The “hockey capital of the world” Toronto messed up Finnish time last night. The Maple Leafs won the NHL playoff series for the first time since 2004.
Toronto is one of the NHL’s “Original Six” teams and has won the Stanley Cup 13 times. The last dynasty is from the 1960s. Then the team won the championship four times. The last time the Stanley Cup was celebrated in Toronto was at the end of the 1966–67 season.
For years, Toronto has not come close. In the spring of 2004, Toronto advanced from the first round of the playoffs, but then lost to Philadelphia.
Since then, the Maple Leafs had not won a single playoff series. In the spring of 2004, Toronto had managed to try seven times, but always lost in the opening round of the playoffs, if you include the qualifying round of summer 2020 played in the corona bubble.
Toronto had lost ten straight matches in which it was possible to end the playoff series one way or the other. According to ESPN (you will be transferred to another service) it was the second worst performance in history when considering the NHL, NBA and MLB. The weakest performance in this statistic is the 13 consecutive losses of the Winnipeg Jets / Arizona Coyotes from the NHL.
Now Toronto did it. Of course, the team is considered one of the strongest championship candidates by Auston Matthews, by Mitchell Marner, by William Nylander and by John Tavares under.
A year ago, the then-reigning champion Tampa Bay Lightning knocked off Toronto in seven games. Toronto led the series 3–2, but in the sixth game, Tampa tied it in three sets and won in overtime. Then in game seven, Tampa won 2–1.
Now the setting was much the same. Toronto led in wins 3–2 going into Finland’s time in last night’s game of six. Auston Matthews hit in the second inning, but the Tampa skipper Steven Stamkos in the third set, in 44.11, brought it to the level of Tampa.
We went to the overtime, which ended in 4:36. Captain Tavares became the hero. Toronto continues with a 4–2 victory, in the next round the winner of the pair Boston Bruins–Florida Panthers will face off.
The game that ended the series was played in Tampa’s home arena, but the end of almost twenty years of torment caused Torontonians to stir in the streets and markets.
The message in the Toronto media was clear: “The curse is over!” For example, the Toronto Star shared tweets from the Maple Leafs square on its website after the victory was decided.
Various media also pondered how the world looked when Toronto last won the playoff series. Facebook was founded in the same year, LeBron James won the NBA rookie of the year award…
Local time in Toronto, there were significant delays in public transport in the evening due to the crowds. However, the service responsible for public transport also tweeted: “Go, Leafs, Go!”, and the Maple Leafs responded with a smiley face of their apologies.
Toronto head coach Sheldon Keefe stated that he doesn’t remember anything about Tavares’ winning goal.
Tavares, the winning goal scorer, agreed According to the Toronto Sun (you will be transferred to another service)that the team had talked about previous disappointments.
– Whatever came our way, we found a way to win. Hell of a job from our team. This is great for all of Leafs Nation, they’ve been there for us for so long. It’s just another step, but it feels good to finish the streak and knock off Tampa.
Matthews, 25, who is already playing in his seventh season in Toronto, stated that he cannot put the feeling into words.
– Everyone should be proud of their contribution throughout the series, but tonight we just wanted to get the job done. Nice feeling. The monkey fell off the back for many of us.
The Toronto team, however, tried to approach the playoff series win with moderation.
– This was a significant step, but we don’t celebrate this much more. There is a lot of work ahead. It feels like the best is yet to come, said Keefe.
– We are relieved, we are happy. At the same time, this was just the opening round, acknowledged the defender Morgan Rielly.
The Tampa Bay Lightning had won 11 of their previous 12 playoff series. They won the championship in 2020 and 2021 and lost in the final series to Colorado last summer.
For example ESPN rated (you’re moving to another service), that Tampa ran out of energy, which wouldn’t be surprising after three seasons that went all the way to the finals. The star players didn’t quite reach their level, for example Nikita Kucherov missed one hit in the Toronto series. For what is considered the best goalkeeper in the world Andrei Vasilevskiy too mistakes happened.
– We played well enough to win this series, but we just can’t lose three times at home in overtime, summed up Tampa’s head coach Jon Cooper According to TSN (you switch to another service).
Toronto took three of its four wins in the series in Tampa, all of them in overtime.
– This team hasn’t lost a playoff series against an Eastern Conference team since 2019. We’re not used to this feeling, Cooper lamented.
Rangers–Devils to a tie game
The New York Rangers extended their series against the New Jersey Devils to a seventh game with a 5-2 win at Madison Square Garden. The situation in the match series is now 3–3.
New Jersey had to return to the other side of the Hudson River empty-handed, despite scoring the opening goal of the match. Curtis Lazar gave New Jersey the lead in the opening set, but at the end of the set the Rangers Chris Kreider leveled the situation at 1–1.
In the second period, the Rangers went to their expense when Mika Zibanejad and Vladimir Tarasenko succeeded. In the final Barclay Goodrow and Braden Schneider already took the Rangers to a 5–1 lead until Dawson Mercer narrowed down to final readings 2–5.
of New Jersey Erik Haula worked on for 20 minutes, but was left without power points. 15 minutes played for Rangers Kaapo Kako missed points like Haula. In Rangers’ three-pack pair Niko Mikkola toiled for a good 12 minutes and assisted his teammate Schneider’s goal in the final set.
The decisive meeting between the teams will be played early on Tuesday Finnish time. The winner of the match series will face the Carolina Hurricanes in the next round.
The Edmonton Oilers ended the Kings’ season
The Edmonton Oilers joined Toronto, Carolina, Dallas and Vegas in the top eight. The Oilers will face the Vegas Golden Knights in the next round.
A goalkeeper who got into a strong spring mood Joonas Korpisalo the season ended when the Los Angeles Kings lost to Edmonton 4–5.
In the opening set, they hit Edmonton in order Connor McDavidof Kings Sean Durzi and Edmonton Klim Kostin.
In the second round Leon Draisaitl led the Oilers to a two-goal runaway, but Adrian Kempe and Kevin Fiala brought the Kings level. In the middle of the match, Kostin hit the second time and put the Oilers ahead again.
Phillip Danault in 47:56 brought the tenacious Kings back to level, but Kailer Yamamoto scored the Oilers’ 5–4 winning goal with three minutes left in the game. Edmonton progressed with a 4–2 win.
1st round of the playoffs, 6th matches (with four wins to continue):
Tampa Bay–Toronto and. 1–2 (0–0, 0–1, 1–0, 0–1)
Toronto continues with match wins 4–2
NY Rangers–New Jersey 5–2 (1–1, 2–0, 2–1)
NYR: Niko Mikkola 0+1
Match wins 3–3
Los Angeles–Edmonton 4–5 (1–2, 2–2, 1–1)
LA: Joonas Korpisalo 21/25 saves
Edmonton continues with match wins 4–2