The Toronto Maple Leafs are heading home with more playoffs to play after staving off elimination in Florida last night thanks to their 2-1 win. William Nylander and Mitch Marner silenced the critics by scoring the two goals for the Leafs. Joseph Woll won his first career playoff start and got his 10th win in his first 12 starts in the NHL.
Shockingly, the Leafs are the first team to not get swept down 0-3 in six years. Sadly, the team to do it were the Blue Jackets, who ended up losing in five to the Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round.
The last team to win both Games 4 and 5 after going down 0-3 was the Flyers in 2016 in the first round against Washington. They lost in six. The last team who made it to Game 7 were the 2014 LA Kings who won that game and went all the way. Hopefully the Leafs can emulate that magic.
Leafs become the first team to win Game 4 while being the road team avoiding the sweep since 2017. Last 7 have failed to avoid the brooms. Per US TV broadcast.
— David Alter (@dalter) May 11, 2023
William Nylander gave the media and his haters pikachu face by stating plainly that you can have fun and be serious at the same time.
"It's nice to see him rewarded because he's doing a lot of good things."
— David Alter (@dalter) May 11, 2023
Woll and Marner helped the #Leafs pick up a win, but when William Nylander is dialled in like he was in Game 4, the club has a fighting chance. ⤵️https://t.co/5mxs6nA6RX
Joe Woll is just happy to be here. Hopefully it's for more than just another couple of days.
Joseph Woll: It was a pretty awesome game to get to get put into. Any opportunity I get with this team is pretty special, so I think it was awesome for me to see how hard we played tonight. Guys blocking shots and putting it all on the line was pretty awesome.
— David Alter (@dalter) May 11, 2023
Woll's first playoff win was an elimination game, he's the 11th Leafs goalie to do that, the last one being Felix the Cat.
He was a Woll tonight.
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) May 11, 2023
Joseph Woll became the 11th different @MapleLeafs rookie goaltender to earn a playoff win and the first since Felix Potvin in Game 5 of the 1993 Conference Finals. #StanleyCup #NHLStats: https://t.co/g9EfJkoHtf pic.twitter.com/2SK04HZ0HV
Don't make it the last good one, Sheldon!
Keefe on the urgency: I thought it was our best effort of the season.
— David Alter (@dalter) May 11, 2023
Before the game, I wrote a story on how the first three (now four) games of the series are gone and nothing earned then can be reaped now. All they can do is continue to out-play the Panthers and hope the bounces go their way. They did it once, 25% of the way there.
Brigstew has begun wrapping up the seasons of several Leafs prospects as their junior years come to an end. Yesterday was Fraser Minten.

Ty Voit was also assigned to the Toronto Marlies yesterday after his OHL playoffs ended.
Forward Ty Voit has been reassigned to the Toronto Marlies by Toronto (NHL) from Sarnia (OHL). pic.twitter.com/pNL0zEM0M5
— Toronto Marlies (@TorontoMarlies) May 10, 2023
Rodion Amirov has signed a one year extension with Salavat Yulaev. Not sure what this means for his health and playing career, but if he is able to play again, he has a place to go and a local organization to support him.
#LeafsForever prospect Rodion Amirov has signed a one-year contract extension with Salavat. #KHL pic.twitter.com/IZveEPytXl
— Hockey News Hub (@HockeyNewsHub) May 10, 2023
With Ilya Samsonov out, the Leafs have recalled Dennis Hildeby to be the third goalie and EBUG at games. It saves them from needing to rely on accountants or zamboni drivers.
The @MapleLeafs have recalled G Dennis Hildeby from the @TorontoMarlies to serve as the Club’s playoff emergency backup goaltender (EBUG).
— Leafs PR (@LeafsPR) May 10, 2023
As you can imagine, the clout chasing from various mayoral candidates around the Leafs is head-shakingly sad.
Leafs’ playoff run — a boost for Toronto mayoral candidates or a distraction? - Toronto | https://t.co/H2IPcj57Hv https://t.co/QQSub6t2sw
— Matthew Bingley (@mattybing) May 10, 2023
NHL Playoffs
Toronto Maple Leafs 2-1 over Florida Panthers
FLA leads 3-1
Re-Verse Sweep!! Re-Verse Sweep!! Re-Verse Sweep!!
Edmonton Oilers 4-1 over Vegas Golden Knights
Series tied 2-2
Three goals in the first were enough to tie the series at two for the Oilers against the Knights.
Erik Karlsson, Connor McDavid, and David Pastrnak have been named the three nominees for the Ted Lindsay Award for Most Outstanding Player as voted for the players. If you ask me, this trophy matters more than the Hart. By the players, voting for the best player.

Comcast get their mouthpiece at the top of the Flyers organization as they hire local broadcaster and former player Keith Jones to be president of hockey ops. The Flyers ownership has been chasing profits through cheap success for decades now and it doesn't look like anything is about to change.
Hearing that tomorrow morning, PHI will announce Keith Jones as President of Hockey Operations and officially drop the "interim" tag from Daniel Briere's GM role. Jones played 491 NHL games, the final 131 with the Flyers.
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) May 11, 2023
SportsCenter host John Anderson called Zach Whitecloud toilet paper on air. This was discussed in the FTB yesterday, but here are some words from Whitecloud on the matter.

🎥 Zach Whitecloud speaks on his pride for his heritage. 🧡 pic.twitter.com/3j5pIQT120
— z - Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) May 9, 2023
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