There was nothing easy about Mondays Game 1 win for the Leafs considering they spent almost half of the first period shorthanded, including the 5 minute major penalty to Kyle Clifford. They were simply the better team that night and that was evident when they had more scoring opportunities on the 5 minute penalty kill than Tampa had and that it took Tampa four and a half minutes before they even registered a shot on that powerplay.
We've seen it done in the past with newspaper headlines, where coaches post them in the dressing room to fire up the team. Well, Cooper's comments should be bulletin board material for Keefe in the Leafs room going into tonight. Tampa is going to come out flying and as well as the Leafs played Monday night they need to be even better tonight. The crowd helped them in Game 1 and they'll need them to be just as loud or louder for Game 2.
POLL | ||
4 MAI | 815 ANSWERS Jon Cooper doubles down on discrediting Leafs for hard fought win in Game 1 Do you believe that Tampa let the Leafs off the hook in Game 1, or did the Leafs earn the win? | ||
The Leafs absolutely earned it | 582 | 71.4 % |
The Bolts played like crap | 79 | 9.7 % |
Maybe a bit of both | 154 | 18.9 % |
List of polls |