Panthers Coach Paul Maurice Stuns Media With Comments About Leafs After Game 6 Win
Photo credit: John E. Sokolowski - Imagn Images
While it felt like the sky was falling in Toronto after Game 5, Panthers head coach Paul Maurice offered an interesting take on what he saw from the Leafs in Game 6.
After jumping out to an early 2-0 series lead over the Florida Panthers to start out the second round, the Toronto Maple Leafs blew their opportunity to jump ahead 3-0 as the Panthers rallied with an overtime victory, which jumpstarted their run of 3 straight wins.
Games 4 and 5 were some of the worst hockey the Leafs looked to have played in quite some time and Game 5 culminated with loud booing from the crowd, with 2 fans actually throwing their jerseys onto the ice during the third period of their 6-1 loss on Wednesday night.
Afterwards, the media and fan base alike lit the Leafs up, and deservedly so. It wasn't just the fact that they lost Games 4 and 5, but it was how they did it that made it so much more frustrating.
There is one person that believes the disaster that was their Game 5 loss was blown out of proportion. Surprisingly, that's Panthers head coach Paul Maurice.
The Maple Leafs bounced back with a fantastic performance last night to force a Game 7 on Sunday night. They shut out the Panthers 2-0 and got goals from Auston Matthews and Max Pacioretty, while also receiving stellar goaltending from Joseph Woll to complete the shutout.
When asked what differences he saw from the Leafs between Games 5 and 6, Maurice said that their near flawless performance probably stemmed from the fact that they were motivated by the outside noise:
"They got killed for that last game and they didn't deserve to in my opinion. We had four knucklers go in that probably don't, it was a pretty tight game, didn't feel like that on the scoreboard, but if you watched the game and look at the analytics, that game was the second tightest game of the series."
Perhaps it's a way for Maurice to try and soften the opposition ahead of the biggest game of the season - and quite frankly the last decade - for the Leafs, but he's also not entirely wrong. All the bounces went Florida's way, and once the ball got rolling, the ice tiled in their favour.
Game 7 is going to be a gruelling affair for both teams as they look to advance to the Conference Finals and face off against the idle Carolina Hurricanes, who finished off the Capitals in 5 games earlier this week.
| POLL | ||
MAI 17 | 3107 ANSWERS Panthers Coach Paul Maurice Stuns Media With Comments About Leafs After Game 6 Win Do you agree with Paul Maurice's Game 5 assessment? | ||
| Yes | 1488 | 47.9 % |
| No | 1619 | 52.1 % |
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