For everything he’s done since his celebrated arrival in 2016, Auston Matthews can’t change the Toronto Maple Leafs’ history of early round playoff collapses.
Perhaps, a better future lies directly ahead for a team playing a more responsible defensive style under new coach Craig Berube, and after Toronto secured several individual and franchise achievements in clinching its first Atlantic Division title with a 4-0 win at Buffalo on Tuesday night.
“I think we’re prepared,” Matthews said after scoring his 400th career goal.
“Obviously, we can’t change what’s happened in the past. I think you wear that,” the No. 1 pick in the 2016 NHL draft added. “So I feel really confident in this group. I think we put in a lot of work over the season. Obviously, earning the division here is a big step for us. But we just want to continue to push forward.”
With the victory, Toronto (51-26-4) won its team-record 25th road game and, with one game left, is guaranteed to finish with its second-most wins and third-most points. In the meantime, Mitch Marner set a career-high with his 100th point, while goalie Anthony Stolarz stopped 35 shots to extend his career-best winning streak to eight.
In securing the Eastern Conference’s second seed, Toronto will face provincial rival Ottawa in the first round and rekindle the so-called “Battle of Ontario.” The Maple Leafs have won all four playoff series meetings against the Senators, the most recent a seven-game first-round win in 2004.
Toronto, however, is also carrying the weight of its more recent playoff history. The team has advanced past the first round just once — a 4-2 series win over Tampa Bay in 2023 — in its past nine postseason appearances.
What’s different is how the Maple Leafs are playing in riding a 12-2-1 run, including a nine-game stretch in which they’ve won eight times while outscoring opponents by a combined margin of 28-12.
“The whole season’s a learning curve, especially with a new coach coming in, new systems. It’s different from the style of play that this team’s played with in previous seasons,” said forward Steven Lorentz, who signed with Toronto after winning a Stanley Cup with Florida last year .
“It might not be as exciting when you win the game 2-1 rather than 7-6,” Lorentz added. “But you know, that’s championship hockey and that’s what it takes if you want to play into June.”
The Maple Leafs certainly haven’t lost their offensive touch. With 263 goals, Toronto is closing in on finishing its ninth straight season ranked among the NHL’s top 10.
What’s changed is the team’s goals-against numbers. The Maple Leafs enter their final game ranked 10th in the NHL in allowing 226 goals. Only twice over the past nine seasons have they finished with a better ranking.
The players credit their goaltending tandem that includes Joseph Woll, and with Stolarz picking up his fourth shutout of the season, third in four starts, and 12th of his career.
“He was lights out last year,” Lorentz said of Stolarz, who also spent last season in Florida. “He just brings it. He’s a gamer. He doesn’t take anything super seriously. And I think that’s what makes him so good.”
Stolarz placed the emphasis on how the team’s playing soundly in front of him.
“I feel good, but I think at the end of the day, the guys are really committing to a complete two-way game up and down the ice,” the 31-year-old said. “It’s what it’s gonna take to go far in the playoffs. I just think that we have to continue this trend.”
Berube, who won a Cup coaching the St. Louis Blues in 2019, said the key to this season has been the buy-in from players.
“You’re always trying to work on your identity. And that hasn’t stopped throughout the season,” he said.
“I think our guys have done a good job of it,” Berube added. “So yeah, I think we’re in a good spot, but we’ve got to keep making sure we’re pounding away at it and keep working on it and be ready to go.”
Despite coming from behind to win yet again, the red-hot Calgary Flames have been eliminated from playoff contention.
Calgary’s thrilling 5-4 shootout victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday was not good enough as their fate was sealed earlier in the evening when both the Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues won to lock down the two wild-card playoff berths in the Western Conference.
Four weeks ago, the Flames were two points out of a playoff spot, but had two games in hand on St. Louis. Calgary has gone 10-2-3 since then, but failed to make up any ground as the Blues compiled an 11-2-1 record to maintain that two-point cushion.
“Felt like we’ve been rolling, playing some good hockey, just unfortunately, we couldn’t get any help,” said Nazem Kadri, who scored his 33rd goal, setting a career high.
While Calgary has one game remaining, St. Louis owns the tiebreaker so that lead is enough to leave the Flames on the outside of the post-season.
“I’m disappointed, a little bit sad for our players,” said Flames coach Ryan Huska. “They worked hard over the course of year to get themselves to this spot and I felt like they probably deserved better than where they ended up.
“You have to give a lot of credit to St Louis, too. Not a lot of teams go on the run that they went on to get themselves into the playoffs. If they wouldn’t have had that type of run, we’re probably where we want to be right now.”
Five of Calgary’s 10 wins in their furious late-season push came in games in which they trailed after two periods.
“Character guys, good group of guys,” said Kadri. “We could have been out of this thing a month ago, but it shows (our) pesky attitude. And I felt if we could have squeaked in, there might have been something there because we’ve had a lot of momentum and we’ve played some great hockey against some great hockey teams.”
It’s the third straight season the Flames will miss the playoffs.
“You feel for the older guys, right? That’s really what it comes down to,” said Kadri, 34. “I’m sure the young players are going to have long careers and be doing this a while, but it’s the older guys you feel for.”
The oldest player on the team is 36-year-old captain Mikael Backlund.
“Just a lot of emotions right now,” said Backlund, whose 14th goal was the second of two goals in 32 seconds, tying the game 3-3 in the third. “Fought really hard all season long and to fall short in the end, it’s hard.”
With the league’s second-lowest team salary and having traded away veterans such as Jacob Markstrom, Elias Lindholm, Chris Tanev and Noah Hanifin from last year’s team, not much was expected from the Flames going into this season, but they defied the skeptics.
“No one believed in us, but we believed in ourselves from day one, starting in training camp, and right away, you got a sense that everyone was buying in and was believing and when everyone buys in and believes, you can achieve some big things,” said Backlund. “Unfortunately, we didn’t make it to playoffs, but we battled all the way until the end and we were so resilient all year.”
For MacKenzie Weegar, his prevailing emotion post-game was pride.
“I’m proud of this group. The perseverance and the leadership from everybody, the belief, everybody bought in and it says a lot,” said the veteran defenceman. “Everybody came to work for one another this year and I think that’s the most important thing. So credit to this team. And we really did fight with all we had.
At the end of the game, the crowd of 19,055 rose to their feet and saluted the team with a thunderous ovation, which the players stayed on the ice to acknowledge.
“I said at the beginning of the year, the people in Calgary, they want to see hard work,” said Huska. “They really do. And they appreciated what the guys did all year. So it’s just unfortunate that we’re not able to keep going.”
Also scoring for Calgary was Morgan Frost, ending a 25-game goalless drought. He also scored the deciding goal in the shootout. Adam Klapka had the other goal.
Rookie Dustin Wolf, making his eighth straight start, was stellar once again making 38 stops to improve to 29-16-8.
Brandon Saad, Nicolas Roy, Tomas Hertl and Pavel Dorofeyev scored for the Golden Knights who are heading to the Stanley Cup playoffs for the seventh time in eight seasons. They will meet the Minnesota Wild in the first round.
