TORONTO -- The Toronto Maple Leafs are taking the next few days to figure out how to handle prosperity before playing the Boston Bruins in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference First Round 4 at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, NESN, TBS, truTV, MAX).
They trail the best-of-7 series 2-1 after a 4-2 loss in Game 3 on home ice Wednesday.
"It's just the consistency of keeping your focus, that's really it," coach Sheldon Keefe said Thursday. "Sometimes you can get up on a high and start feeling good and you've got to be able to manage that in playoffs in particular. Whether it is shift to shift, period to period, game to game, those things are really important to stay focused on the process and the things that lead to success.
"That's really what we will focus on and press on and get ready to have another bounce back game like we did after Game 1 and our mindset will be very similar."
Whether Maple Leafs forward William Nylander will be available for Game 4 remains unclear. He missed Games 1-3 with an undisclosed injury after setting an NHL career high of 98 points (40 goals, 58 assists) in the regular season.
"We've been working with 'Willy' to give him the time that he needs to be ready to play," Keefe said. "The medical team works with him on a daily basis to see where he is at, and we continue to assess that."
Without Nylander, the Maple Leafs managed to take a 1-0 lead in Game 3 on Matthew Knies' goal at 13:10 of the second period. They quickly allowed a breakaway to Bruins forward James van Riemsdyk that was stopped by Ilya Samsonov. A roughing penalty on Tyler Bertuzzi at 19:44 led to a Jake DeBrusk goal and a 2-1 Bruins lead 67 seconds into the third. Though Bertuzzi tied it 2-2 at 11:25, Boston responded 28 seconds later with Brad Marchand's game-winner.
The Maple Leafs managed only four more shots before Marchand scored an empty net goal at 19:24.
"We didn't handle the momentum very well," Knies said postgame. "Going into the last period we gave up a goal right off the kill and that just ruined our momentum."
Defenseman Morgan Rielly blamed it on small lapses, leaving Toronto with a lot less room to be complacent in Game 4.
"Just a momentary thing," he said. "It's just a matter of once you take your eye off the ball, they're able to capitalize and that's the difference. But it's not just that play, I should clarify. The penalty kill early in the period you give one up. You've got to be more dialed than that."
