TAMPA – In the ashes of all these sad, shortened springs, a recurring phrase will pop out of the mouths of various Toronto Maple Leafs and brass players who paid them.
Killer instinct.
Anyway, they had to call him somehow.
In 2017, when Austin Matthews and Mitchell Marner were children with a dazzling future and no expectations, Toronto jumped to a 2-1 lead in the series over the mighty Washington Capitals. The leaves fell three in a row.
In 2018, Maple Leafs led 4-3 in the third period of Game 7 in Boston. The Bruins scored the next four goals.
In 2019, Toronto led the series 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 over the same Bruins and failed to close the deal.
In 2021, they allowed a 3-1 lead to the team with the lowest playoffs. As if playing a bad joke with their fans, they continue to dream of new creative ways to figure it out. To shrink from the moment.
This thug was immaterial nowhere.
Forward: Entering Sunday’s Game 4, the Maple Leafs performed well in this series, with full value in building a 1-0 and 2-1 lead.
Yet, presented with a second chance to grab a series of suffocations, Maple Leafs could not find its valuable killer instinct in Tampa Bay if it was spotted on a pirated GPS map.
They were absolutely sons on Mother’s Day.
Ever since the first 7-3 Champions League sticking, Lightning has been the aggressor, the dictator in pace, precision and determination.
Knowing well that the desperate Lightning would come with a violent push from a falling puck, Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe curiously started his third pair in defense of Mark Giordano and Justin Hall.
They were immediately overwhelmed and overwhelmed to the point where Tampa managed to change the line before captain Stephen Stamkos hit his first of the series – the first shot of the game.
Before Maple Leafs registered their second hit of the evening, the result was already 3-zip.
The flash passed through the area of the offensive, as if they had E-ZPass sewn into the fabric of sweaters. They gained access to the network as VIPs at the fishing pier.
Every member of Tampa’s acclaimed, cunning fourth line – Pierre-Edward Belmar, Pat Marun, Corey Perry – scored a goal.
Tampa’s own area still shone with fresh spots from Zamboni to the 10-minute mark.
It was a prank. It was a message. It was a shame.
Erik Källgren swapped the ball for the mask, before it ended in half, attracting a save for starter Jack Campbell. The goalkeeper cannot be blamed for the decision of 18 skaters not to appear, but allowing five goals in 16 shots will not bring you victory.
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As usual, Maple said all the right things leading to Game 4.
Keefe said they might be “greedy” after securing a split on Friday, noting that the Leafs have yet to play their best game in the series.
“We’re playing against a great team,” said William Nilander, “so we don’t want to relax.”
He’s right.
The lightning is great. They have the banners and the arrogance to prove it.
Hungry, fast and full of tasks, they forced Maple Leafs to make mistakes, but the guests bowed softly and aimlessly before the execution.
“We have a recipe. We have a plan. We’ve been in situations like this before, “said coach John Cooper before the puck fell. Then he correctly issued a prediction: “We will go back.”
The legend of Andrei Vassilevsky and the ridiculous Lightning winning streak after a post-season loss – now 16-0 – grew on Sunday, just as Maple Leafs are looking for an equally long killer instinct.
If there’s any good news to draw from those disastrous 60 minutes, it’s that momentum has never been carried over from game to game in this ping-pong series.
The disclosure, which narrows to the best of three, is reset.
It is imperative that maple leaves do the same.
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The speed of the fox 5
• John Tavares has not scored a goal in the series yet. However, Nylander boarded twice on Sunday.
“As long as your team wins, it doesn’t matter what happens to you individually,” Nylander said.
• Zac Boghossian was asked if he would allow Anthony Sirelli to look after his children. Absolutely. Sirelli even bought Christmas presents for the three young children of the big D-man.
“Just a super nice kid,” Bogosyan told the exclusion center. “You see how furious he is on the ice, and off the ice he’s just a polite, kind, good Italian kid.”
• For some reason, Perry abandoned his routine of shooting a puck into the Maple Leafs net at the end of the warm-up. Asked why he was doing it, Perry replied with a straight face, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Pierre Engwall threw the puck into the Bolts’ net before leaving the ice, as he did before game 3. (He missed.)
• Maple Leafs played football in the bowels of the arena before the match. The lightning threw a soccer ball. Hockey should be the only team sport in which players relax while playing other team sports.
• The series is even, the games not so much.
The first team to score first in each of the four games not only won, but never fell behind or even tied. The winner has a three-goal lead in all four.
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