The Toronto Maple Leafs are focused on what lies ahead, not retribution, as they get set to host the Florida Panthers on Wednesday in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference second-round series.
Starting goaltender Anthony Stolarz left Game 1 on Monday midway through the second period. He took an elbow to the head from Panthers center Sam Bennett as the latter took the puck to the net, knocking Stolarz to the ice. Stolarz stayed in the game for a few minutes, but exited after vomiting into a bucket while on the Toronto bench during a break in play.
“I’ve talked to my players about focusing on the game and playing the game hard and playing it the right way,” Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube said. “If there’s an opportunity to take the body — and I don’t care who it is — you go through them.
“But if you think you’re going to get back at Bennett, you’ll end up in the penalty box. We’ve got to focus on the game and play the game the way we need to play it.”
Berube hasn’t ruled out Stolarz, who also took a shot off the mask earlier in the contest, for Game 2 as of Tuesday afternoon. Berube said that the team did not yet know if Stolarz had a concussion.
“We can only worry about what we can control as individuals and as a team,” Toronto forward Max Pacioretty said. “And we always want to stick up for one another and stick together and do it the right way.”
Pacioretty is doing plenty the right way since drawing into the lineup in Game 3 of the Maple Leafs’ first-round series against the Ottawa Senators. He scored the series-winning goal and had an assist in Game 6 against Ottawa, assisted on both of William Nylander’s tallies in Monday’s 5-4 win and leads the Maple Leafs with 27 hits despite playing in just five of their seven postseason games.
“I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel,” said Pacioretty, who plays on a line with Nylander and John Tavares. “I’m trying to get the puck to two of the best players on the planet as much as I can and make life a little bit easier on them and harder on the opponent.”
The defending Stanley Cup champion Panthers, meanwhile, head into Game 2 looking to restore their structure as they eye a series split before it shifts back to Florida.
“At the end of the day, the style of play and our identity, we didn’t give ourselves much of a chance to get to that early in the game,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “Then we got a little better as the game went on, but the score changes the way teams play sometimes.”
Florida will have defenseman Aaron Ekblad back in the lineup for the contest after he served his two-game suspension for a hit on Tampa Bay Lightning forward Brandon Hagel in Game 4 of the first round.
“Just closing gaps, up the ice on the rush and he puts the rest of our defense corps into a different structure of matches and things like that,” Maurice said.
They’ll be seeking a little more from their top line of Aleksander Barkov, Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Reinhart. Verhaeghe had two assists Monday, while Barkov and Reinhart were held off the scoresheet.
