Before the game, Jon Cooper noted, “Usually, these odd-numbered games — Games 3 and 5 — in series are pretty pivotal games. This one is not as pivotal as a Game 5, but it’s pretty darn close.”
Without question, this was the best hockey game of this series. The Leafs came out of it on top and now lead the series 2-1.
Let’s break it all down in the game in 10:
1. I’ve always been fascinated by how teams start games — specifically, who the coaches send out for shift one to set the tone. The Leafs have been starting the John Tavares line through the first two games in response to the Lightning declaring a starting lineup featuring the Brayden Point – Anthony Cirelli line. In this game, Sheldon Keefe switched the opening shift to the Auston Matthews line.
On the first shift, the Lightning got it in deep, and Cirelli laid a big hit on Ilya Lyubushkin, creating a turnover in the slot for Brayden Point, who nearly scored. It was a tough start, particularly for Lyubushkin.
The decision to dress Justin Holl and consequently sit Timothy Liljegren generated a ton of discussion. I am assuming a big part of the coaching staff’s decision-making logic was based on wanting Holl in for the penalty kill. He is a legitimately good penalty killer, and the Lightning power play lit the Leafs up in Game 2.
Jason Spezza was also back in, so he was replacing Liljegren on the power play. If you decide Holl is in fact playing and you’ve completely taken out Liljegren in the process, the question is whether to keep the Rielly – Lyubushkin pairing together or the Giordano – Liljegren pairing together at 5v5.
I am not necessarily saying I agree with it, but that’s really the context of the decision. And Lyubushkin was all over the place in this game, in both a good and bad way.
2. The power play had yet to score on a 5v4 heading into this game, but that changed rather quickly in this one as the Leafs scored on their first PP of the game.
There were some subtle adjustments made on the man advantage by the Leafs. The main one: William Nylander started on the half-wall to begin the power play. The Leafs have been switching Nylander and Mitch Marner on the half-wall — and even moving Auston Matthews to his one-timer side — but Nylander has not generally started on it. He did in this one.
3. The Leafs power play was a little static at the start — specifically, Auston Matthews was taking passes standing still. They are at their best when Matthews catches the puck when skating downhill, and lo and behold, when did the power play break open? AFter Matthews skated in the middle of the ice from the top of the blue line and shot in stride. They just started firing pucks on net from there.
The goal came off of a Matthews one-timer, a Mitch Marner shot off the rebound, and Morgan Rielly potting Marner’s rebound.
The other thing of note: Sheldon Keefe kept the top unit on for the full two minutes. It’s early in the game, and he’s trying to get them going knowing the importance of the first goal of the game. It worked out in this case.
4. In Game 2, the Lightning had their way with the Leafs on the power play. On the first test in this one, the Leafs’ PK got back to what made them successful in Game 1: preventing Tampa Bay from setting up the zone.
We talked about how the Leafs heavily used TJ Brodie and Justin Holl on the PK throughout the season — particularly during the month of April — but even with Holl back in, it was Muzzin – Brodie opening on the penalty kill.
Right when the Leafs killed it off, Muzzin had the puck on his stick under some pressure in a somewhat similar scenario to how the first period ended in Game 2 (where he couldn’t get it out, and Tampa Bay scored shortly after). This time, Muzzin got the puck out, the Leafs went the other way on a 3-on-1, and the Leafs buried it.
A big problem I’ve had with Leafs teams of years past is that it wasn’t always about making the right play; it was about who was the most skilled and getting those players the puck/ice time at all costs. This was a case of simply making the right play.
Pierre Engvall knew it was Ilya Lyubushkin to his right, who is not exactly a playmaker or goal scorer, and you could tell Engvall thought about it for a second. Lyubushkin was simply too open and in too much space, so Engvall dished it and drove the net. Lyubushkin had a special moment and made a special play, setting up Colin Blackwell for the 2-0 goal. That’s good hockey.
