Time for Maple Leafs’ superstars to stomp out Senators

TORONTO — The captain’s actions spoke louder than his words.

In that infuriating moment after Auston Matthews’ power-play turnover triggered a shorthanded counterstrike and a lead too great to overcome, after the Toronto Maple Leafs squandered their second great opportunity to be the last Ontario team standing, Matthews stood up and snapped his stick with force on the home bench. Then chucked away the expensive shards.

A flash of elimination-game frustration in a career full of the stuff.

The only way out of this spiral — this damaged core’s logic-defying 1-13 record in series close-out games — is to forget the stick that cost you the game. 

Grab a fresh one. Then make it sing.

“We’re not looking in the rearview mirror. It’s about the next day, next game,” Matthews said, following Tuesday’s 4-0 loss to the Ottawa Senators. “We’re in a good spot here.

“The playoffs is, you know, a roller coaster. It’s gonna be ups and downs, and it’s about staying as even-keel as you possibly can.”

The NHL has decided to label Tuesday’s event of Scotiabank Arena “Game 5.” 

More accurately, this was the Narrative Game.

The we’re-different-this-time Maple Leafs went into puck drop knowing the night would end with one of two headlines: Leafs Clinch! or Leafs Clench!

One play, one vowel makes a world of difference. It’s a game of inches.

Your best players gotta be your best… well, you know the deal.

“We had our looks. Didn’t capitalize on them,” Mitch Marner said. “That’s how it goes sometimes.”

How it goes in this town, with this specific group of superstars, is that a positive position — a 3-2 series lead with home-ice advantage and no significant injuries or suspensions to serve as asterisks — can still be viewed in a suspicious light, thanks to the long shadows of history and a couple underwhelming performances by the top-end talent and a top-tier power play.

Sure, the minus-4 Matthews and Marner’s line got hung with Tuesday was juiced by a pair of empty-netters in garbage time, but both studs have been less effective since the option of eliminating their opponent was placed on the table.

“Not enough speed through the neutral zone with that line and then creating things in the offensive zone off that,” coach Craig Berube assessed. 

“Like, they were just a little bit late on things, and didn’t create enough stoppages in the offensive zone. It was one-and-done too much for me with that line tonight in the offensive zone.”

One-and-done is survivable. 

One-and-14, and this city goes from seed of doubt to magic beanstalk of sheer panic.

The Maple Leafs elite are treating the Battle of Ontario death blow the way most folks treat cleaning out the garage or doing their taxes: They’ll get around to it.

The fourth line was Toronto’s most consistent and engaged on Tuesday, which is a compliment and a criticism bundled at once.

And because the Leafs’ loyal fans are more prone to peek in the rearview than the athletes who must live in the moment, have no choice but to believe, we watched a sold-out barn devolve from anticipation to frustration to toddling out the exits early.

Eventually, after Matthews’ giveaway flipped a brutal Ridly Greig neutral-zone penalty from a gift to a curse, the clusters of fans that did stay in their seats began to boo.

Berube walked into the losing room post-game and delivered a simple message.

“Stick with it. We’re up 3-2 in the series,” the Cup-winning coach reminded. “Playoff hockey, there’s a lot of ups and downs. We need composure.”

“We’re up 3-2 in a series. We’re fine,” Chris Tanev added. “Look ourselves in the mirror and get ready for Thursday.” 

There was talk of the fourth win being the toughest, of sticking with the process. There was some lamenting of pinged posts and a call for more traffic in front of Linus Ullmark.

Anthony Stolarz said Toronto’s shooters are “snake bitten.” 

Marner reminded how great the Leafs are on the road, where they recorded a franchise-best 25 wins in the regular season and swiped Game 3. Confidence is still high, he maintained.

“It’s a little adversity for us,” Stolarz said. “If you told us at the beginning of series we’re gonna be up 3-2 going back to their place, that’s a position we’ll take.” 

Stolarz understands where Ottawa’s push has come from.

“They got nothing to lose, right? Lose and they go home. So, they’re just laying it all on the line. And we haven’t gotten to that point yet,” Stolarz said.

That point will come at Toronto like a bad memory if the Leafs don’t check that final box on the to-do list Thursday in Kanata.

“I expect pure insanity,” Senators captain Brady Tkachuk said.

Is there a crazier chapter of this narrative to be written still?

Fox’s Fast Five

• Tanev was incredible in Game 5.

Crisp passes. Diligent boxouts. Goal-saving checks and breakups of odd-man rushes. Three big blocks. Key penalty kills.

Rare to see a defenceman in a 4-0 loss awarded Second Star of the Game, but Tanev was full value.

• Wild how swiftly the power-play battle has flipped in this series.

In the first three game — all Toronto wins — the Leafs outscored the Senators 5-2 on special teams.

In the second two games — Ottawa victories — the Senators outscored the Leafs 3-0 on special teams, including two costly shorthanded counterstrikes.

• The Leafs recalled a batch of Marlies Tuesday to serve as black aces for what they hope is a deep run:

• After failing to generate much offensively, does Toronto tweak its forward lines for Game 6?

Perhaps Nick Robertson — notorious for scoring after some time in the press box — returns reenergized.

And what of David Kämpf? The Leafs’ sixth-highest-paid forward hasn’t entered the series because Berube was content to stick with a winning lineup.

“It is not a knock against him at all,” Berube explained of his decision to scratch a healthy Kämpf for the first five. “He’s an important part of the team, for sure, and he has been all year. It’s hard for those guys not to play, I get it. But they’ve been very good team-first guys.”

Scott Laughton has been engaged and impactful. Give him a shot up with John Tavares and William Nylander. 

Let Kämpf centre the fourth line.

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