Of course it was Brad Marchand.
Of course.
Did you expect anything different?
At any rate, the Leafs are still in a good spot up 2-1 in the series as we look ahead to Game 4 on Sunday night in Sunrise.
The great Jeff Marek filled in for Jay Rosehill on a special Saturday edition of Leafs Morning Take. Off the top, we gave our initial thoughts on Toronto’s 5-4 OT loss in Game 3. All in all, they played well enough to win the game. At the end of the day, Toronto wasn’t going to sweep. This is the defending Stanley Cup champion we’re talking about.
After that, we got into a full game recap. It was a tough night for bounces, and it was a tough night for Joseph Woll. Morgan Rielly, too. Woll made 31 saves. At times, he looked nervous. On top of that, it looks like Florida’s gameplan is to get Woll to play the puck. Bottom line: The Leafs will need more from their crease moving forward. Meantime, by far, John Tavares and Matthew Knies were Toronto’s best players yet again. We gave them some much-deserved love. Additionally, we addressed the Cour Four – as a whole – and discussed the elephant in the room: Auston Matthews’ offensive struggles. He’s missing the net a lot. A LOT. If the Leafs are going to win this series, they will need their captain to start scoring —plain and simple. He has two goals in nine playoff games thus far. From a Game 4 preview perspective, we agreed that the Leafs just need to keep playing their game. Furthermore, there’s reason to feel optimistic about what they’re doing and how they’ve been playing. They’re doing a lot of really good things.
Jay Rosehill will be back in the mix as we bring you another special edition of Leafs Morning Take on Sunday at 11 AM ET. Tune in as we offer up a full game preview for Game 4.
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