The Maple Leafs started off about as well as a team can, with William Nylander scoring his first of two goals 33 seconds in, and building to a three-goal lead before the game's midway point, after which they held on for a 5-4 victory over the Panthers. It's a big change from the last time they faced Florida, when, two years ago, in their only taste of the second round in forever, they went down 0-3 in the series and fell in five. And yet this win tastes a little bitter, because of the I-word: implications. It's got 'em, thanks to Sam Bennett forcing goalie Anthony Stolarz from the game with an elbow to the head.
There hasn't been a formal update on Stolarz, but he was taken to the hospital for observation in an ambulance, after cameras caught him vomiting on the bench a few minutes after the Bennett hit—classic concussion stuff. He's out of the hospital this morning, at least. There was no penalty called on the play, and it's not clear if Bennett will face supplemental discipline from the league, but the Leafs were furious. "Elbow to the head," head coach Craig Berube said. "Clearly. Clear as day. I'm not sure why there wasn't a call on it, but it was clearly a penalty."
The Panthers are so tough to play against because they never turn down a hit. This is a wretched experience for opponents, because getting hit sucks! It hurts. And when it's in the back of your mind that you might take a blow, maybe you get rid of the puck a second earlier, or ease up chasing a loose puck to avoid getting pancaked. You become a worse hockey player thanks to the implications (there's that word) of playing a team with a track record of skirting or outright flouting the rulebook in order to make your life more miserable every time it has the chance. And Sam Bennett is the Pantherest of Panthers, a guy who'll veer toward contact every time, especially in the postseason. He lit up Brad Marchand last year, and knocked the Leafs' Matthew Knies out of the postseason with a Rock Bottom two years ago. There was no universe in which he lowers his elbow when skating through the crease here; that's not who he is.
It should have been a penalty, but refs miss stuff. "Hopefully the league will handle it and take good care of it and protect our players," Knies said. But it probably won't be a suspension either, given what they suspend for and what they don't. It'll be an unsatisfying verdict in a league that still hasn't quite come to grips with the seriousness of brain injuries (Stolarz remained in net for two minutes of game time after the hit before skating to the bench). Any justice will have to be of the frontier variety, and the Leafs don't shy away from that sort of thing, which provides some (say it with me) implications for how the rest of this series could play out. From a pure competitive standpoint, it's frustrating that one team can knock out one of its opponent's most important players with zero blowback. I definitely don't want to hear Florida coach Paul Maurice claim again that "the only players we hit are the ones that have pucks."
The Leafs have no choice but to play on for however long Stolarz is out. They've got a better "backup" than most teams: Joseph Woll, the 26-year-old who was the 1a in a true goalie tandem this regular season, and put up perfectly decent numbers in 41 starts. But the veteran Stolarz was even better, especially down the stretch, and claimed the role of playoff starter while Woll hasn't armored up in 18 days. He looked rusty in his relief work Monday, but did just enough to hang onto the win. "You go from kinda chillin’ to the front line of action," is how Woll described his night.
The tandem has been a godsend for the Leafs. Switching off has allowed them to avoid any extended slumps from a given netminder, giving Toronto its first stable goaltending situation in a long, long time. The bright side is that they feel pretty good handing the baton to Woll now. The downside is that, for as long as Stolarz is recovering, they'll live or die on Woll's performance. Being up 1-0 is a good start, especially for a franchise that hasn't led in the second round since 2002, but it's a long series, already full of implications.
