NHL
Advertisement
live
Updated 31s ago
The defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers look to tie the series on home ice in Game 4 against Toronto.
Follow along below for the latest updates, insight and analysis from The Athletic's team of NHL experts on the ground in Florida.
Subscribe to The Athletic on an exclusive offer here.
Max Domi gets a high-stick penalty just two minutes into the game, and the Panthers go to the power play.
Advertisement
P1 19:20 – Maple Leafs 0, Panthers 0
Shot by Aleksander Barkov saved by Joseph Woll
P1 20:00 – Maple Leafs 0, Panthers 0
We are under way in Florida as the Panthers try to even the series with the Maple Leafs.
Might be something, might be nothing but there are far more blue and white jerseys in and around Amerant Bank Arena for Game 4 compared to Friday night. It didn't feel like there were that many Leafs fans, at least compared to regular-season games, for Game 3. Let's see if the uptick in fans makes any kind of difference tonight.
The matchups to start Game 4: Auston Matthews and the Maple Leafs' No. 1 line vs. the Panthers' Brad Marchand-led third line.
Game 4 is on tap.
Advertisement
SUNRISE, Fla. – Will we see a low-scoring game tonight or at all in this series?
The Leafs and Panthers combined for nine goals in Game 1, seven in Game 2 and nine more in Game 3.
Maybe the better question is: Will we see better goaltending tonight? Sergei Bobrovsky owns an .840 save percentage in this series and has looked beatable throughout. Joseph Woll's save percentage is .869 in 2.5 games against the Panthers.
One or both figures to rebound at some point.
Tonight William Nylander can become the first Maple Leafs player with at least seven goals through his first 10 games of a postseason since Dave Andreychuk in 1993.
Morgan Rielly (4-3—7 in nine games played) sits one goal shy of becoming the fourth Maple Leafs defenseman with at least five in a single postseason. He would join Ian Turnbull (six in 1978), Dmitri Mironov (six in 1994) and Bryan McCabe (five in 2002).
With hopes of a rally to keep its chances of a repeat alive, Florida would become the seventh reigning Stanley Cup champion in the NHL’s expansion era (since 1967-68) to overcome a 2-0 series deficit to advance. Three have done so beyond the opening round (TBL: 2022 CF; MTL: 1987 DF; and NYI: 1984 CF).
Brad Marchand, fresh off the overtime winner in Game 3, owns an active five-game point streak (2-5—7 in five games). He can become the fourth player in Panthers history with a run of six games – a list led by Dave Lowry (seven games in 1996).
Advertisement
The remaining schedule for the Maple Leafs and Panthers. Toronto currently leads the series 2-1.
Toronto was up 2-0 in the series and 3-1 in Game 3 and looked like it would cruise to a 3-0 lead. The dominance was on full display.
The Leafs were poised to take a 3-0 series lead against the defending Stanley Cup champions, something that had happened only five times in NHL history
But Florida responded like a champion, and now we have a series heading into Game 4.
GO FURTHER
Mirtle: Panthers are hammering Maple Leafs in one key area. Will it matter?
Joseph Woll replaced Anthony Stolarz in goal during Toronto's win in Game 1, and he will start for the third straight game tonight. So how has he fared in the series?
Woll has earned two wins but has allowed 11 goals and has an .869 save percentage. He allowed five goals on 36 shots in Florida's win in Game 3.
Florida's Brad Marchand is celebrating his birthday today, so there could be some fireworks in tonight's game. We all know his history against Toronto in the postseason.
And overall, he has been a playoff star. Marchand has 58 goals, 88 assists and a plus-minus of plus-38 in 165 career playoff games.
Anthony Stolarz was injured in the first game of this series, and it doesn't appear likely that he will return for Toronto against Florida.
“(Stolarz) has not skated yet,” Leafs coach Craig Berube said the morning after the Leafs lost 5-4 in Game 3 to the Panthers.
Game 4 is tonight with Joseph Woll in the lineup for the Maple Leafs.
GO FURTHER
Leafs goalie Anthony Stolarz appears unlikely to return to series vs. Panthers, hasn’t begun skating
Advertisement
Two years, nearly to the day, before Game 3 against the Florida Panthers, Sheldon Keefe turned to a young goalie to keep the Toronto Maple Leafs’ season alive.
The then-Leafs coach tapped Joseph Woll instead of the veteran Matt Murray, even after Woll had missed training camp with injury and only played seven regular-season games.
Keefe believed in Woll’s abilities in a desperate time.
“(Woll) is well above what we had anticipated in terms of the timeline,” Keefe said on May 10, 2023. Woll had just stopped 24 of 25 shots in a Game 4 win against the Panthers. “For him to play the way that he has and the way that he did in the last regular-season game against Tampa, and to play the way that he has when he has come through the net here in the playoffs, is why we had no question that he would be able to go today. He did a tremendous job.”
Now, two years later, still in South Florida, the Leafs are waiting for that version of Woll to emerge in the playoffs.
GO FURTHER
Clock ticking on Joseph Woll to rediscover top form for Maple Leafs in NHL playoffs
Panthers coach Paul Maurice did something curious early in Game 3.
He took the pair of Selke Trophy candidates on his top line, Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart, and steered them away from the Maple Leafs’ No. 1 unit of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and Matthew Knies and the primary matchup from games 1 and 2 in Toronto.
The Matthews-led line burned Barkov’s crew on the very first shift of the game. The change came soon after.
What did Maurice do? He sent another line to defend against Matthews and let Barkov and Reinhart wreak havoc elsewhere.
The Leafs were exploited Friday in Florida, a game they ended up losing 5-4 in overtime, and this was how.
Brad Marchand has been here before. So have the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Marchand now has 33 points in 31 career playoff games against Toronto — third-most in history among the franchise’s opponents behind Detroit Red Wings legends Alex Delvecchio (35) and Gordie Howe (53). And he did the damage in Florida's Game 3 win, getting the Panthers back in the series.
Will that continue tonight?
