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Maple Leafs vs. Lightning: Someone Ends Up Over .500

Neither the Toronto Maple Leafs nor the Tampa Bay Lightning are playing well this season. But one team will end up over .500. Which one?

by
Old Prof
October 21, 2023

Tonight the Toronto Maple Leafs will face off against their recent bitter rivals, the Tampa Bay Lightning, on the road in Florida. Neither team is playing particularly well and both are currently at .500. While usually such a match-up is exciting, this one verges on the side of desperation. Well, just a little perhaps.

Regardless of the two team’s records, this is more than a regular-season game. It’s a rematch that carries over from the intense playoff battle from the previous season. There’s a lot of recent history at play in this game. Both teams would like to make a statement in Tampa. One of them will win – and that’s going to be a boon for that team.

Looking Back to Last Season’s Playoffs

Rewind to April 29, 2022. The Maple Leafs finally carried the day with a thrilling six-game Series 1 win. They secured a first-round playoff victory for the time in almost 20 seasons. The Lightning contend they were the better team, even though they lost. Lightning defenseman Mikhail Sergachev threw some shade towards Toronto before their first meeting of the season, saying, “We lost and had a long summer. That’s probably what they feel every year.” Needless to say, there might be some animosity here.

John Tavares’ dramatic overtime goal marked a milestone for the northern Blue & White team. The Maple Leafs advanced past the first round for the first time since 2004.

Just two days ago, the Maple Leafs came to Florida to play the Panthers and lost 3-1. In that game, head coach Sheldon Keefe noted that his goalie Ilya Samsonov had his best game of the season, making 21 saves. However, given the bad luck the Maple Leafs had, the two goals came from the point and both were completely blocked to Samsonov’s view.

The problem was not that the Panthers scored two goals (the last one came with Samsonov pulled with less than a second to go in regulation) but that the Maple Leafs could only score one goal – for the second game in a row. Not good enough. Where is this team’s offense?

Can the Maple Leafs Rebound?

Tyler Bertuzzi, who was dealing with injury concerns, saw limited ice time against the Panthers. That led to coach Keefe making strategic lineup adjustments. Keefe confirmed that Bertuzzi is good to go tonight in Tampa. He had been a game-time decision on Thursday with an undisclosed nagging injury. He will play with Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, still hoping to find the chemistry the team really needs to make that top line deadly.

Pontus Holmberg has been called up from the Toronto Marlies and Fraser Minten was the extra forward at practice.

By and large, his new defensive pairings worked well. Now the offense needs to step up. In that, there is no doubt the Maple Leafs are determined to rebound strongly against the Lightning.

Today’s showdown between the Maple Leafs and the Lightning should be a great game. Both teams want to assert their dominance in the Atlantic Division. And, their past history puts them at loggerheads that give the game an extra layer of intensity.

The upside for either team is that when the final buzzer sounds someone will emerge from this battle with a winning record. How interesting that, even though it’s early in the season, both teams find themselves here.

One team will be happier after the game. One team will be deeper into the surprising funk that comes after only a few games in the regular season.