Lightning forward Brandon Hagel said.
It was exactly that for both teams at certain points in the game. And, more importantly, it exposed warts for both sides, blemishes that teams looking to make deep runs in the Stanley Cup Playoffs like these two simply cannot have.
In more specific terms, shoddy defensive play and wobbly goaltending, traits Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper knows will end your postseason in a hurry.
“If you want to be playing late in the spring, you can’t be doing that because it’ll be hard to get there,” Cooper said.
After overseeing the Lightning’s back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2020 and 2021, he would know.
On the surface, the Maple Leafs had reason to celebrate what turned out to be an epic comeback. That’s the glass-half-full side of things.
But to ignore the issues that plagued them in the first period would be naive, not to mention a mistake.
Consider that by the time the horn sounded to end the first period, the hometown fans booed the Maple Leafs off the ice. But when they skated off at the conclusion of the second period, those jeers had been replaced by cheers.
It was that type of roller-coaster night, one that reflected the seasons of each team.