5. Alex Killorn ran Justin Holl at the buzzer, a scrum ensued, and the Leafs went to a power play to start the second. It even turned into a 5v3 for 25 seconds (that was a big faceoff loss, essentially negating any opportunity available there).
You have to be careful with this stuff with Tampa Bay; it’s almost like they seek out the antics at times to get themselves fired up and into the game. The Leafs didn’t score on their power plays, and the Lightning seemed to be gaining some momentum, but enter David Kampf.
Kampf is having a series right now. We mentioned Ilya Lyubushkin being everywhere in this one – he picked up an unofficial assist on the goal. With Branden Hagel coming down the wing, he stepped up and laid a pretty good hit. The puck came out of the zone, Hagel picked up the puck in a similar spot with Lyubushkin again coming for him, and Hagel made a bad pass that resulted in a turnover. Kampf skated down the ice and straight-up beat Andrei Vasilevskiy with a wrister.
That’s two goals now for Kampf in this series, and both have them been him legitimately beating Vasilevskiy clean. There were no rebounds or strange deflections. He has straight up skated down the ice and beat him outright.
Kampf scored one goal in 56 games last season. He’s now up to 11 in 82 this season (one was an empty-net goal). Big-time contributions from role players like this are what make the playoffs so fun.
6. With the score at 3-0, the game seemed to be reasonably under control for the Leafs. Justin Holl played a good first period and contributed to the penalty kill in the first period, as expected. At 3-0, though, he has to back off on the play leading to the 3-1 goal. It simply can’t happen.
It was a bad bounce, and there wasn’t great forward support. You’re up three goals. You’re on the road. You have to skate back and play it safe at that point. He took a penalty on the rush, and the Lightning made them pay this time.
The Leafs also got too carried away on the penalty kill itself. After a turnover in the middle of the ice at the Lightning blueline, instead of getting it back in deep, Alex Kerfoot stopped up with the puck and tried to make a play. He was knocked down, the Lightning went down on an odd-man rush, and the Leafs never recovered the puck before Russ Colton ripped a one-timer.
Those were two really poor instances of situational awareness (or lack thereof) that made it a game again.
7. The Leafs were fortunate to get out of the second period up 3-1. TJ Brodie made a goal-saving dive to deflect the puck on a Colton look at a clean empty net, but even beyond that, Tampa Bay carried play for the final five or so minutes of the period.
I think Keefe and the coaching staff were hyper-aware of it. They came out in the third period and bumped Kerfoot up to the top line. The Ilya Mikheyev – David Kampf – Pierre Engvall line was reunited as well.
It almost paid off with a goal, too. Auston Mathews went on a breakaway (and got his own rebound to no avail). Right after, Mitch Marner fired a shot that glanced off Vasilevskiy and hit the bar.
8. Andrei Vasilevskiy made a few big saves before Tampa Bay went down the ice and made it a one-goal game. It’s not a bad goal on Jack Campbell, but it was saveable.
It was a wrist shot from the top of the circle with minimal traffic in front. If anything, it looked like a bit of a broken play (Campbell had swatted the puck out of mid-air to get it there in the first place), and he was maybe not able to reset himself properly. The puck clipped off his shoulder a bit, but he didn’t get enough of it.
A 3-0 game is now 3-2, and it was fully game on.
9. Even if you didn’t love that goal, Jack Campbell more than stood tall the rest of the way.
Nick Paul walked TJ Brodie and went in all alone; Campbell came up huge with a toe save. On the power play that followed, Steven Stamkos fired a one-timer off of a seam pass, and Campbell shut the door. Brandon Hagel had a good chance in tight shortly after; again, Campbell stood in there.
There has been so much talk about goaltending going into this series — and rightfully so for many reasons — but for me, Campbell outplayed Vasilevskiy in this one, and that was the story. He came up huge with the game on the line.
