Panthers defend Maple Leafs after Game 7 thrashing

The Florida Panthers thrashed the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-1 on Sunday in Game 7 at Scotiabank Arena, booking another trip to the Eastern Conference Final.

That gave the team front-row seats to a cascade of boos from the home faithful after the Maple Leafs came out flat in another disappointing effort in a Game 7.

Toronto lost its seventh-consecutive Game 7 dating back to 2013, and fell to 0-7 in series-deciding games with forwards Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander on the roster.

The Panthers came to the defence of their opponents after the game ended after coming out on top of a difficult series.

“This is a much better team than we played two years ago. Much better,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said of the Maple Leafs, who they defeated in five games in 2023.

“This team is in that group of teams like ours, there’s maybe 11 this year, then there’s eight that have a chance. They’re one of those teams. You’re going to assign a whole bunch of character flaws that just aren’t true.”

Panthers forward Brad Marchand, who entered a class of his own in NHL history Sunday by becoming the first player in league history to win five Game 7s against the same franchise (four with the Boston Bruins, one with Florida), echoed the sentiment.

“If you look at the heat this team catches, it’s actually really unfortunate,” Marchand said.

“They’ve been working at building something really big here for a while, and they were a different brand of hockey this year. They are getting crucified and I don’t think it’s justified just because they weren’t able to do it. But we are a really good, deep team, too, and that’s how things go sometimes.”

Marchand is perhaps the opposing player most qualified to evaluate the Maple Leafs in these situations, given his history, but there is something to be said for the repeated failing by the Maple Leafs in these spots.

Matthews and Marner, considered by many to be an elite offensive duo, have combined for zero goals in their six Game 7s played together.

But Marchand doesn't view it on a player-by-player basis.

“When you see the pressure Toronto faces, and everyone is talking about the 20-, 30-year build up or whatever it is, you see the fans, they just beat the pressure into this team," said Marchand, who grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and admitted after the game that he grew up a Maple Leafs fan.

"It’s got to be tough on those guys to walk to the rink every day and not feel that. You see the way the fans treated them at the end, like how do you not feel that every single day? When you go through big games, you realize which are actually big games and which are big moments.”

Maurice chalked up the result of the game to a couple good bounces, rather than a domination by the Panthers.

“We own the first 10 minutes of the first period, they owned the second 10 minutes,” he said. “If you flip it, you’d say, ‘Oh, they came out right.’ We came out right, they found the answer to come back at us. That’s the truth. We score the goal and it’s just a puck to the net. It’s so much closer than you think, but you are going to kill those guys and they don’t deserve it.

“Before the puck dropped tonight, there were five teams left in the NHL. Five, all of them capable of winning. The puck went our way tonight. That’s it.”

The Panthers recorded 75 shot attempts in the first two periods, which is the highest mark by any team this season  - regular season or playoffs.

It wasn't until the 11:34 mark of the first period that Toronto registered their first shot on net, and finished the second period with a ghastly 26-12 disparity in shots on goal.