Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe did not expect this to happen, but he feels his team will play with desperation. After all, she had a lot of practice doing just that.
“In my opinion, we just played two Game 7s,” Keefe said, referring to Toronto’s wins in Games 5 and 6.
It should be noted that they won those games without center Auston Matthews and his 69 regular-season goals in the lineup. If his illness remains undisclosed, they may have to do it again.
Matthews lasted about four minutes in Toronto’s morning skate before Game 5 on Tuesday before he left the ice and was ruled banned. He skated alone on the Maple Leafs’ practice pad at their facility on Wednesday and was working out at Scotiabank Arena Thursday morning but did not play.
Cue William Nylander.
If the Maple Leafs want to succeed, especially if Matthews can’t bounce back, they need to step up among their best players.
As did captain John Tavares in Game 5, when his powerful shot against the Bruins led to Matthew Kniss’s goal in overtime in Toronto’s 2-1 win.
As Nylander did in Game 6.
The speedy winger, who missed the first three games of the series with an undisclosed illness, scored both of Toronto’s goals and was dynamic throughout, shaking off the rust that seemed to linger in the previous two games.
Although Nylander hasn’t scored a goal since March 26, he tends to pop up in big moments during the postseason, as he has now scored seven goals in playoff games in his career.
“It was nice to score two goals, for sure,” Nylander said. “But I think the team effort, the way we fought and competed for the full 60 minutes, was unbelievable for us as well,” he added.
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