Leafs forced to ‘look in the mirror’ after drubbing

TORONTO — The Maple Leafs‘ offense was missing in action again in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals Wednesday night, as a 6-1 loss to the Florida Panthers now has Toronto facing playoff elimination.

The Leafs, who were shut out 2-0 in Game 4, didn’t score until the final two minutes of Game 5 and now trail 3-2 in the best-of-seven series after holding a 2-0 lead.

Toronto’s top skaters were, again, invisible. Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander have yet to record a goal in the second round. And now the Leafs will have to log consecutive wins to extend their postseason.

“I think everybody’s got to look in the mirror,” Matthews said. “Myself included. Everybody wants to be better. Everybody wants to win.”

Matthews has just three goals in the Leafs’ last 21 games. He was third on the team in regular-season scoring, with 33 goals in 67 games.

It wasn’t just Matthews, though. Toronto was lifeless from the start of Game 5 and never seemed to challenge Florida at either end of the ice.

The Panthers heavily outplayed the Leafs throughout the first period, and it was defenseman Aaron Ekblad who finally beat goaltender Joseph Woll to give Florida a 1-0 lead through 20 minutes.

While Woll kept Toronto in a tight matchup, it was clear already the Leafs were struggling to keep up with the Panthers.

“We played slow,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “They were fast, they were on us, they were hungrier. That’s the first period, and that sets the tone for the game. It is hard to explain it. We all need to be better, me included. You can’t start the game that way, that’s a big thing for me.”

The Panthers opened the floodgates in the second period, helped by a landslide of Leafs mistakes. Dmitry Kulikov extended Florida’s lead with a goal tipped in by Leafs forward Scott Laughton‘s stick. Then Marner’s attempt to execute a spinning backhand pass in his own zone led to a turnover in the neutral zone that was picked up by Jesper Boqvist and snapped past Woll to give Florida a 3-0 lead midway through the second frame.

Boqvist entered the lineup in Game 5 to replace the injured Evan Rodrigues, who left Sunday’s Game 4 following a hit from Leafs defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

Niko Mikkola made it 4-0 before the end of the period, giving three Florida defensemen goals on the night.

By the time A.J. Greer scored Florida’s fifth goal — the first playoff make of his career — in the third period, it was time for Toronto to make a change in net, with Woll being replaced by Matt Murray.

Frustrated fans, who had booed the Leafs off their own ice to end the second period, began throwing items onto the sheet, including a Matthews jersey. People were exiting in droves by early in the third period.

“We didn’t give them much reason to stick around,” Matthews said.

Woll finished the game with five goals on 25 shots for an .800 save percentage.

Florida wasn’t done after Woll’s departure, though, with Sam Bennett adding a power play goal to give the Panthers a 6-0 lead halfway through the third period.

Toronto’s top skaters have had no response for Florida’s suffocating pressure — or Sergei Bobrovsky‘s impressive play.

Since giving up 13 goals to Toronto through the series’ first three games, Bobrovsky has been airtight in denying the Leafs any opportunity to score.

Berube tried making adjustments. He inserted David Kampf and Nicholas Robertson into the lineup for Game 5 to try and generate a spark, and moved Max Pacioretty to the top line during the game in an effort to generate some momentum. Nothing seemed to help.

Toronto hadn’t registered a goal since 10:56 of the third period of Game 3 until Robertson put one past Bobrovsky with 90 seconds left Wednesday night. It was all too little, too late.

“Tonight, it wasn’t a good game for anybody,” Berube said. “Anybody. All of us. it was not a good game.”

Leafs defenseman Chris Tanev was quick to shoulder the burden of Toronto’s defeat, echoing a refrain heard around the locker room from players determined not to let this be the penultimate game of their season.

“I’ll take responsibility,” Tanev said. “I need to be better. If I’m a minus player [at minus-2 in Game 5], we’re probably not going to win the game. It’s on me. I’ll take responsibility for the game.”

Game 6 is Friday in Florida.