Mitch Marner had just needlessly sent the puck over the boards to give the Montreal Canadiens a power play and raised his head to the rafters of the Bell Centre in disbelief. His stunned look was likely worn by countless Leafs fans, all asking the same question: What in the world is going on with this Leafs team, especially its best players?
Marner sends it over the glass pic.twitter.com/q0GUMHc3gj
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) May 30, 2021
Game 6 ended up being a puzzling tale of two games for the Leafs. Their first two periods were the Leafs’ most listless of the series, with Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner in particular looking like shells of their regular-season selves, as the Montreal Canadiens played a compact defensive game and worked the Leafs into the ground with their energy. The Leafs were left seemingly without any ideas in the offensive zone.
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If it wasn’t for Jack Campbell’s excellent performance, the Leafs would have been written off. But in the third period, once again, the Leafs fought back to tie the game and send it to overtime.
Despite dominating overtime, another needless error cost the Leafs as they dropped Game 6 by a final score of 3-2.
I imagine even more heads throughout Leafs Nation looked to the skies and asked: How does this keep happening to this team?
Matthews' reaction to the goal pic.twitter.com/Nmy4UkT4Ag
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) May 30, 2021
“Montreal in both games had a real hard push at the start, and we can’t get through that,” said Sheldon Keefe. “Can’t break out, can’t get momentum and life to get through it. I thought obviously the crowd and the push at the start was significant for them. Obviously, we’ve got to be a whole lot better there.”
On to the observations!
Player reports
1st star: T.J. Brodie (RD, No. 78): Meet the next mayor of Chatham-Kent.
One positive from a game that ultimately raised more questions about this Leafs team was the consistent play of Brodie. If Muzzin is indeed out in Game 7, Brodie is going to have to log big, big minutes.
Brodie lost a puck battle or two but also did well to get his stick down and break up some Canadiens passes in the first period. I liked his efforts to get down low in the offensive zone and create a surprise turnover. When the Leafs needed composure on both sides of the puck in the third period, Brodie was their guy.
Like Jason Spezza, Brodie didn’t overthink things and just put the puck on net late in the game for the tying goal. He logged 31:18 TOI.
T.J. BRODIE 🚨
TIE GAME! LET'S GO! pic.twitter.com/RfjgyakfU3
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) May 30, 2021
2nd star: Jack Campbell (G, No. 36): Campbell picked a good day to put up one of his better efforts as a Leaf. Great patience and positioning from Campbell in the first two minutes as the Canadiens were buzzing around the Leafs net and put up six shots in that time.
Jack has Perry in his face but makes the save pic.twitter.com/vfdnsUTnDf
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) May 30, 2021
For most of the game, he looked like the only Leaf who sensed the opportunity in front of him, and he made a ton of excellent saves. I know people are going to grill him for being that far out of the net on the Canadiens’ first goal, but the Leafs don’t get to where they ended up without him and his late-game saves. He stopped 28 of 31 shots.
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3rd star: Morgan Rielly (LD, No. 44): An excellent pass from Rielly to Foligno in the slot in the first period was a rare highlight from the Leafs early on. He continued to play a calm, smart game with his puck movement and generally made good second efforts defensively. He logged 34:43 TOI and had 72 percent of the five-on-five expected goals. (All stats via Natural Stat Trick).
B+
Jason Spezza (C, No. 19): Remember when Spezza dropped the gloves with Columbus Blue Jackets defenceman Dean Kukan in Game 4 of the qualification round last year to try to spark the Leafs? That’s what his third-period goal reminded me of. He didn’t overthink things, just threw the puck on net and the Leafs found some life afterward. Kudos to him for his continued energy late in the game.
Alex Kerfoot (LW, No. 15): Good puck movement throughout the game. He was one of their more consistently engaged players, even if that bar was pretty low for most of the game. Kerfoot created some good chances in overtime. He had an assist.
William Nylander (RW, No. 88): He was picking pockets, double-shifting and. once again, looking like the Leafs’ best forward. He moved the puck well all game and forced a turnover ahead of the Leafs goal. His penalty was not a great one to take, but overall, he continued to elevate his game.
Pierre Engvall (C, No. 47): Engvall showcased decent possession and passing, most notably on his assist to Brodie on the Leafs’ tying goal. He hung in and looked more and more confident with the puck when the game became more tense, which has to be a pleasant surprise for the coaching staff.
B-
Jake Muzzin (LD, No. 8): Muzzin made some decent outlet passes and provided his typical steadying influence until he left the game in the second period.
Here is what took Muzzin out. Looks like he pulled something pic.twitter.com/hWWYh1CFCZ
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) May 30, 2021
Really, really not good for the Leafs.
C+
Zach Bogosian (RD, No. 22): Excellent play from Bogosian to stand up Josh Anderson as he had a clear look at the goal late in the first period. His play with the puck and his physicality in overtime were strong. His positioning on the overtime goal might have prevented Campbell from stopping the puck, however.
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Zach Hyman (LW, No. 11): I liked his energy off the puck, but with the puck he was far from dominant. He undoubtedly had the most energy of his line, but he still needed to connect with his linemates a little more often closer to the Canadiens goal.
C
Ilya Mikheyev (RW, No. 65): Mikheyev continued to build on his decent last few games with some noted aggressiveness in the offensive zone, which was needed after he lost a few puck battles in his own zone. He had chances to score with four shots on goal, but has yet to score his first playoff goal.
