1 week Ago By Lance Hornby
Article content Nothing tops the drama of NHL playoff overtime, right? And we’re fortunate, as viewers, to see it the past three games in this series, with the Ottawa Senators down 0-3 Saturday and facing a tee time if they didn’t pull it out. They ended up winning on much the same kind of goal that Simon Benoit scored in Game 3, a shot I don’t think Anthony Stolarz even saw after so many chances and that long Leafs power play. That crazy back-and-forth hockey is what I’m talking about.
Yeah, Toronto could’ve ended it all Saturday, but I don’t see all of these overtimes having any negative physical or mental effect on the Leafs. Nor do I see one Senators win planting any ‘seed of doubt’, as the Leafs came back twice in Game 4 and led in areas such as shots and again on faceoffs. Maybe you have a different opinion of overtime, but I like settling this 5-on-5, so much better than 3-on-3 during the regular season.
And don’t get me started on the shootout. It all starts to be a gimmick after a while. To me, 4-on-4 would at least be a better way to settle things in regular season OT.
We’ve actually seen a bit more of that open style in playoff regulation with off-setting penalties, when referees send a guy from each team to the penalty box following one of those post-whistle pileups. The league wanted games to end earlier so they went to 3-on-3, but the better team usually has the advantage right away if it wins the draw. When I played, there were still ties and it wasn’t really a terrible thing if the game ended that way and you both got a point.
Take my word for it, if you went into Long Island against those Cup teams New York had, you were pretty damn happy to get out of there with a tie. Maybe the league can change the rule in future so the overtime winner gets an extra point as incentive. I think it would balance out over the regular season.
But back to the Leafs. I think they can easily fix what went wrong in Game 4. They didn’t have John Tavares for the four-minute overtime power play — after Chris Tanev was carelessly high-sticked by Senators’ Drake Batherson — that came up empty just prior to the winning goal being scored; Stolarz didn’t have a strong game by his standards, and Linus Ullmark finally did for the Senators.
I’ve been on a Toronto team that did lose a 3-1 lead, back in 1987 to Detroit. No question, it was the same desperate times in Ottawa on Saturday and that is not something that can be measured in analytics. Being up or down 3-1 is part of dealing with the game and if you’re the Leafs, it’s been a good year and you just have to be dialed in better for Game 5.
The Senators have to try to bring that same Game 4 feeling to Toronto, so they won’t be intimidated in this situation. If they get a good bounce early and a lead on Tuesday ..
. who knows? But it won’t be easy. It was a good sign that the Leafs didn’t quit on Saturday and now they’re at home where their fans did such a great job in Games 1 and 2 to pump them up.
The Toronto Sun welcomes back former Toronto captain and three-time 50-goal scorer for our 2025 Leafs playoff coverage Rick Vaive. He played 16 NHL and WHA seasons and is the author of ‘Catch 22: My Battles in Hockey and Life.’ He can be heard on Squid and The Ultimate Leafs Fan podcast with Mike Wilson and special guests.
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