Leafs not banking on fatigue factor against Panthers

The Maple Leafs held an optional skate on Wednesday at Scotiabank Arena. 

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When the Leafs aren't playing, Chris Tanev is usually spending his nights watching hockey.  

"I enjoy watching games," the 35-year-old defenceman said. "When I was mid, late 20s maybe, I was like, 'I’m too cool to watch games,' but now I watch a ton. Now you’re always seeing what other teams are doing and how they’re playing and sort of know what to expect."

Tanev was watching when the Florida Panthers give up a late goal against the Montreal Canadiens before losing in overtime on Tuesday night at the Bell Centre. The Panthers fell to 4-5-1 since top-pair defenceman Aaron Ekblad was suspended for violating the terms of the NHL/NHLPA Performance Enhancing Substances Program on March 10. Florida is also missing winger Matthew Tkachuk and defenceman Dmitry Kulikov due to injury. Centre Nico Sturm got hurt in Tuesday's game. 

But Tanev isn't buying the idea that the defending champs are on the ropes entering Wednesday's big showdown against the Leafs in Toronto. 

"They always play the right way," the Toronto native noted. "There’s zero cheat in their game. They’re going to give you honest, 100 per cent effort every time, so you need to expect that and be ready for that."

The Panthers allowed just four shots to the Canadiens in the third period on Tuesday night even though Montreal trailed from the start of the frame. 

"A tight-checking game," observed Tanev. "That’s sort of what the game is going to be like tonight." 

"We've got to just be patient with our game and not get frustrated," stressed Leafs coach Craig Berube. "They check well. It’s not a lot of room out there, so we can't get impatient with the puck, and we can't get frustrated. We just got to stick with it."

The first-place Leafs lead the third-place Panthers by two points in the Atlantic Division standings. The Tampa Bay Lightning, who don't play on Wednesday, are one point behind the Leafs. All three teams all have eight games remaining. 

The Panthers won both previous games against the Leafs this season. In fact, Florida's only regulation win in their last 10 games came in Toronto on March 13. 

"They're going to be good tonight," said Berube. "It'll be a tight game. It'll be a tough game. We want to get to our game as quickly as possible. Coming off that long road trip and everything, we got to have some energy here tonight, which there should be."

The Leafs went 3-0-1 last week, including a successful swing through California. Toronto has been off since beating the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday. 

So, how can the Leafs take advantage of a tired Panthers team on Wednesday? 

"Sometimes if you can jump on it early, come out flying, come out hard, sometimes you can make some ground up, dictate the game a little bit and gain some momentum especially at home here," said winger Bobby McMann. "Hopefully it’s a good crowd and should be some good energy. So, I think that’s probably the focus."

The last time the Panthers played on consecutive days, they won the second game. 

"You can catch a team on a back-to-back where maybe you can take advantage of them, but a lot of times, you know, they're ready to go," Berube pointed out. "I mean, sometimes some teams come in on a back-to-back, and, you know, they actually play a better game the second night."

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This will be the first time the Leafs face the Panthers with winger Brad Marchand in the lineup. 

"A tremendous player," said Tanev. "He does all the little things. He’s a winner and plays the right way. He’s a huge addition to their lineup for sure."

Marchand has one assist in three games with Florida so far. 

"The way that he competes, I haven’t really seen anybody like that," said Leafs defenceman Brandon Carlo. "He’s just constantly at 110 per cent."

Carlo and Marchand were teammates for nine seasons before the faltering Boston Bruins held a fire sale ahead of this year's trade deadline. On Wednesday, Carlo and Marchand will go from friends to foes for the first time. 

"It will be fun," Carlo said with a smile. "We had a lot of battles in practice over the years. We tried to go against each other in drills just to have that compete level in practice. It will be a different level within the game, but I’m looking forward to the challenge. It will be funny to see him across the hashmark for sure."
Marchand likes to engage verbally and Carlo is expecting some chirps to come his way. 

