The Toronto Maple Leafs hope their offensive spark stays lit when they visit the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night in Sunrise, Fla., in the teams’ first encounter since the second round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Even as they linger near the bottom of the Eastern Conference, the Maple Leafs’ 7-2 clobbering of the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday sprung them to the top of the Atlantic Division in goals scored.
Each forward on Toronto’s third line — Bobby McMann, Dakota Joshua and Nicolas Roy — snapped a lengthy goalless drought in the second period.
“You gotta keep doing your job, right?” Joshua said after netting his first goal in 15 games. “And then you’ll get a result like that. I think it’s obviously been, you know, not ideal to this point, so to get that result means a lot and now the importance in keeping it going is there.”
Some of Toronto’s offense has come from the blue line. Oliver Ekman-Larsson left late in the game with an upper-body injury, though not before extending his point streak to nine.
With 20 points in 25 games, the Swedish defenseman is on pace for the highest scoring season of his career.
The Leafs hope to have him back against Florida, his former team, which eliminated Toronto from the last postseason in seven games.
“I’m hoping he’s fine,” said head coach Craig Berube. “I don’t know yet, but we’ll evaluate him tomorrow. I think he’ll be OK, but we’ll see.”
The Panthers are experiencing a rough patch in the midst of long-term injuries to star forwards Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk. They fell 5-3 to the visiting Calgary Flames on Friday as opposing netminder Devin Cooley turned away 37 shots.
Following the loss to Calgary, Florida has dropped three of its last four and three straight at home.
The two-time defending Cup champion is disappointed to be sitting outside a playoff spot, though Florida coach Paul Maurice is of two minds given the circumstances.
“Nobody cares how injured you are or what you’re going through,” Maurice said. “I think there’s something really good that we can build out of this. We can take something out of our adversity and make it ours.”
Florida’s renowned depth has struggled to compensate for the absent Barkov and Tkachuk, who have yet to play this season. Reigning Conn Smythe Trophy winner Sam Bennett has just 12 points in 24 games, while Carter Verhaeghe (four goals) is on pace for his lowest total since the 2019-20 season.
Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky’s .882 save percentage through 17 appearances is the lowest of his 16-year career.
The Panthers are hoping a rare four-day layover at home does them some good. The matchup with Toronto is the third of a season-long six-game homestand.
“Just being able to take at least one day to get your mind off hockey completely helps a lot,” said forward A.J. Greer, who has six goals and 10 points and is the rare Panther outscoring his usual pace.
–Field Level Media