10. On the penalty kill in the final half of the third and the shifts that followed, the Leafs used a lot of Jake Muzzin – TJ Brodie and Mark Giordano – Justin Holl to close out most of this game. The Pierre Engvall – David Kampf – Ilya Mikheyev line saw a lot of time, and Alex Kerfoot was a staple on the Auston Matthews line with Mitch Marner.
Closing the game with the lead, those were generally the 10 players the Leafs wanted on the ice. For all the criticism he takes — and he did make one bad play — the Lightning scored on the one penalty where Holl was in the box, and he did a good job of helping to kill the other two. Holl helped them close the lead and the game at the end, too.
We are almost at the point where looking at the Leafs lines and debating them is irrelevant. Pierre Engvall was supposed to be on the fourth line – he played 15:09, more than Michael Bunting, Ondrej Kase, and Kerfoot. That great third line we’ve talked about so much was largely reunited in this one. Of any Leafs line in this game, that trio played the third most together.
In terms of matchups in this one, Tampa Bay has committed hard to Brayden Point and Anthony Cirelli line, as well as Victor Hedman and Erik Cernak pairing, matching up against the Matthews line.
The John Tavares – William Nylander reunion created essentially nothing, which has been all too common for them. Neither player has done much for two games in a row, and no other line is making Tampa Bay think twice offensively speaking.
At 5v5, the Leafs aren’t creating a ton outside of the top line (which is why the power play is so important). The third line has been great, but they have been opportunistic offensively more than anything. Tampa Bay controlled play at 5v5 in this one in terms of possession, scoring chances, and expected goals — and it wasn’t just because they were losing, although score effects played a role at the end, of course.
Jack Campbell was excellent, and the Leafs have had a number of players step up with big goals. You need to win games like that in the playoffs, but you have to be honest about what’s happening, too, when planning for the next game.
The de-facto third line has been great, and Matthews and Marner are doing about as well as you can ask against a really difficult matchup. The second line is giving the Leafs very little, and the fourth line without the enforcers at least stopped the antics from Tampa’s Bay fourth line.
The Leafs are up 2-1 in the series. Getting the second line going somehow (do you move Bunting down and keep Kerfoot on the top line? Do you move Nylander up to the top line and have Bunting/Kerfoot/Kase flank Tavares? Is there another option?) would catapult this team to another level.
VANCOUVER – As the Major League Soccer season ticks down, Vanni Sartini wants his Vancouver Whitecaps to make a declaration — the team is ready to compete.
“The time of hiding ourselves, I think it’s over,” the coach said after the ‘Caps earned a 2-0 victory over the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday.
“We need to really say that we are here to try to be at the ball until the end and trying to shoot for the highest position. That doesn’t mean that we’re going to make it, but we have the quality to do it.”
With seven games left on their regular-season schedule, the ‘Caps (13-8-6) sit in fifth spot in the congested Western Conference, just two points out of fourth.
Saturday’s loss officially eliminated the last-place Earthquakes (5-21-2) from post-season action.
Vancouver has been on a hot streak since returning from the Leagues Cup break and is unbeaten (3-0-1) in its last four outings across all competitions. The team has not allowed a goal in those matches.
“It’s the fact that we play really well,” Sartini said of the clean sheets. “We have the ball a lot, we finish our attack most of the time in their box. So it’s really hard for the other team to attack us. And then when they attack us, in the rare times that they arrive in the final third, we’re very solid.”
Recent additions have bolstered the team’s ranks, including the club’s newest designated player, Stuart Armstrong. The 32-year-old Scottish midfielder scored his first MLS goal Saturday.
Three minutes after coming on as a substitute for Alessandro Schopf, Armstrong gave Vancouver a two-goal cushion in the 87th minute.
Midfielder Pedro Vite dished a short pass to ‘Caps captain Ryan Gauld, who tapped it toward Armstrong. The former Southampton FC player then blasted a shot into the top of the net for his first strike in a Whitecaps’ jersey.
He was mobbed by teammates in the corner of the field.
“I think everyone was happy. Also for the first goal, but also that it was an important three points,” said Armstrong, who signed with the ‘Caps on Sept. 3.
