The Toronto Maple Leafs have one of the NHL’s best power plays. The Florida Panthers boast one the league’s top penalty kills.
The strength of those special teams will be put to the test beginning Monday, when the Maple Leafs host the Panthers in Game 1 of their Stanley Cup playoffs second-round series.
After finishing tied for eighth in the league with a 24.8 percent success rate on the man advantage, Toronto was even better in its six-game set against the Ottawa Senators in the first round, cashing in on 35.3 percent of its opportunities (6-for-17).
A big part of that is the success of the five-forward top unit, featuring Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, John Tavares and Matthew Knies. The quintet combined for 17 points (six goals, 11 assists) on the power play in the first round.
“I think they are confident in it right now,” Panthers forward Sam Reinhart said. “They have a lot of skill and talent.”
The same can be said for the Panthers when short-handed. Their penalty kill is second in the NHL in the playoffs at 88.9 percent (16-for-18), trailing only the Carolina Hurricanes, who have been perfect on the kill.
The Panthers have yet to score a short-handed goal in the postseason but were second in the NHL in the regular season with 12. Reinhart had five of those, tied for third in the league. Six other teammates accounted for the rest.
“That’s how you win series,” Florida defenseman Gustav Forsling said. “You need your PK to be on point.”
The Maple Leafs and Panthers are meeting for the second time in three seasons. In 2023, Florida dispatched Toronto in five games, also in the second round. That marked the first time in nearly 20 years that the Maple Leafs had made it past the opening round; they haven’t advanced to a conference final since 2001-02.
“All the outside stuff doesn’t really matter,” Matthews said. “It’s about the 20 or 25 guys that are in our room and the belief in one another, doing it for one another and just going out there and competing.”
After making it beyond the second round just once in its first 28 seasons, Florida enters the series eyeing a third consecutive spring in the conference final.
“We have a lot more experience of playing in the playoffs, but every year is different,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said. “They have a lot of new guys, new systems, a new coach. They’ve been playing really well this year and they played good in the first round, so it’s going to be tough. All we can do is concentrate on ourselves and our game plan and go out there and do it.”
Of those new players on the Toronto side, three won the Stanley Cup with Florida last season — defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson, goalie Anthony Stolarz and forward Steven Lorentz.
“Yeah, good memories. That’s in the past,” Lorentz said. “We’ve got a job to do, so that’s the focus right now.”
Brad Marchand, acquired by the Panthers from the Boston Bruins before the trade deadline, has been a solid fit alongside Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen. He had four assists in the first round, with the trio outscoring the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-0 on 5-on-5.
