David Alter gives his take on the Maple Leafs’ recent defeat to Stanley Cup champs Florida Panthers. If Toronto are going to lift the Stanley Cup, they’ll have to find a way past the Panthers.

The Toronto Maple Leafs were without several key forward like No. 34, Matthew Knies, Max Pacioretty and Max Domi just to name a few when they fell 5-1 to the Florida Panthers on Wednesday.

Although the Panthers had slipped in their game, losing four straight going into it, the Maple Leafs were still hoping to send a message.

When Toronto practiced for the final time before boarding a flight to sunny Fort Lauderdale, Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube delivered a final message to the team as they stretched out at centre ice.

“Be F***ing ready, initiate.

That didn’t really happen as Toronto’s offense dried up. Although Toronto put an impressive string of wins together in their last few games and they were hoping to catch the Panthers off guard, Florida shows that they are very much still the class of the Eastern Conference and that any playoff success coming out of the East will run right through them.

The Panthers paying out at +850 to win the Stanley Cup over at Bodog appears to be a pretty safe bet.

Earlier in the day, Florida head coach Paul Maurice said at times in lulls of a season it can be hard to find your motivation. That can be especially true if you already won the highest prize of your short just a few months back. You are also reminded of it every time a former player from that club comes to visit to the collect their Stanley Cup ring. That’s precisely what happened when Maple Leafs players Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Anthony Stolarz and Steven Lorentz came into town.

As the game went on, there were separate video tributes during the tv timeouts for each player individually. The Leafs had already given up a pair of goals before they got to Stolarz that we wondered if he was till going to be in the net by the time they got his package.

All jokes aside, Maurice wasn’t surprised to see the success that Stolarz is having in Toronto in an elevated role.

“He’s the same,” Maurice said. He also admitted that their schedule had fewer back-to-back games and last season was more about getting Sergei Bobrovsky into a rhythm ahead of the playoffs, otherwise Stolarz would have had more games in goal than he did.

Maple Leafs teammates admitted to taking a quick peek at the rings, and how could you not? With the franchise not winning a Stanley Cup since 1967, the team made a point not to share anything about the former Panthers’ big day, leaving that for Florida to share.

The Leafs should be getting some forwards back sooner rather than later. Defensively and in goal, Toronto is solid. However, the offense has really dried up. Heading into their game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Leafs have just nine even-strength goals in the span of their last nine games. While it’s commendably that they are more focused on a defensively sound game, some will point to a lack of offense in their playoff series against the Boston Bruins last spring as a factor for them getting bounced in the first round. If No. 34 comes back and he is back to his regular self putting up points, then all is good again. They will have found the balance for them to be a complete team. But they still have some work to do on that front and the regular season will continue to be a grind. Despite their good run, there is not a lot separating them from the playoff bubble at the moment. There could still be more bumps along the way.