“It kind of felt a little bit like last week, when we had a lot of chances and we didn’t get the three points. So today, I think everyone was just relieved to have that two-goal cushion.”
Vancouver was the dominant team from the outset Saturday and did not relent, outshooting the visitors 19-5 and controlling 54.1 per cent of possession.
Fafa Picault also found the back of the net for Vancouver, while Gauld contributed a pair of assists.
Whitecaps goalkeeper Yohei Takaoka stopped both shots he faced to collect his seventh clean sheet of the year, while Daniel made nine saves for the Quakes.
Gauld and Picault teamed up in the 22nd minute when Gauld curled a cross in and the Haitian striker headed it down toward the net, only to see Daniel catch a piece of the shot with his forearm and redirect it out of harm’s way.
The duo connected again in the 35th minute on a Vancouver corner. Gauld swung a ball in and Picault jumped up from the pack to send a glancing header in past Daniel for his ninth MLS goal of the season.
San Jose briefly appeared to level the score in the 68th minute when an unmarked Ousseni Bouda collected the ball, froze Takaoka and tapped a shot into the Vancouver net. An official quickly raised the offside flag and waved off the tally.
Daniel kept San Jose’s deficit to a single goal with a pair of solid stops in the 82nd minute.
First, the Brazilian ‘keeper dove sideways on his line to tip away a bomb from Alessandro Schopf. He was tested again on the ensuing corner and jumped up to send a header from Picault over the crossbar.
“I think we created a lot of chances again,” Gauld said.
“We probably should have put the game out of their reach sooner. But we’d be more worried if we weren’t creating the chances. Three clean sheets in a row in the league, I think it’s a big thing for us. And it gives us a good platform to go forward.”
NOTES
Vancouver played without leading scorer Brian White for a third consecutive game as the American striker works his way back from a concussion. … Gauld’s second assist marked his 15th goal contribution (six goals, nine assists) in his last 15 Whitecaps games across all competitions. … An announced crowd of 21,309 took in the game at B.C. Place.
UP NEXT
The Whitecaps kick off a two-game road swing Wednesday against the Houston Dynamo. The Earthquakes host the Seattle Sounders the same night.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2024.
MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Not good enough. That was Arne Slot’s verdict after his first defeat as Liverpool manager on Saturday.
A shock 1-0 loss at home to Nottingham Forest in the English Premier League ended Slot’s perfect record since succeeding Jurgen Klopp at Anfield at the end of last season.
“We had a lot of ball possession but only managed to create three (or) four quite good chances, so that is by far not enough if you have so much ball possession,” said the Dutchman, who suggested his team should not be losing to the likes of Forest.
“If you lose a home game it’s always a setback, especially if you face a team … we never know, maybe they will go all the way to fight for Champions League tickets, but normally this team is not ending up in the top 10, so if you lose a game against them that’s a big disappointment.”
Slot won his first three games in charge, including a memorable 3-0 victory against Manchester United before the international break.
But that run came to an end after Callum Hudson-Odoi struck in the 72nd with a curling effort from the edge of the box and beyond goalkeeper Alisson.
Liverpool’s defeat leaves Manchester City as the only team with a 100% record in the league after a 2-1 win against Brentford kept the defending champion at the top of the table.
United won at Southampton 3-0 to end its two-game losing streak.
Unstoppable Haaland
Erling Haaland moved to 99 goals for City after scoring twice against Brentford.
The Norwegian’s double came after Yoane Wissa fired Brentford ahead with just 22 seconds on the clock.
Haaland scored his 98th and 99th goals in his 103rd City appearance in all competitions. And he was the width of the post away from his third consecutive hat trick after trebles against Ipswich and West Ham.
“He’s been really, really good. Yeah, I would say he’s the best (he’s been), but it’s only four fixtures (this season),” City manager Pep Guardiola said.