"It’ll be interesting to see what kind of dirt he has on me tonight," Carlo said. "Maybe he’ll leave it off to the way side, but I’m sure I’ll hear something. I’m not sure what it will be, but it will definitely be something."

Carlo has a pretty good idea of what to expect. 

"He’s still a little bit of a mystery at times," the 28-year-old said, "but, overall, yeah, I know him pretty well so I don’t think anything he’ll say or really do will surprise me too much."

Marchand has started his first three games with the Panthers on the same line as Sam Bennett, who is also an expert agitator.  

"That’s an interesting line," McMann said with a big grin. "They’re both really good players. They play hard. They play an in-your-face type of game. For us it’s just initiating, making sure that we’re taking it to them rather than letting them dictate anything. We’re going to be the ones initiating." 

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Bennett scored two power-play goals in Florida's 3-2 win over the Leafs on March 13. Toronto is determined to tighten up on the penalty kill on Wednesday, especially in front of the net. 

"We've got to be stronger around there and recognize situations a little bit better down there," said Berube. "They shoot pucks on their PP from the top and from the sides, flanks, but they do run a lot of low plays around the net, and they got us twice."

After a solid start to the season, the Leafs penalty kill has fallen to 16th overall (78.3 per cent).

"Better the last few games," Tanev said. "But we’re still working to where we need to get to heading into playoffs. We want to be where we were the first 40, 45 games. That’s sort of where we’re working to be and we need to have good sticks and block shots and get in lanes and outwork the PP."

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Berube is sticking with the same set of skaters for the third straight game. Anthony Stolarz will get the start in net.

Stolarz and Joseph Woll have rotated, with only a couple exceptions, since Stolarz returned from injury just before the 4 Nations Face-Off. Will Berube consider employing a rotation system in the playoffs? 

"I never have," the coach said. "It's a question, though, we'll discuss and go over at some point here. Maybe we already have."

Berube smiled.  

"We’ll see."

The message was much different on Feb. 28 before a game in New York when Berube was asked if he wanted one of his goalies to grab the No. 1 job before the playoffs. 

"Going into the playoffs, there is normally one guy who is going to take control of it," Berube said inside Madison Square Garden. "Sometimes, you have to make switches, which I have done in the past. I remember I started [Ville] Husso against Minnesota in the playoffs [with St. Louis]. I thought he was the better goalie down the stretch. He played the first two games. And then [Jordan] Binnington came in, and we won the series. Binnington played until he got hurt against Colorado and played extremely well. He got hurt, so Husso had to go in. There are always things you are going to have to change, but going into the playoffs, you want one guy to be ready to take it."

Stolarz and Woll are both playing more this season than ever before in their NHL careers and neither guy has a lengthy playoff track record. Stolarz has never started a postseason game, but made one relief appearance during Florida's Stanley Cup run last year. Woll has four playoff starts over the past two seasons with the Leafs. 

Sergei Bobrovsky is set to start for the Panthers on Wednesday. 

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Carlo likes how the chemistry is coming along with defence partner Morgan Rielly. 

"I love playing with guys like Mo," Carlo said. "His capability of moving the puck makes me feel really comfortable in the defensive zone, getting it over to him and knowing that we will be able to make some good plays coming out of the D-zone. He’s been doing a great job communicating with me as well. Defensively on rush reads and whatnot I’m really starting to recognize his voice and him with my voice as well. It’s been great. It’s an ideal partnership, Guy like that is the perfect guy that I love to play with."

Carlo is tied for second on the Leafs with a plus-three rating in 12 games since the trade deadline. He's also second on the team with 24 blocked shots in this stretch. 

"Brando’s been great," said McMann. "Really good stick and hard to get around him. You see how big he is and he’s just impossible to get around. He’s been playing really well and it’s nice he’s fit in well with Mo."

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Projected Leafs lineup for Wednesday's game: 

Knies - Matthews - Marner
McMann - Tavares - Nylander
Laughton - Domi - Jarnkrok
Holmberg - Kampf - Lorentz

McCabe - Tanev
Rielly - Carlo
Benoit - Ekman-Larsson

Stolarz starts
Woll