The postseason-bound Toronto Maple Leafs expect to face a desperate team when they host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night.
The Maple Leafs (46-25-4, 96 points) clinched a playoff spot and solidified their grasp of first place in the Atlantic Division on Wednesday with a 3-2 home victory over the Florida Panthers.
The Blue Jackets (34-31-9, 77 points), however, must make up for Thursday’s 7-3 home loss to the Colorado Avalanche. The defeat left the Blue Jackets four points behind the Montreal Canadiens for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with one game in hand.
The Blue Jackets were pumped when they led 3-2 midway through the second period on Thursday. They were deflated when the Avalanche reeled off five straight goals, starting at 12:39 of the second when Charlie Coyle scored the tying goal.
“We just can’t shoot ourselves in key situations, where the game’s still sitting there,” Columbus coach Dean Evason said, “and we’re still in the spot and we do something kind of uncharacteristic and systematically that we don’t do, and it ends up in our net, or flips the momentum of the hockey game, and think that third goal probably did that.”
“We kind of did it to ourselves,” said Columbus forward Sean Monahan, who scored his 17th goal of the season. “We gave them looks they probably shouldn’t have had, but I didn’t think we played a terrible game. It’s unfortunate and we’ve got to bounce back.”
“We have lots of belief in this group,” said Blue Jackets captain Boone Jenner. “That’s exactly what we’re going to. … reset, and we have a huge back-to-back coming up on the road. Huge points for us.”
The Blue Jackets visit the Ottawa Senators on Sunday. The Senators won 3-2 when the teams played in Ottawa on March 29.
The Maple Leafs played a solid game Wednesday with goaltender Anthony Stolarz making key saves against his former team. He finished with 29 saves against the Panthers for his fourth win in a row — and he got to celebrate the Leafs’ postseason-clinching victory.
“It’s hard to make the playoffs, it’s tight, it’s a tough league,” said Toronto coach Craig Berube. “I’ve talked before that coaching the Leafs is a real opportunity for me, a thrill. I love working with the players, the staff, the organization.
“The team has been very consistent and done a really good job of changing our style of play and adapting to it over time. It takes a while, but they’ve figured it out with different areas of the game, scoring, things like that.”
Toronto stands three points ahead of the second-place Tampa Bay Lightning and four ahead of the Panthers.
The Maple Leafs visit the Panthers and Lightning next Tuesday and Wednesday.
“It’s not the end-all, be-all,” Berube said. “We’re just going to focus on Columbus on Saturday night. I mean, yeah, first place in our division would be great, but that’s a ways off yet.”
The style Toronto is playing was reflected by Mitchell Marner, who not only had a goal and an assist but made a key defensive play to clear the puck and help relieve Panthers pressure late in the game.
“Our big guys, they’re not just there to score,” Berube said. “They’re there to play 200-foot hockey, whether it’s penalty-killing, protecting the lead, just playing good defense.”
Berube said that Jake McCabe and David Kampf are listed as day-to-day and will not play on Saturday.
–Field Level Media
