Analysis | Maple Leafs hurt by mistakes as Panthers ride momentum to Game 1 win

As historic moments go, the Maple Leafs failed to rise to Tuesday night’s occasion.

The Leafs played all right — they controlled play and had their scoring chances — but their first crack at a second-round Stanley Cup playoff series in 19 years went to the opportunistic Florida Panthers.

Carter Verhaeghe scored a momentum-killing breakaway goal late in the second period, and Brandon Montour put the game away with a slapshot that fooled a flailing Ilya Samsonov as the Panthers took Game 1 by a score of 4-2.

“Florida played a great game here today,” Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. “But it’s a long series, just like the last one we just played, and we will make some adjustments and our guys will come back in Game 2.”

The Leafs played a far more complete version of hockey on Tuesday than they did against Tampa. They were more physical. They were rarely pressured in their own zone, their zone entries and exits were fine, so there was a lot to like about how they played.

But their power play failed to score, and Samsonov had a bit of a weaker game, at least in comparison to Sergei Bobrovsky as the Leafs face a former Vezina Trophy-winning goalie for the second series in a row.

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

“It’s a quicker pace out there (than against Tampa). They’ve got a lot of skill that executes at a high rate of speed. That’s the difference. You could tell they’ve got a lot of confidence and they’re feeling real good about themselves.”

Matthew Knies scored his first NHL goal for the Leafs, and Michael Bunting got his first goal of the playoffs.

Knies became the 10th player in franchise history to score his first NHL career goal in the playoffs. And for a while it turned the momentum, coming 11 seconds after Sam Bennett gave Florida a 2-0 lead. Knies’ goal was a beauty. As he carried the puck through the crease, Bobrovsky tried a poke check that went wrong. Both Knies and Bobrovsky got turned around, but Knies controlled the puck and scored on a backhand into a largely empty net.

It was followed quickly by Bunting’s goal that tied the game. The Leafs were firmly in control. The crowd was with them. They were laying all the big hits: Luke Schenn on Matthew Tkachuk, Morgan Rielly on Eric Staal, Jake McCabe on Anthony Duclair. But T.J. Brodie — the last man back — tried for a pinch that didn’t go well. The Panthers sprung Verhaeghe on a breakaway and he easily beat Samsonov with just 2:13 to go in the second period.

“We’re fine and come back in the game and we’re in a good spot,” said Keefe. “We give them a breakaway to the one guy we definitely do not want to give a breakaway to.

“We cannot make that mistake. It’s 2-2, late in the period. That’s a tough one.”

Bobbing for saves

The Leafs did a terrific job getting pucks at Andrei Vasilevskiy to take down Tampa in six. They’ll need to do a better job in front of Bobrovsky, who can be as hot as any goaltender, but can run cold as well.

Bobrovsky was at his best with the Leafs’ net empty, stopping William Nylander with a pad save, and John Tavares with a glove save, and maybe getting lucky when Auston Matthews ripped a shot off the post, and then stopping Tavares again during a dying-moments Leaf power play.

“We’ve got get more in front of him,” Keefe said of how the team will approach Bobrovsky in Game 2. “One of the big differences in our scoring chances that we had here tonight, whether you look at the power play chances or five-on-five, or six-on-five, we had a lot more tonight in closer to the net than we’ve had maybe in the previous series.

“We’ve just got to make good on those.”

Meanwhile the Panthers did just enough — perhaps riding that wave of emotion after upsetting the Bruins — to silence the Scotiabank Arena crowd that had been amped for the team’s first appearance in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs since 2004.

“I thought we were good,” said Panthers coach Paul Maurice. “We had a good push back. That will be the battle of the series. Both teams have things that they’re good at.”

Stats pack

Matthews’ assist on Knies’ goal extended his points streak to seven games, tying Mats Sundin and Darryl Sittler for the second-longest playoff opening streak in team history. Gary Leeman has the record at eight.

With Matthews and Mitch Marner, the Leafs have two players with at least 10 points in the playoffs since 2002, when the team went to the conference final.

Rielly became the first Leafs defenceman with six assists in a playoff year since Brian Leetch in 2004.

Underdog talk

The Panthers embraced the role of the underdog in upsetting the Boston Bruins in the first round, but given that this group of Leafs haven’t been to the second round, both teams appear to be playing with house money. They each spent a great deal of time trying to apply the pressure on the other team, by extension lowering the pressure on themselves.

“You got a team coming in right in the high of a Game 7 win and I think historically speaking, when you look at it, these types of games tend to favour the team coming off of the Game 7 win,” said Keefe.

But it was tit-for-tat as far as Florida star Matthew Tkachuk was concerned.

“We were the crazy underdog story, and that doesn’t change this series,” said Tkachuk. “Boston did what they did, but Toronto was the one team that was right behind them. So I guess the prize for knocking off the best team in the league is to get the second-best in the league now. So it’s going to be a very, very similar challenge for us.”

The Leafs were second to Boston in the Atlantic Division, but fifth overall. The Panthers were 18th overall.

Criss-cross

The Panthers are the 26th different team the Toronto franchise has faced in the playoffs since 1918, including defunct clubs such as the Vancouver Millionaires and New York Americans. But there are Leaf links all over the Panthers organization. Paul Maurice coached the Leafs and Marlies. Verhaeghe was drafted by the Leafs. Defence coach Sylvain Lefebvre played for the Leafs, as did executives Paul Fenton and Bryan McCabe.

Leafs notes

The Leafs paid tribute to singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, an honorary Leafs captain for the NHL’s 75th year celebration in 1991-92. Lightfoot died Monday at 84 … Wingers Sam Lafferty and Wayne Simmonds and defencemen Justin Holl and Conor Timmins were among the Leafs’ scratches.

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