It made a press room laugh and, by extension, showed another way to his team. Only Maurice showed another way to navigate. That’s how you expect a coach in a playoff series to sound. “That’s what we’ve been trying to get to,’’ Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. The Knicks dug deep enough to keep that series going. It’s similar to what happened in New York at the same time Wednesday night with the Miami Heat. What happened Wednesday in Sunrise is Toronto created another day to its season. They weren’t drawn-up goals by William Nylander (who took a pass from the referee’s knee) and Marner (whose wrist shot from the blue line went through I-95-ish traffic to score). Maybe it was because of this pressure accompanying them, two of Toronto’s stars scored for the first time this series. Maybe it was because rookie Joseph Woll was in goal, but after two periods their defensemen blocked as many Panthers shots (16) as Woll saved. “We’re focused on that.”īeyond such mindset, Toronto turned in the kind of effort in Game 4 they hadn’t previously this series. “We don’t care, we’re about ourselves in here,’’ said star winger Mitch Marner, flatly, after Game 4. And they’re constantly asked about that pressure, and if it shifted to the Panthers with a win, and. The guillotine is suspended above this team in as polar opposite a hockey market to the Panthers as there can be. After falling behind 3-0, Toronto’s front office was being fired by the Canadian media and players were being traded. Toronto remains at the epicenter of hockey. And Maurice is smartly working this angle still up 3-1 in this series. It’s fun to be an eighth playoff seed, fun to jump to a 3-0 series lead, fun to work in a market without oppressive demands fun, at least if you set your mind that way. OK, we’re all good with that?” Related Articlesįlorida Panthers lose to the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 4 | PHOTOS We lost a game today, that happens in the playoffs. “So we would expect at the start to go to Game 7 smiling. And I don’t think any of you would’ve picked that. “Or that if you just did what you could easily do (and win in 4). “The opposite part of that idea is you expect a team with 112 points to have no life in a series,’’ he said of Toronto. Maurice had his own words to add to whether the Panthers gave Toronto a chance by not closing this series out in Game 4 with a sweep. And, no, this message wasn’t so much for you or me as for his players in the aftermath of not closing out this series and turning their minds to a trip to Toronto for Friday’s Game 5. But do you see what he did here? It’s one thing for a coach to dryly state that idea and it’s another for him to project a Will Ferrell character saying it to get the full emphasis across.
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