Opinion | Those Panthers that pounced on the Maple Leafs in Game 1? They don’t look like underdogs

When the Toronto Maple Leafs advanced to the second round and radio man Jim Ralph said, “What do we do now?” — somehow dry and earnest at the same — it was hilariously profound. The second round? The Leafs? Against an eighth-seeded Florida team that has, er, unpredictable goaltending? After years of falling short, welcome to life as the Stanley Cup favourites, for now.

Things change fast in the playoffs, though, and here’s what’s clear about the Panthers: that ain’t no underdog. In Game 1 the Leafs had their moments, but if styles make fights, they never quite figured out how to handle a Florida team that played fast, controlled possession, and got goaltending. So the Panthers won Game 1 by a score of 4-2, and you can’t say they didn’t deserve it, either.

“I thought we were good tonight,” said Panthers coach Paul Maurice. “I didn’t think we were great.”

“I think you adjust to your opponent,” said Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe. “There’s some real high-end skill through their lineup that can make a lot of plays at a high pace. So when you make a mistake the recovery time, it’s not really there. I think that caught us. I think our guys will adjust to that.

“I thought we made mistakes. Credit to Florida, because of how they play, they force you to make mistakes. But I thought we made some mistakes tonight that we didn’t make in the last series.”

Indeed, defenceman Luke Schenn called the errors self-inflicted. The Leafs got chances; the Panthers got more chances. The Leafs were fast; the Panthers were as fast, and more urgent. The Leafs were physical. So were the Panthers, they love that.

This looked like a different kind of series. Game 1 wasn’t tight: it looked more like a dirt-bike race to start, full of space to create and swerve, with some freight-train hits flying around, too.

But as the game did tighten some, the Panthers looked as comfortable as they needed to be. As Maurice said of playoff hockey, “that gap isn’t as big as people think. The separation isn’t as big as people think.”

Yep. Florida’s Matthew Tkachuk was the best player on the ice, and his line with Sam Bennett and Nick Cousins ate the John Tavares line alive, Selke nominee Mitch Marner and all. Toronto got him a little under control in the second, but Tkachuk added a third assist on Florida’s fourth goal in the third, and his old Arizona buddy Auston Matthews didn’t have much success against him, either.

In all, at 5-on-5, Tkachuk was on the ice for 26 shot attempts for and eight against, and his line controlled 75 per cent of the expected goals. Keefe reunited Matthews and Marner in the second period to deal with Tkachuk; it slowed him down, but didn’t entirely work. They’ll need a solution, there. Maurice offered a peaen to him after the game, talking about not just his hands, not just his production, but how his personality off the ice — taking trainers out to dinner, being kind to the flight attendants on the team plane, caring about his teammates — is the exact opposite of him on the ice.

Tkachuk defined Game 1. But what was it Tampa’s Andrei Vasilevskiy said in the last round, about how Toronto tried so hard to get the puck to the front of the net? “Last year they were trying to play more of a skill game. I’m not sure (if they’re doing) something different, or we just aren’t doing as good job as last year as a team in front, but I think last year they played more skill hockey.”

The Leafs got the puck all the way to the crease on their two goals, both on pretty, blitzkrieg-fast rush plays, and tied the game 2-2 in the second. They got other chances right at home plate, including William Nylander late. Skill, properly applied, can still win.

But high-event hockey means high events, and Florida’s Carter Verhaeghe finished a late second-period breakaway after a T.J. Brodie pinch that went awry, and the Panthers added a fourth goal in the third, and Sergei Bobrovsky was good. He could easily let in nine goals in Game 2, but he was good.

Underdogs? After they outlasted the record-smashing Boston Bruins? Maybe not.

“I don’t think (being underdogs) fuels us. I don’t think we necessarily care,” said Tkachuk, one of the pure competitors in the sport, before Game 1. “But I guess the one thing that brought us together last (series) was the fact that we knew we were the crazy underdog story … Boston did what they did, but Toronto is the one team that was right behind them. So I guess the prize for knocking off the best team in the league is we get the second-best team in the league now.

“We’re kind of oblivious to the situation that we’re in almost, and that’s a great thing for us. Staying right in the moment, not letting the outside noise (affect us); that’s a great thing.”

Of all the contrasts between the money laundering-like operation in Sunrise, Fla., and the money-printing machine on Bay Street, that last statement is perhaps the key for the players: noise. The Panthers rival Anaheim and Arizona as teams that would most easily double as witness protection programs. The Leafs, meanwhile, are now chasing the series.

“Tomorrow, sun is up, yeah?” said Leafs goalie Ilya Samsonov, who stopped 24 of 28 shots.

The forecast is for rain, but you know what he meant. In this parity-drenched pinball league, the Leafs should still be the favourites; it’s just not clear, yet, that they are. What will they do now?

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