Christenshilton May 15, 2025, 12:50 PM ET
Closekristen Shilton is ESPN’s national NHL reporter.
It rained the boo at the final horn at Toronto’s Scottia Bank Arena on Wednesday night. The Maple Leafs extended the 57 Stanley Cup drought with a 6-1 blown loss to the Panthers.
Fans threw their jerseys on the ice as Toronto turned their 2-0 series lead into a 3-2 deficit. But manager Craig Berbe is hoping for his players to get out of his head for now.
“I was overthinking that last game and didn’t play hockey,” he said. “Now, [players] We need to stick together as a team tonight and breathe in. Stop thinking about the game. relax. You can think about the game when it matters. ”
To return to Toronto for Game 7, the Leafs will need to win in Florida, but they probably won’t have goaltender Anthony Stolarz first. He has been on the sidelines with a private injury since Game 1 of the series. He resumed skating over the weekend and was on the ice for a 30-minute workout on Thursday, but Berube joined Stolarz in Florida’s Leafs to join Game 6.
That led to his alternative Joseph Wal giving up five goals on Wednesday with 25 shots.
Players met after the game to break down what was wrong, and Belve planned a team meeting on Thursday after the Leafs returned to Fort Lauderdale.
“Losses are losses,” Belve said. “If we [had] Lost at 2-1 [on Wednesday] And, although it was a close game, is it really important today? We were beating. I was in this situation before. We’re all going to go down and be disappointed, but we can’t. It needs to be reorganized. ”
This includes Leafs’ top skaters. Orton Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander failed to score against Florida.
In Game 5, the Panthers repeatedly blocked Toronto’s rushing attempts, smacking them on pre-suffocating meadows that had their leaves wrapped aggressively.
Meanwhile, Florida blew Wal away until defensive man Aaron Eckblad broke through the first goal of the game late in the first period. Toronto’s own mistake – it has now become the second period of three goals, including Dmitry Klickoff defeating Ur from the Leafs’ Stick of Forward Scott Loughton, shooting bewildered sales by Marner in his own zone and setting up a strike for Jesper Bokbisvist. After AJ Greer made it 5-1 Florida with his first playoff goal, Woll agreed to Matt Murray.
“[It was] “It’s a very unfortunate thing,” Morgan Rierry said. But in the end, regardless of whether we lost the way we lost last night or whatever it was, we still worked overtime. I have to go there [to Florida] And play our best game. We can’t stick to all kinds of things [other] thing. “
The Leaf controlled the series early against Florida, collecting victory in games 1 and 2, and then fitting a multi-goal lead in game 3. The Panthers gathered in the second term of Game 3, scoring three goals to earn their first lead of the night. Lily Lee’s goal at Midway Point in the third term tied the game together and forced him to work overtime, but Brad Merchand scored the Florida game winner.
That Reel Marker will stand as Toronto’s final goal in Sergei Bobrovsky in almost sixth term hockey. Toronto was closed 2-0 by the Panthers in Game 4 and was again blanked and dangerously close, if there were no Nick Robertson markers in the second half of Game 5.
Bobrovsky struggled to open a series with the Leafs, allowing nine goals in the first two games at .820 SV%, but he has been denounced the door from the second half of that Game 3 victory. He puts aside 55 shots of 55 shots through games 4 and 5 at .982 SV%.
Robertson’s goals were of little use to the fans.
“Difficult,” Lily said. “but [fans] They have the right to do what they want to do. You need to improve and play better. I expect there will be a team that will go out and win and compete. When that doesn’t happen, everyone is upset. ”
Lierry is the longest-time member of the Leafs, experiencing many highs and lows Toronto endures trying to drive past playoff demons away. Brandon Carlo won the trade deadline in March – something new to Toronto’s history, but shared Lierie’s view that it shouldn’t last long despite the emphasis on fan responses to poor performance.
“In games like that, I don’t want to think about them much,” said Carlo, an extracurricular activity. “It’s a passionate fanbase… It certainly has its ups and downs, but from the perspective of past playoff series, I had myself in these situations, I had a bad game in the playoffs.
