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There are no ‘must-win’ games until a team is done with a loss, only tonight’s game between the Atlantic Division rival Florida Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs certainly feels like this is one of those games.
Even though both of these teams played a literal ‘must-win’ Game 7 less than a year ago.
Both teams went into the NHL Olympic break out of a playoff spot with a lot of ground to make up.
Things did not start well for the Leafs, who saw the three-game winning streak they carried into the break end with a 4-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday night.
That means Toronto remains six points behind Boston for the final wild-card spot — and continues to hold a two-point lead on the Panthers.
Toronto’s league-high nine straight seasons in the Stanley Cup playoffs is in jeopardy of ending.
At the same juncture last season, Toronto was in first place in the Atlantic Division with 72 points, nine more than its current total.
Losing a guy like Mitch Marner, who had a career-best 102-points in his contract year, will do that to a team.
Surprisingly, the Leafs have not found a replacement for Marner, now of the Vegas Golden Knights.
William Nylander’s 52 points tops Toronto in scoring this season despite missing 17 games to injury.
Auston Matthews leads the team with 26 goals but is nowhere near the goal production level of some of his best seasons.
Two seasons back, he scored 69 goals to lead the league, besting Sam Reinhart’s 57.
Matthews was a teammate of Matthew Tkachuk on Team USA’s gold medal winners.
Nylander and Oliver Ekman-Larson played for team Sweden where they were teammates of the Panthers’ Gus Forsling.
Those friendships will be forgotten when the puck drops.
“Obviously, it’s important to me to be back here with my teammates and to have a good push here,’’ Matthews said before Wednesday’s game.
“We know how important all these games are, especially when you’re playing a divisional opponent. These next three games [Tampa Bay, Florida and Ottawa] it was important to get back here and do whatever I can to obviously help in whatever capacity I can.”
For the Panthers, this begins a sprint to the regular-season finish.
It is especially tough to jump over teams at this time of year because they are all playing each other, so everyone seems to gain points on a nightly basis.
Paul Maurice said everyone came back healthy from the Olympics. Most did not attend any practices prior to today’s morning skate with Maurice wanting them to have as much rest as possible.
With the Olympics over and the probability that some of the injured players will return very soon, the 25 remaining games provide the opportunity for a late playoff surge.
“This is it,” Maurice said. “The opportunity for extreme focus…We’ll get these guys back, hopefully sooner rather than later. We can get a real hard push here.”
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