The Canadian Press
Jonas Siegel
TORONTO–Few in the Maple Leafs’ locker-room know what it feels like to clinch a playoff berth in the NHL–and it showed some last night.
The Leafs had a chance to punch their first ticket to the post-season since 2013 but fell flat in a 4-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Air Canada Centre.
Afterward, head coach Mike Babcock wondered whether the group was tightening up as the city prepared itself for a once unlikely entry in the playoffs.
“We made it way harder than it should be,” he noted.
“You go over and over a foundation of how to play so in the big moments you do what you do, but we didn’t do that.”
The defeat kept the Lightning and N.Y. Islanders alive in the race for the last Eastern Conference playoff spot while ensnaring the Leafs in a precarious weekend challenge–albeit one in which they control their own fate.
Secure two points over two games against Pittsburgh and Columbus, two Metropolitan division heavyweights, and the club marches into the playoffs for only the second time since 2004.
Fall short and talk of another late-season meltdown follows.
Among the five players remaining from the last Leafs playoff squad (and also those that fell apart in now infamous fashion), Tyler Bozak didn’t think the group was feeling the weight of clinching despite the lacklustre showing against Tampa, which followed a 4-1 loss to Washington on Tuesday.
“No, I think we’re excited,” Bozak said. “Me, personally, I haven’t been in this position a lot, so it’s nice to be a part of it and it’s something that we’re really enjoying.
“So hopefully we have a better result next game.”
Seemingly fatigued in their loss to the Capitals, the Leafs looked like they had some energy back in the early going against the Lightning, nearly scoring with a pair of chances on the second of two-straight power plays–one from Bozak, the other from Nazem Kadri.
But chances were relatively few for a usually high-powered offence. Andrei Vasilevskiy faced only 27 shots–sharp when the Leafs posed any threat, which was mostly early.
Babcock thought his team looked unusually slow.
The Lightning, by contrast, looked like the plucky group that’s risen from the ashes to join the playoff race.
The Leafs could have eliminated the Lightning with a victory.
“Obviously, everyone wants to win and I don’t know if you can say we’re nervous, but maybe we need to be a little bit sharper and just go from there,” said veteran Leo Komarov.
Earlier in the week, Babcock and his players were getting peppered with questions about what it might be like for Toronto to have playoff hockey again.
The coach kept brushing those queries back, insisting his team needed to get in first before they could start imagining what the city would be like and perhaps this was why.
Babcock likely was weary of his team jumping the gun on playoffs before they actually nailed down a spot.
Their test now is getting two points any way, any how, over the weekend–a tough task given the opponents.
“I think the players would like to be in the playoffs as much as for the fans as for themselves. I’d like to be in the playoffs, too,” Babcock said.
“But forget about that, just do what you do,” he stressed.
“Play ‘D’-zone like you do. Win faceoffs like you do,” Babcock said. “Get through the neutral zone like you do. Forecheck like you do.
“Just focus on doing your job and good things happen to you.”
