Goaltender Jack Campbell of the Toronto Maple Leafs makes a save against Phillip Danault of the Montreal Canadiens during the third period in Game Four of the First Round of the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Bell Centre on May 25, 2021 in Montreal.Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images
The Maple Leafs best players were barely in public school the previous time the team won a playoff series. Auston Matthews was 6 years old. Mitch Marner was 7. William Nylander just 8.
It tells you not just how difficult it can be to win in the NHL, but also a little about the team’s hard history.
Their most notable heartbreak in recently history came when they lost to the Boston Bruins in seven games in 2013, when Toronto blew a three-goal lead and lost in overtime in the deciding game. It was the first time in NHL history that a team trailed by three goals in the third period of Game 7 and went on to win.
That stain and so much misery can be wiped away on Thursday night when the Canadiens visit Scotiabank Arena. To this point, the series has been as one-sided as it was during the regular season. The Maple Leafs won seven of 10 meetings between them then and have collected victories in three of four now.
Nobody associated with the team needs to be reminded of the frustrating failures of the past. Sheldon Keefe is just finishing his first full season as coach and it looms above him like a dark grey cloud.
“I certainly recognize the opportunity and the responsibility I have as one of the leaders of the organization,” Keefe said Wednesday. It was a day off for the team, but Keefe and Nylander were made available for virtual interviews. “For the organization and its fans, we know the hurdle we have to get over here. We don’t put any of that on the players. We have a very small group that have been here for multiple years.
“I look at this group as having its own identity, and not as being attached to anything that has happened in the past. The guys don’t wear any of those pressures, but as an organization we need to deliver for our fans.”
Toronto has strung together three victories since a Game 1 loss to take control. Montreal has scored only twice in its past three games as a result of Jack Campbell’s strong goaltending. Nylander has as many goals in the series – four – as the entire Canadiens team. He has scored in each game and if he does so again in Game 5, he will equal a club record for the Stanley Cup playoffs set in 1993 by Dave Andreychuk.
This is Nylander’s fifth shot with Toronto at winning a series. He had three goals in his first 20 postseason games but has had six in the past nine. He says he is motivated by the pain of defeat.
“I think it is the losses in the previous series,” he said Wednesday. “They hurt you. That is something I don’t want to happen this year.”
The Maple Leafs captured a division championship for the first time since 1990. They are a breath away now from moving on to meet the Winnipeg Jets in the second round.
“That has been our goal,” Nylander said. “We have a big one, but that is one small step we want to accomplish [along the way.] Our mindset is different this year.”
Toronto has done it so far without its captain, John Tavares, who was injured in the series opener. It has done it without a goal from Matthews or Marner.
In Tuesday’s 4-0 victory, the Leafs got goals from a pair of players who are a combined 78 years old. At 41 years 327 days, Joe Thornton became the oldest player in franchise history to record a playoff point. Jason Spezza had the other. He is 37.
Whippersnapper.
According to stats keepers at the NHL, it is only the third instance in which two players aged 35 each scored in a playoff game in the Maple Leafs’ 100-plus years. Campbell’s shutout was Toronto’s first against the Canadiens in the postseason since Johnny Bower did it in the second game of the Stanley Cup final in 1967. That is the last year the Leafs claimed the Cup.
Before even hoping to achieve something so marvellous again, there must be one more triumph over Montreal, and many more following it.
“There is a reason why it has been so many years because closing out a series is a very difficult thing to do,” Keefe said. “We respect that greatly and we respect our opponent. We know [Thursday night’s] game is going to be the hardest in the series.”