Maple Leafs searching for answers, down but not out after big loss to Panthers in Game 5

TORONTO — The Toronto Maple Leafs started hearing boos with five minutes remaining Thursday.

Not in the game.

In the second period.

By the start of the third period, there were thousands of empty seats sprinkled throughout Scotiabank Arena, an obvious indication of the many disappointed fans in the one-time capacity crowd.

Then came the coup de grace of the fans’ collective frustrations in the form of a black Auston Matthews No. 34 jersey, which was chucked onto the ice with 13:37 remaining in regulation.

Such was the story of what had been billed as the Maple Leafs' biggest home game in more than two decades.

In the end, they were barely in it.

Indeed, the final score of 6-1 in favor of the Florida Panthers probably wasn’t a true indication of the visitors’ domination, believe it or not. It was that one-sided.

And now the Maple Leafs, thoroughly dissected by the defending Stanley Cup champions, somehow have to pick themselves up off the mat and regroup, down 3-2 in their best-of-7 Eastern Conference Second Round heading into Game 6 at Amerant Bank Arena on Friday.

How, they were asked afterward, do you bounce back from a performance like that, one that actually had the Panthers laughing on their bench as the clock ticked down in the third period?

“You go home. You realize that wasn’t close to being good enough. You flush it down the toilet,” Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner said.

“Everyone has their own way of coping with things and forgetting about things. Whatever yours is, just go home and do it. Relax.”

Interestingly, if this was Marner’s final home game as a Maple Leaf, what a sour farewell it was.

The 28-year-old is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1 and is easily considered to be the top prize on the market should he decide to go that route. If the Maple Leafs don’t win Friday and force a Game 7 in Toronto, it may have been his swan song at Scotiabank Arena, although he said after the game that possibility was not on his mind.

“No, no thoughts of that at all,” he said. “Like I said, we have to reset. It’s obviously not the spot we want to be in but you can’t do anything about it.

“We know this is going to be a roller coaster of a ride and that it’s not going to be easy. Like I said, we’re going to have the mindset now to go into Florida and take it shift by shift and win a hockey game.”

Easier said than done, if Wednesday was any indication.

Toronto’s offense has dried up, thanks in part to Sergei Bobrovsky rediscovering his game. The Panthers goalie blanked the Maple Leafs for 143:25 over the course of three games before Nicholas Robertson finally ended that streak at 18:54 of the third period.

In the process, the Maple Leafs top line of Marner, Matthews and Matthew Knies had a particularly rough night, going pointless with a collective minus-7. The trio has combined for just three goals through five games of the series, with Knies having two, Marner one and Matthews still searching for his first.

At one point during a Toronto power play in the third period, Matthews, the Maple Leafs captain, curiously peeled off a loose puck in his own zone with a Panthers forward in pursuit and skated to the bench, causing jeers to rain down on him.

It was that type of night not just for him, but for the entire team.

“I think everyone has to look in the mirror, myself included,” he said.

“Everybody obviously wants to be better. Everybody obviously wants to win. We’ve been a good road team all season long. There’s always been belief and confidence in this group from what we’ve built throughout the year.”

Asked about the mass exodus of spectators from the building so early in the game, Matthews replied: “I mean, I don’t think we gave them much reason to stick around.”

That pretty much was the case from the get-go.

Toronto was swarmed by the relentless Panthers forecheck right from the opening face-off, causing a seemingly endless slew of sloppy turnovers in their own defensive end. By the end of the first period, the Maple Leafs were down 1-0 on an Aaron Ekblad goal, had been outshot 13-6 and had lost too many puck battles to count.

Florida followed up with three second-period goals to take a 4-0 lead and never looked back.

It left Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube searching for answers he didn’t have.

“The first period, they outskated us, really, they had the puck, they won the races,” Berube said. “We just played slow. They were fast, they were honest, they were hungrier.

“It’s hard to explain.”

The Maple Leafs have not been past the second round of the postseason since they met the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2002 Eastern Conference Final, some 23 years ago. After winning the first two games of this series, the team’s rabid fan base was downright giddy at the possibility of a return.

Not so much anymore after three consecutive losses.

“Tonight wasn’t a good game for anybody, including myself,” Berube said.

Along with Marner, forward John Tavares is another prominent pending UFA. Unless the Maple Leafs win Game 6, this potentially was his final home game as well.

In order to avoid that scenario, the Maple Leafs will have to force a Game 7. Given that they’ve been outscored 8-1 in the past two games, their play will have to elevate quickly for that to happen.

“We don’t have much of a choice,” Marner said.

Except to win.