Two months after the Florida Panthers acquired an injured Brad Marchand from the Boston Bruins, it is the Toronto Maple Leafs who are starting to feel the pain.
Florida will face the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday in Game 4 of a second-round Eastern Conference playoff series at Sunrise, Fla., with the Panthers out to reap more rewards from the move to acquire the 36-year-old veteran.
On Friday, Marchand continued to show he feels just fine now, scoring in overtime as Florida beat Toronto 5-4 to cut the Panthers’ deficit in the best-of-seven series to 2-1.
Marchand was humble when asked about his game-winner.
“It’s a blur,” he said. “It’s one second of a game. It could’ve been anybody. It all happens so quick, and you’re exhausted at that point.”
Tired or not, teammate Carter Verhaeghe said Marchand brings energy to the Panthers.
“He scores big goals in big moments,” Verhaeghe said.
In a decorated career, Marchand has scored 14 game-winning playoff goals, the most among any active NHL player.
The Panthers also are grateful to have another 36-year-old on their roster in goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who made two massive saves in overtime. He preserved the opportunity for Marchand’s heroics when he stopped breakaways by William Nylander and Matthew Knies.
It was Bobrovsky’s 51st career playoff win.
After winning the Stanley Cup last season, the Panthers already have shown plenty of grit, and more was on display in Game 3 when they had 62 hits to 43 for the Maple Leafs.
Since Game 3 in the first round of the 2021 playoffs, the Panthers are 13-2 in overtime playoff games.
Florida also eliminated Toronto from the 2023 playoffs, the last time the teams met in the postseason, and the Panthers won their 2024-25 season series against the Maple Leafs 3-1.
And yet, with the Maple Leafs threatening to advance to the conference finals and the Panthers pulling off some dramatics at home, nothing out of the ordinary has happened yet, with both teams winning their home games in the series so far.
Each game in the series has been decided by one goal.
Of Toronto’s four goals on Friday, two of them bounced off a Florida player, and one clanged off the crossbar leading to an easy rebound.
Out of Florida’s five goals, two of them bounced off either the body or the stick of Toronto’s Morgan Rielly.
“That’s how pucks are going in right now,” Rielly said, “and it’s not just in this series.”
Leafs coach Craig Berube said his team needs to keep the heat on the Panthers.
“We got back to playing our game in (Friday’s third period),” Berube said. “We were pressuring them, getting pucks in behind them and going to work. We need to keep doing that.”
Toronto received two of their four goals by John Tavares in Game 3, when the Panthers benched their previous fourth line of Mackie Samoskevich, Nico Sturm and Jesper Boqvist in favor of Tomas Nosek, Jonah Gadjovich and AJ Greer.
The move worked as Nosek scored Florida’s fourth goal.
“It felt like we needed a style change,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “(Those three players) work so hard every day.”
Added Verhaeghe: “They turned the tide for our team.”
Tavares is looking for something more akin to how the Leafs played at Toronto.
“They’re a good team,” Tavares said. “They pushed hard. We need to execute like we have in the past.”
–Field Level Media
