Maple Leafs to play Lightning in 1st round of Stanley Cup Playoffs
Atlantic Division rivals will meet for 2nd straight postseason
The Maple Leafs (50-21-11) will have home-ice advantage in the best-of-7 series for finishing second in the Atlantic Division. The Lightning (46-30-6) finished in third.
Game 1 will be at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Tuesday (7:30 p.m. ET; ESPN, CBC, SNE, SNO, SNP, TVAS).
Toronto has lost in the opening round of the playoffs in each of the past six seasons, including in seven games to the Lightning in the first round last season. Toronto last won a postseason series in 2004.
"The preparation, for the most part, goes on behind the scenes," Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. "Obviously, we played them (in the playoffs) last season and we're monitoring them throughout this season. There's not a whole lot of difference there in terms of what you're going to prepare for -- it's more just focusing on our game, and when we focus on our game, of course that allows us to prepare for the remaining regular-season games at the same time."
The Lightning have reached the Stanley Cup Final in three straight seasons. They lost to the Colorado Avalanche in six games last season after defeating the Dallas Stars in six games in 2020 and the Montreal Canadiens in five games in 2021.
"It seems like we're kind of finding our game," Lightning forward Alex Killorn said. "To get in the playoffs is great and everything is kind of known with who we're playing, but we want to continue to play the same way because it's going to be so important when we start the playoffs."
Totonto won two of the three games this season, including 4-3 on Tuesday.
"We've got a couple of days to find our game," Lightning forward Brayden Point said. "I liked our third period [in a 5-0 win against the Detroit Red Wings onThursday] and we've got to build on that. Toronto is one heck of a team and for us to have a chance to win we've got to be on it. Just trying to get those details down and we'll see what happens."
William Nylander had six points (three goals, three assists against the Lightning this season and Mitchell Marner (two goals, one assist) and Calle Jarnkrok (one goal, two assists) each had three points. Matt Murray was 1-0-1 with a 2.50 goals-against average against the Lightning, having allowed five goals on 52 shots (.904 save percentage). Joseph Woll made 45 saves in the win on Tuesday.
Killorn had two goals against the Maple Leafs, and Mikhail Sergachev (one goal, two assists) and Steven Stamkos (three assists) each had three points. Andrei Vasilevskiy was 1-2-0 with a 3.06 GAA against the Maple Leafs, having allowed nine goals on 92 shots (.911 save percentage).
The Maple Leafs are led by Marner (99 points), Nylander (87), Matthews (85) and John Tavares (80 points). Ilya Samsonov was 27-10-5 with a 2.33 goals-against average and .919 save percentage in 42 games (40 starts). Murray was 14-8-2 with a 3.01 GAA and a .903 save percentage in 26 games.
"This team knows how to play the game," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "We're going to play a really good opponent. Two good teams are going to play. We met last year and are pretty familiar with each other. In the end we've just got to game it out and we've got a bunch of gamers in the room."
Toronto acquired forwards Ryan O'Reilly, Noel Acciari and Sam Lafferty, and defensemen Luke Schenn, Erik Gustafsson and Jake McCabe prior to the 2023 NHL Trade Deadline on March 3.
The Lightning are led by Kucherov (113 points), Point (95) and Stamkos (84). Five players have at least 20 goals: Point (51), Stamkos (34), Kucherov (30), Brandon Hagel (30) and Killorn (27). Vasilevskiy (34-22-4, 2.65 GAA, .915 save percentage in 60 games) has led or tied for the NHL lead in wins each of the past five seasons and has at least 30 wins for a sixth straight season. Backup Brian Elliott was 12-8-2 with a 3.40 GAA and an .891 save percentage in 22 games.
Tampa Bay acquired forward Tanner Jeannot prior to the trade deadline.
Kucherov leads the postseason in scoring the past three seasons with 93 points (23 goals, 70 assists) in 71 games, almost 30 points more than Nathan MacKinnon of the Avalanche, who is second with 64 points (30 goals, 34 assists) in 45 games during that span.
The Maple Leafs have won the Stanley Cup 13 times, last doing so in 1967.
Tampa Bay has advanced to at least the third round of the playoffs six times in the past eight seasons. The Lightning have won the Cup three times, first doing so in 2004.
NHL.com independent correspondents Callum Fraser and Corey Long contributed to this report
