(2A) Maple leaves at (3A) Lightning
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Maple Leafs lead the best of 7 series with 3-2
Tampa Bay Lightning are trying to avoid elimination from the playoffs for the Stanley Cup when they host the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 6 of the first round of the Eastern Conference at the Amalie Arena on Thursday.
The Lightning, who have won the Stanley Cup each of the last two seasons, faced elimination once during that series, beating the New York Islanders 1-0 in the 721 Stanley Cup semifinals in 2021.
“Forget about the past, it’s all about today,” said Lightning Center Nick Paul. “Everyone is focused, everyone knows what to do. There’s just a ready-made atmosphere.”
[RELATED: Complete Maple Leafs vs. Lightning series coverage]
Toronto is aiming for the second round for the first time since 2004. The Maple Leafs lost their first playoff series in each of the last five seasons and lost seven consecutive games when they had a chance to eliminate their opponent.
“If there’s one thing we’ve learned along the way, you can’t focus too much on the fact that it’s an elimination game or something,” said Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe. “You have to focus on the things you did well in the show. You have to focus on continuing to improve. Focus on your game.”
Maple Leafs and Lightning have alternating wins for each of the first five games. Tampa Bay is 16-0 in the postseason after losing since the start of the playoffs for the Stanley Cup 2020.
Here are 3 keys to Game 6:
1. Special teams
Toronto is 4-for-24 in the power game in this series, but has also scored two goals with a short arm. Tampa Bay is 6-for-28 with a male advantage.
Lightning coach Jon Cooper believes his team was better at 5-on-5 and would have liked more time to play with equal strength. But he is disappointed with the mental mistakes made by Tampa Bay that led to penalties.
“This is the moment of our punishments, the kind of punishments we apply – these are the ones that bite us,” Cooper said. “Too many men? We’re better than that. A few washers over the cup. Only free gifts we give out in bad times.”
Toronto scored in the game with strength and two goals 4 on 4 in game 5. Keefe says their powerful game was good, but he wants more.
“Obviously it was a challenge to get a clean look,” Keefe said. “But at the same time we found a way to score quite consistently. If you score one goal in a game, you will take it.”
2. Quick starts
In the first four games, the team that scored first eventually won.
Game 5 was different as Tampa Bay jumped 2-0 before Toronto came together with three consecutive goals over the next two periods to lead 3-2 in a possible 4-3 victory.
A quick start in Game 6 is something that both Lightning and Maple Leafs are focused on.
“I think we just want to try to attack,” said Maple Leafs center Oston Matthews. “Just attack and be physical. We have to be really good and defensive to be able to transfer those puck in [offensive] zone. “
3. Finding Vassilevski
The lightning goalkeeper Andrey Vassilevski presented a lot of walking numbers in this series with 3.65 goals against the average and 0.880 percent of the save. His teammates will quickly defend him and take the blame for many of the goals conceded.
But Vassilevsky, winner of the 2021 Conn Smythe trophy as MVP in the playoffs, has built a reputation for making mistakes on the net and playing big when the time demands.
He had five playoff breaks last season, four of which came in potential clinch matches in the series. In this series, however, Vassilevski has not given up less than three goals in any of the first five games.
The planned range of Maple Leafs
Michael Bunting – Austin Matthews – Mitchell Marner
Ilya Mikheev – John Tavares – Alexander Kerfut
William Nilander – David Kampf – Pierre Engwal
Jason Spezza – Colin Blackwell – Andrew Case
Morgan Riley – Ilya Lyubushkin
Jake Moose – TJ Brody
Mark Giordano – Justin Hall
Jack Campbell
Eric Calgren
Scratched: Wayne Simmonds, Timothy Lillegren, Nicholas Abrusese, Kyle Clifford, Joey Anderson
wounded: Rasmus Sandin (knee), Petr Mrazek (loins)
Quickly designed composition
Andrew Palace – Stephen Stamkos – Nikita Kucherov
Anthony Sirelli – Braden Point – Alex Killarn
Brandon Heigl – Nicholas Paul – Ross Colton
Pat Maroon – Pierre-Edward Belmare – Corey Perry
Victor Hedman – Eric Chernak
Ryan McDonagh – Zack Boghossian
Mikhail Sergachev – Cal Foot
Andrey Vasilevsky
Brian Elliott
Scratched: Riley Nash, Ian Ruth
wounded: None
Status report
Maple Leafs and Lightning skated all morning and are expected to use the same 18 skaters from Game 5.
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