Unflappable.
In a performance that could command a wide variety of flattering attributes, that’s how head coach Sheldon Keefe put it for the Toronto Maple Leafs after their bafflingly dominant 5-0 win over the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 1 of their first-round series Monday night at Scotiabank Arena.
In a room full of scribes, it was the head coach that described it best.
Because unflappable was precisely how the Maple Leafs had to be.
It really was all the difference.
Of the scrutinized storylines heading in, Keefe’s decision to remove Jason Spezza from the Game 1 lineup in favour of both Kyle Clifford and Wayne Simmonds was immediately thrust into the spotlight. Perhaps still burning from the mildly embarrassing big-brothering Tampa Bay levied on the Maple Leafs in their last regular-season meeting, Clifford took a dangerous and plainly illegal run at Ross Colton in the first few minutes of the game.
The beyond-borderline violence (to use another Keefe quote) saw Clifford head to the dressing room for the remainder of the night, but more importantly sent the Lightning and their vaunted power play onto the ice for five minutes or less. It almost guaranteed that if not the first goal, the first real chances in the series would belong to the visitors.
It would also mean that Auston Matthews, William Nylander and John Tavares, among others, would be sinking deep into the bench when they have waited all year to hit the ice in a moment like this.
It was a horrible decision from Clifford, and one that would leave a previous iteration of this team to crumble. But instead it propelled the Leafs — and the partisan crowd Keefe would take a moment to laud post-game — forward on the night.
In what was the story of the game, Toronto’s assemblage of penalty killers led by David Kampf and Mitch Marner reduced the Tampa Bay power play to harmless passing around the periphery when the likes of Victor Hedman, Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos weren’t chasing the puck through neutral ice and collecting it back in their own end.
As the seconds ticked by in that five-minute major, and the seven minutes of total power-play time for the Lightning in the opening period, the Leafs, and the atmosphere, grew into the game, and the home side quickly seized control.
It was a seeing-eye shot from Jake Muzzin that opened the scoring before the first intermission, but Toronto poured it on in the second when navigating a seemingly endless run on minor penalties. Some were ticky-tack, and others well-earned, but as the game continued to swerve further away from its normal condition with the referees maintaining a puzzlingly high standard, momentum kept growing on the side of the Leafs.
Toronto scored under all three conditions in that imbalanced middle frame. First it was Matthews on a five-on-three power play following a brilliantly-timed timeout. Then Kampf underscored his outstanding defensive performance with a shorthanded goal.
After that, Marner broke a lengthy postseason scoring drought, and silenced the outside noise before it could start, with an even-strength marker borne from nothing late in the period.
A win that was also a statement, a response from the other week, and an edge in the most consequential series across the NHL all wrapped into one, the night could hardly be scripted better for the Leafs.
Marner and Matthews combined for three goals and six points in their first postseason game since disappearing last summer versus the Montreal Canadiens. Jack Campbell shut out the Lightning and soundly outplayed his all-world counterpart, Andrei Vasilevskiy. Toronto’s coaching — and more specifically the special teams instruction — stood out in a matchup versus the standard in the profession with Jon Cooper on the opposite side.
Hell, even a Maple Leafs team that doesn’t quite handle the rough stuff particularly well found a way to get some some licks in when the game devolved into a punching contest.
The only comeback on this night was Morgan Rielly earning immediate retribution in fights staged seconds apart with Patrick Maroon and then Jan Rutta.
With only 33 minutes spent at five-on-five, it wasn’t a game that either team could prepare for adequately.
But Toronto’s preparation shone through. The Leafs were first to adapt, and therefore first to perform under the conditions provided.
Unflappable, the Leafs adapted to their surroundings quicker and more effectively than the team that’s built its dynasty over the last several years on an ability to take on different shapes.
Tonight, that was worth a dominant victory and a series lead.
And to see how unflappable the Lightning can be.
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