Tavares, with three more seasons on a contract that carries a salary cap of US$11 million, has two assists against the Lightning – one on a power play and another with the teams playing 4-on-4 when Sunday’s contest was out of reach – through four games.
“I haven’t been able to produce offensively the way I would like,” he said after the nasty defeat. “I would still like to create more.”
The center did his job in the face-off circle — he won 10 of 11 ties on Sunday — and was a contributor in the Tampa zone once Toronto kicked off its cycle.
But a regular-season problem carried over into the playoffs after Tavares finished sixth on the Leafs with 39 even-strength points (15 goals, 24 assists) in 2021-22.
Stamkos, who played minor hockey with opponent No. 91 as a kid, scored his first goal of this playoffs a minute into Sunday’s start to boost his team.
And with Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner stifled 5-on-5 in Games 3 and 4 when Tampa had the final change and could deploy the line of Anthony Cirelli and Victor Hedman at fullback against Toronto’s two offensive catalysts, the The Leafs captain’s inability to impose his will was magnified.
“He works, he tries,” head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “It’s a tough series out there.”
It certainly is. It was also one without a lot of in-game momentum.
The teams alternated wins, with the team that scores first building at least a three-goal lead on the way to victory.
Toronto, which hosts Game 5 best-of-seven sets on Tuesday, has faced adversity when challenged time and time again this season but still has ghosts of recent playoff failure hanging over a club who has not reached the second round since 2004.
“We just believe in our team,” Keefe said when asked why he was confident the Leafs would push back. “We believe in our team all playoffs, all season. We played well against (Tampa). We responded last time after a loss. That’s the kind of series it’s been.
” We’re going home. We know we have to be better and we will be.
Tavares is also confident the Leafs will get back on track.
“Just know how we’ve played for many stretches throughout this series, even parts of (Game 4), and certainly especially in the games we’ve won,” he said. “A chance to regroup.”
The first-round pick in the 2009 NHL Draft, who signed with the hometown club in free agency in July 2018, said Toronto wasn’t ready for Tampa’s first push in Game 4.
“They were extremely aggressive and pressing really hard early on,” Tavares said. “Our level of execution and detail has to be strong to break that pressure. It allows us to really get our game going and keep them chasing.
“We have to do a better job.”
Another area of concern is the number of penalties Toronto continues to take – not so much scrums after the whistle Keefe predicted before the series, but rather stick and obstruction fouls.
The Leafs had been flagged for a playoff record 32 offenses through Sunday night, four more than the Lightning.
“It’s been pretty tight,” Toronto defenseman Jake Muzzin said of the officiating standard compared to past playoffs. “We should know by now.”
They also can’t get enough of Tavares, who, in all honesty, was far from the only culprit for Sunday’s embarrassing absence, as the stage returns to Scotiabank Arena.
“I would like to find more and generate more,” he said. “I definitely expect more and I want to be better.”
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on May 9, 2022.
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Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press
