Even though they were up 5-1 against the Panthers and lost in overtime last night, there is no real cause for concern in Toronto. The Leafs were on the second night of a back-to-back and their third game in four nights on the road, so let's all do our best to just take a breath and appreciate the fact that the Leafs skated away from the Sunshine State with 3 of a possible 4 points.
The Panthers are the highest scoring team in the NHL and had already completed a five goal comeback a few days earlier. Oh, and let's not forget the most obvious missed call in OT against the Panthers, who hooked/slashed Leafs captain John Tavares as he was going to tuck the puck into an open net.
Coming out of last nights game, the Leafs are 5-0-1 against Boston, Tampa and Florida over their last 6 meetings. They play each of them one more time in a battle for home ice in the playoffs. Look for the Leafs to bounce back Thursday night in Dallas to wrap up their road trip.
The Leafs currently sit 2nd in the Atlantic Division, behind only the Florida Panthers, holding a 3-point lead on both Tampa and Boston. The bad news is they have almost no shot of catching Florida now, as the Panthers are 8 points up on the Leafs atop the Atlantic. The Panthers have arguably the easiest 12-game stretch of any of the Eastern Conference playoff teams to close out the regular season.