Auston Matthews (C, No. 34): There were glimpses of that hunger for goals that he showed throughout the regular season, but something just seemed off with Matthews for most of the game. He wasn’t moving with as much energy as you’d hope. He ended up throwing seven shots on net, but his shot didn’t have the same pop and he never looked in control of the game. Like Marner, he needs to produce more. His low shooting percentage would indicate he’s going to break out of his funk, but the runway to do so is incredibly short.
Auston Matthews had 15 shot attempts in Game 6.
He’s shooting 3.1 percent in this series — 1 goal on 32 shots.
— Jonas Siegel (@jonassiegel) May 30, 2021
Nick Foligno (C, No. 71): Though he attempted to get into some good spots, Foligno wasn’t all that effective on both sides of the puck. He probably was not feeling 100 percent in his first game back after injury, but he did not look like the player the Leafs needed.
C-
Travis Dermott (LD, No. 23): Dermott looked fine offensively but continued to be overwhelmed when defending against the rush. His turnover in overtime was costly. For a Leafs team whose blue line is beat up, he’s going to need to recover quickly.
D+
Alex Galchenyuk (LW, No. 12): Galchenyuk responded to his poor performance in Game 5’s overtime with an energetic first few shifts. He could be accused of trying to do too much with the puck, but his energy was a boon to a team that needed it out of the gate.
Still, for all that energy, he lacked much in the way of offence, finishing with just one shot and 42 percent five-on-five expected goals, the lowest of any Leafs forward.
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D
Wayne Simmonds (RW, No. 24): Simmonds was on the wrong end of a few big hits and was far from a threat offensively. He was not dangerous near the Canadiens goal.
Mitch Marner (RW, No. 16): Marner helped weather the storm on the penalty kill during an early onslaught from the Canadiens. He was blocking shots. Offensively, I thought Marner looked fine in the first period, slowing down on the rush and using his deft passing skills to create chances.
But as the game wore on, Marner looked less and less like the player who finished fourth in NHL scoring this season. We know he has the ability to dominate the game offensively, but you wouldn’t know it from his play in Game 6. He needed to be far more aggressive moving toward the goal and make simple plays with the puck.
I gave Marner and Matthews the benefit of the doubt earlier in the series, but they don’t deserve that benefit for two games in a row. The Leafs needed their best players to be just that. Marner and Matthews might have started to click late in the game, but the Leafs needed far more than that.
“I thought they worked really hard but didn’t get enough done,” Keefe said of the Leafs’ top line.
I have no idea what Marner was thinking when he flipped the puck over the glass. It’s a bad sign for the Leafs when one of their best players plays without composure in the third period of a playoff game.
“It’s a dumb play. I’ve got to shoot it down, try to get it down the ice for (Hyman) to chase on it. But it went over the glass,” Marner said of the play.
Justin Holl (RD, No. 3): An ugly night. Holl had trouble controlling the puck in his own zone throughout the first period and didn’t fare much better in puck battles. He looked lost without his defence partner and registered a team-worst 40 percent five-on-five expected goals.
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Nothing to see here:
Joe Thornton (LW, No. 97): Decent efforts to cycle the puck, but not much else. He was not a factor. The offensive creativity he showed at times this season was nowhere to be found.
Game Score
Game Score is a metric developed by The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn to quickly measure a player’s performance in a single game.
Heat map
Natural Stat Trick helps us out with a snapshot of where the shots were coming from Saturday:
Final grade: D
We can look at the details, including bad habits re-emerging as the Leafs power play looked uninspired with unnecessary puck movement and zero shots through their first two power plays. We wonder about a lack of energy to start the game. We can look at Keefe’s questionable decision to challenge a goal. All of it, I’m sure Jonas Siegel and James Mirtle will go over in great detail.
But for now, with 40 percent of the five-on-five expected goals through the first two periods and 87 percent of the expected goals in the third period and overtime, this was another example of the team that Kyle Dubas used the term “Jekyll and Hyde” to describe … once again. It’s incredibly concerning that the Leafs woke up way too late two games in a row, especially considering the heightened importance of those games. They had an opportunity to seize this game. The talent is there and, as evidenced by their play in overtime, the ability to dominate games is there, as well.
The ability to do so for a full 60 minutes when it matters is not.
“I thought obviously we controlled things significantly in that overtime, and there were periods in the game, back half of the first period we started to find ourselves and we were going OK,” Keefe said. “The second period has been a strength for us this series, but that’s two games in a row now it hasn’t been. Those are the kind of things we’ve got to focus on. We’re not focused on any of the other things that, frankly, are irrelevant in this moment for our team.”
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What to watch for Monday in Game 7: Well, everything.
If Muzzin is unavailable, another lineup change is coming.
But beyond the lineup changes, it’s safe to call Game 7 the biggest game in a generation for the Leafs. At home, against their storied rivals, a team they were heavily favoured to beat coming into the series, a win could change the narrative about this core and their inability to win series-clinching playoff games.
A loss would waste one of the best regular seasons in recent memory and make the questions about this talented team louder than they’ve been in years.
“I don’t think pressure is an issue here,” Keefe said. “It’s just a matter of playing a hockey game where we’ve got to elevate our play.”
(Richard Lautens / Toronto Star via Getty Images)