Haaland, who has been nominated for the Ballon d’Or, has nine goals in four league games. He has topped the league scoring charts in each of his two seasons at City since joining from Borussia Dortmund in 2022 for $63 million.
Haaland’s first goal after 19 minutes evened the game following Wissa’s opener, which stunned the Etihad Stadium crowd. Haaland turned and swept a shot past goalkeeper Mark Flekken after a slight deflection off Ethan Pinnock.
He was then too strong for Pinnock when shaking off the defender and running through for his second in the 32nd.
He was inches away in the 81st; the shot came back off the post after beating the keeper.
Rashford snaps run
Marcus Rashford snapped a 12-game barren run in front of goal as United beat Southampton.
Rashford doubled United’s lead at Saint Mary’s after Matthijs de Ligt’s scored his first for the club. Substitute Alejandro Garnacho scored a third in the sixth minute of stoppage time.
The win came after back-to-back defeats for United.
Rashford hadn’t scored since March in United’s win over Liverpool in the FA Cup quarterfinals. He curled in a shot from the edge of the area to put Erik ten Hag’s team 2-0 up at Southampton in the 41st minute.
Ten Hag said it could be a turning point for the forward.
“For every striker, they want to be on the scoring list. Once the first is in, more is coming. Like a ketchup bottle, once it’s going, it’s coming more,” he said.
De Ligt, who joined United from Bayern Munich in the offseason, headed in from Bruno Fernandes’ cross in the 35th.
It could have been a different story if Cameron Archer converted a penalty for Southampton in the 33rd. Instead, his effort was saved by goalkeeper Andre Onana.
Newly promoted Southampton was reduced to 10 men when Jack Stephens was sent off in the 79th for a high challenge on Garnacho.
Villa comeback
After three straight defeats to start the league, Everton looked set for its first win when leading Aston Villa 2-0.
Goals from Dwight McNeil and Dominic Calvert-Lewin put Sean Dyche’s team in control until Ollie Watkins struck twice to even the game.
Jhon Duran completed Villa’s comeback and sealed a 3-2 win in the 76th to leave Everton rooted to the bottom of the table and the only top flight team without a point.
Late drama
Jean-Philippe Mateta converted a stoppage time penalty to salvage a 2-2 draw for Crystal Palace against Leicester.
Leicester led 2-0 at Selhurst Park after goals from Jamie Vardy and Stephy Mavididi.
But Mateta sparked Palace’s response with a goal in the 47th, a minute after Mavididi doubled Leicester’s advantage.
Conor Coady fouled Ismaili Sarr in the box right near fulltime and Mateta was cool enough to convert.
West Ham left it even later to salvage a point in a 1-1 draw at Fulham.
Danny Ings struck in the fifth minute of added time after Raul Jimenez’s goal looked like earning Fulham the win.
Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler, the manager of the month for August, was frustrated as his team was held to 0-0 at home by Ipswich.
CLEVELAND (AP) — Restricted free agent forward Isaac Okoro has agreed to re-sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers on a three-year contract, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Okoro’s new deal is worth $38 million, according to the person who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the contract has not been signed or announced by the team.
ESPN.com first reported the agreement, citing Okoro’s representation.
The fifth overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft, Okoro is Cleveland’s best perimeter defender, often drawing the assignment of guarding the opponent’s top scorer. Okoro also has worked to improve his offensive game.
The 23-year-old averaged 9.4 points and 3.0 rebounds in 69 games — 42 starts — last season for the Cavs, who beat Orlando in the opening round of the playoffs before losing to eventual champion Boston.
Okoro shot a career-best 39% on 3-pointers, forcing teams to come out and guard him.
His agreement caps an extraordinarily busy summer for the Cavs that began with coach J.B. Bickerstaff being fired and replaced by Kenny Atkinson. All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell signed a three-year, $150 million extension in July, ending months of speculation that he wanted out of Cleveland.
Also, power forward Evan Mobley signed a five-year, $224 deal and center Jarrett Allen signed a three-year, $91 million extension.
