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SPORTSCENTRE Reporter

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The Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning held optional skates at Scotiabank Arena on Monday. 

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Is Mitch Marner motivated by past playoff failures? 

"Definitely, but can't think about those," the 24-year-old winger said. "Gotta be here in the moment. Gotta be ready for what comes tonight."

Marner has gone 18 straight playoff games without a goal dating back to Game 1 against the Boston Bruins in 2019. He has the same number of goals (five) as delay-of-game penalties during his 32 playoff starts. 

"The past is the past," Marner said. "Nothing you can do to change it. We're just excited to be here and it's [about] the here and now."

"All our top guys have been different players this year," stressed veteran forward Wayne Simmonds. "That stuff's in the past. We're not going to look at the past. We look to the present and the future and that's all I have to say about that."

Marner should be feeling good about the recent past. He scored like never before – a career-high 35 goals in just 72 games – during the regular season. And he finished strong. Marner posted 76 points in 46 games after returning from the COVID protocol on Jan. 15. That was tied with Calgary's Johnny Gaudreau for most in the league down the stretch.

"He's been waiting for this opportunity again like our whole team has," said coach Sheldon Keefe, "but you have to play the 82 games. You got to get to this point, and you have to earn your way here and Mitch has done a terrific job of leading us here."

Marner's running mate, Auston Matthews, scored just one goal in the seven-game loss to Montreal in last year's playoffs. 

"Those guys over there are probably extremely motivated because of what happened," observed Lightning forward Steven Stamkos. "We've had some failures too in the past and it certainly motivates you. You don't want to go through that again. You learn from that. Obviously, being in this market, the stakes are even higher."

Tampa Bay got swept out of the playoffs in 2019 despite winning 62 games in the regular season. They've won eight straight series since. 

"They've found the recipe," said Simmonds, "and it's up to us to figure it out as well and come into this series full of confidence and getting ready to slay the beast."

"There's moments that it's easy to say, 'It's too hard,'" Stamkos reflected, "but it's the teams that can go past that and maybe even surprise themselves a little bit that get to the end."

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Ondrej Kase returns to the Leafs lineup on Monday. It will be the winger's first game since suffering a concussion on March 19. 

"I would've loved if things lined up and he could've played last week," said Keefe, "it just didn’t work out that way. He just wasn't comfortable at that point ... he needed to go through a process there." 

Kase took part in his first full practice since the injury on Sunday. He took part in one other practice last week but was wearing a red no-contact sweater.

"He's at the point now where he feels good and he feels comfortable," Keefe continued. "We were going to put him in at some point and we may as well start right now because he is a difference maker on our team. "We'll evaluate it day to day, game to game, with how he's doing and how our group is doing but we think we're a better group when he's in and playing. He's been looking good in our practices of late. I've watched that very closely. He looks like a guy who's ready to come in and help us."

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At age 32, Stamkos posted the first 100-point season of his career. 

"If you told me he was getting 40 goals and 100 points, if you told me that literally two and a half weeks ago, I would've said, 'No way,'" admitted Tampa coach Jon Cooper. "And here he is with 106 points and 40-plus goals."

Stamkos is currently firing on all cylinders while playing alongside Ondrej Palat and Nikita Kucherov. Stamkos had 10 goals and 16 assists over the final nine games of the regular season. Kucherov had 10 goals and 13 assists in that stretch since April 14. 

"Stammer, Kuch and Palat, let's be honest, they're on a bit of a historic run," said Cooper. 

"You want to be feeling good about yourself heading into the playoffs and I certainly feel that way right now," Stamkos said. 

But even before this hot streak, Stamkos had been producing. What's behind the surge this season? 

"You're still always trying to prove people wrong," he said. "There are different motivational tactics that you use."

Stamkos only got into one playoff game during Tampa's run to the Stanley Cup in 2020. 

"After he didn't get to really play too much in that first Stanley Cup [run], he's kind of taken his game to another level," Simmonds noted.

Cooper, who was in line to coach Canada's Olympic team before the NHL opted not to go to Beijing, believes Stamkos was also inspired by the opportunity to wear the Maple Leaf.  

"I don't think anybody gave that kid a chance to make the Olympic team and by the time the whole thing got called off, you'd be hard pressed to sit here and say he's not in the short group of guys that were going to make that team," Cooper noted.

With Brayden Point and Kucherov out with injuries, Tampa's captain elevated his game early in the season. 

"We needed someone to carry us and keep us afloat until those guys got back and Stammer did just that," Cooper said. "I think that's kind of a different mode than he's ever been in throughout his career." 

After missing out on the chance to play inside the Toronto bubble in 2020, Stamkos will now step into the playoff spotlight in his hometown. 

"I got to go over to my parents’ house for dinner so that's different," he said. "I haven't done that on the road in the playoffs before."

But, overall, Stamkos insists the feeling is business as usual. 

"It's year 14, so you certainly weed out the people who are asking for tickets over 14 years," he said to laughs. 

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The Leafs feel like they need to get in the face of Andrei Vasilevskiy to have a chance of beating the Conn Smythe Trophy winner. That's easier said than done. 

"They have the puck a lot and they defend well," said Keefe. "A big, strong, physical defence that gets in the way, and they protect their net very well, which allows a goaltender of that calibre to get comfortable and feel good and make saves. We have a significant challenge to get to him."

"It's just another obstacle in our way," said Simmonds. "[It] takes a lot of brain power and physicality and just being willing to take a beating to get in front of him. They've got great defencemen over there and big guys, strong guys. You know you'll get your licks when you go to the net but, at the same time, it's going to be worth it."  

Vasilevskiy posted a .937 in last year's playoffs to lead the NHL.

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Projected Leafs lineup for Game 1: 

F

Kerfoot - Matthews - Marner 
Mikheyev - Tavares - Kase
Nylander - Kampf - Engvall 
Clifford - Blackwell - Simmonds 

D

Rielly- Lyubushkin 
Muzzin - Brodie 
Giordano - Liljegren 

G

Campbell starts 
Kallgren