Well, the four-game homestand didn’t get off to a good start.
In their first game at Scotiabank Arena after another lengthy trip, the Maple Leafs couldn’t take control at five-on-five and failed on special teams, losing 3-2 to the Florida Panthers on Thursday night.
Yes, that’s the defending Stanley Cup champions. Also, though, it was a Panthers team that was without three key players — Matthew Tkachuk, Aaron Ekblad and newcomer Brad Marchand.
Our takeaways:
STARS DIMMED
While the Panthers were missing a trio of crucial contributors, the Leafs iced a lineup that, in some form, likely will be the one that goes into Game 1 of the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Leafs didn’t have Nick Robertson or Philippe Myers, who were scratched, or the injured Max Pacioretty and Jani Hakanpaa.
But they stuck to a similar script afterward — that special teams were the difference. They were, to a degree, as the Panthers scored on two of their three power plays and the Leafs failed to score on any of their three chances with a man advantage.
Two players who you’d like to think can make a difference in a game as tight as this one was — Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner — didn’t really come close to doing so. In a game that might have been there for the Leafs to take charge, that didn’t happen as their leaders didn’t lead. These are the players that have to tilt the game favourably when it’s as tight as it was at five-on-five. That’s kind of what they’re paid to do.
Never mind the surge the Leafs had in the first half of third period. Though Max Domi provided a goal, just his fifth of the season, the Leafs couldn’t sustain any pressure on Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky as the clock wound down. In fact, the Leafs had just one shot on goal in the final 10 1/2 minutes, provided by Matthews from a tough angle with just over a minute remaining.
Shots on goal at five-on-five were 21-21.
“There was not a lot of room, and you have to stay patient within your game and not force things,” Leafs coach Craig Berube said. “I thought we did a good job of that. We limited (their) shots, and they limited (our) shots. I thought our checking was good, and I thought we did a lot of good things.
“You always want to be better. We have to push through this and get better. But we competed hard, and it was a hard game.”
Still not good enough, however.
DOMI DOES HIS PART
Good on Domi for getting involved and serving up some intensity, especially during that one particular shift in the first period.
After crushing Carter Verhaeghe with an open-ice hit, Domi fought Nate Schmidt and brought to mind the scrapping talents of his old man as he rather decisively won the fight. Domi had an idea that he was going to have to drop his gloves as the play went back up the ice.
“That’s part of the game,” Domi said. “I think I might have caught him a little bit on the way down. You don’t like doing that, but it wasn’t my intention. Got a lot of respect for him. Schmitty hung in there.”
It was Domi’s third fight of the season and first since Dec. 23, when he dropped the gloves with Alex Iafallo of the Winnipeg Jets.
We don’t think that Max suddenly has to start fighting as much as his dad, Tie, did, but if he’s going to be more of a presence overall in the final weeks leading to the playoffs, all the better for the Leafs.
His goal was the result of a quick, hard shot that he got off as he sped into the offensive zone after taking a pass from Calle Jarnkrok, who registered his first assist of 2024-25.
“He had a heck of a game, in my opinion,” Berube said of Domi. “Big hit, fight, scored a goal. He was skating and working, so I thought he was good.”
We said earlier that the Leafs lineup, barring injuries, will closely resemble the one that begins the playoffs.
To an extent, Domi still his finding his place in it. Grabbing Berube’s attention on Thursday night was one of the Leafs positives in the game.
TANEV RETURNS
A bonus for the Leafs was the return of defenceman Chris Tanev, who missed the previous six games with an upper-body injury.
Even when Tanev’s timing might have been off after missing that chunk of time, it’s a lot better than not having him at all.
The Leafs didn’t give up much at five-on-five, limiting the Panthers to a handful of Grade-A scoring chances. With Tanev back for the stretch run, we would expect the Leafs, as a whole, to be tighter defensively and cleaner on breakouts. That’s the kind of impact that the smooth, unruffled 35-year-old Tanev can have on everybody.
The defence pairs of Jake McCabe and Tanev, Morgan Rielly and Brandon Carlo, plus Simon Benoit alongside Oliver Ekman-Larsson have some time here to get into playoff mode. McCabe and Tanev will snap into place once the latter is fully comfortable again. Rielly and Carlo will have to find some chemistry, while there is potential for the pairing of Benoit and Ekman-Larsson. If need be, Myers can be inserted into the lineup.
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