Maple Leafs lastly win recreation they need to have misplaced

It’s virtually at all times futile to search for “indicators” or “omens” in playoff hockey. The following bounce off somebody’s ass doesn’t actually care what occurred earlier than, and apparently, this season, neither will the subsequent name the ref misses however nonetheless manages to depart your D-man maimed, and the opposing ahead an open path to your internet.

However that doesn’t cease followers, particularly tortured ones (if solely in their very own thoughts), from searching for something which may point out a change in fortunes. Should you’re a Maple Leafs fan, you’ll drink any type of sand within the desert. And yesterday’s comeback win over the Lightning that gave the Leafs a 2-1 lead within the sequence is an particularly tasty little bit of sand.

Make no mistake, the Leafs had been horrible for many of the 79 minutes of Sport 3. They had been completely outshot, out-attempted, and out-chanced by the Lightning. Ilya Samsonov got here out extraordinarily jumpy in internet and seemed like he was making an attempt to make three saves directly. They handled the puck prefer it was some lively rodent, and their sluggish (and getting slower) protection was snowed in by the Lightning for essentially the most half.

The numbers are ugly. At even power, the Lightning had 65 % of the makes an attempt. They’d 64.5 % of the anticipated objectives. They’d 63 % of the scoring probabilities. In Video games 1 and three, the Lightning have feasted on the Maple Leafs’ want for his or her forwards to do nearly every part. Aside from yesterday’s hero Morgan Rielly, the Leafs’ defensive corps can’t create sufficient time for themselves to finish a go, a lot much less take part any offensive rush, or possession. The Leafs are depending on their forwards to hold the puck 170 ft or extra to stand up the ice. Particularly yesterday, that has performed proper into Tampa’s strangulation 1-1-3 defensive plan.

They shouldn’t be main, however they’re

And but… the Leafs lead the sequence. They discovered a approach, which isn’t a sentence one ever writes in regards to the Leafs, at the very least not in a constructive style. Their star gamers simply pulled them out of it. Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews created a turnover and havoc within the Lightning zone, and finally the previous discovered the latter for a tip to attain to offer them a 2-1 lead within the first that might have, and will have, gotten away from them. Ryan O’Reilly tied the sport with lower than a minute to go. And Rielly, the one blue-liner on the Leafs who doesn’t seem like he’s skating via poisonous waste, floated within the extra time winner.

These 4 gamers additionally occur to be Toronto’s main scorers via the primary three video games, the place the Lightning have been extra paced by their depth gamers like Cory Perry, or Anthony Cirelli. Tampa can take coronary heart from that as a result of their stars are more likely to chip in in an enormous approach sooner or later, however they’re additionally beginning to run somewhat quick on time. They’ll additionally take heard that within the two video games Victor Hedman has performed, they’ve principally rolled the Leafs other than a 3rd interval in a Sport 1 that was already determined. The Leafs haven’t any such participant on their again finish who simply calms issues down.

And but…they lead 2-1. Sure, they had been right here simply final 12 months. They even led 3-2 final 12 months and went into extra time with an opportunity to finish it. They didn’t. They’d Andrei Vasilevskiy wanting somewhat shaky then, simply as they do now. However this Lightning crew, with the exceeding mileage on it with one more deep run from final spring added to it, in all probability isn’t as able to as many dominant performances because it as soon as was. It simply wasted one in all them.

It’s by no means a good suggestion to get on the Leafs bandwagon. It smells and it has a brackish clientele. Nevertheless it’s nonetheless rolling, which after yesterday, is one thing of a brand new trick.