***UPDATE (7 p.m. EST): AUSTON MATTHEWS, WHO SCORED 69 GOALS THIS SEASON TO LEAD THE NHL, DID NOT TAKE THE ICE AT TD GARDEN FOR THE WARM–UP TONIGHT WITH THE LEAFS AND HAS BEEN RULED OUT OF GAME 5.***

TORONTO (Apr. 30) — Fate has apparently intervened… not for the Toronto Maple Leafs to rebound from a 3–1 series deficit against the Boston Bruins (such a comeback has occurred only once in franchise history), but for the club to play another home game (gulp!) on Thursday. Yup, mark it down, folks: the Leafs will not bow out of the Stanley Cup tournament tonight at TD Garden. Whether or not Auston Matthews sits on the bench as $13 million window dressing, the visitors know they’ll need to compensate for their leading scorer’s injury… illness… slump… whatever. And, there’s something about this uneven era that brings out the best in the Leafs when Matthews is not in uniform. For, there is no logical way to interpret the hockey club being 35–19–12 in games without No. 34, other than to suggest the players in uniform understand they must pull up their bootstraps or risk being embarrassed.

There isn’t a lot of conspicuous pride amid this bunch; certainly not while forever failing to drag momentum from the 82–game season into the Stanley Cup chase. That’s become far–too–predictable after (nearly) eight consecutive years. Every so often, however, a dollop of playoff credibility emerges, offering hope where none existed.

Such as in Game 5 of the 2019 Cup series between the same teams, on the same ice.

It was the premier defensive performance by any Leafs playoff club in the Brendan Shanahan era. With the still–in–favor Mike Babcock behind the bench pushing all the correct buttons. A tidy, tight, 2–1 triumph while playing “lunch pail” hockey in the city that invented the term. The Maple Leafs simply out–Bruin’ed the home side and grabbed a 3–2 lead in the best–of–seven round, coming home for Game 6. Where the fantasy ultimately unraveled. Still, there was an important night in the not–too–distant past in which the Leafs performed as if they could beat any opponent. I would suggest Sheldon Keefe root out the DVD from five years and 11 nights ago. Show it to his players. Late this afternoon. Just before they prepare for the warm–ups. It will prove to the current group what 60 minutes of exertion can accomplish — even at the Hell Hole on Causeway Street. Heck, it might even work.

THE PHOTO–IRONY FROM THE LAST TIME THE MAPLE LEAFS PLAYED A PERFECT STANLEY CUP GAME: MIKE BABCOCK CHECKING WITH ZACH HYMAN ON THE BENCH. IT WAS APR. 19, 2019 AND GAME 5 OF THE 2019 OPENING–ROUND SERIES, IN BOSTON. SHELDON KEEFE SHOULD SHOW HIS TEAM THE VIDEO BEFORE TONIGHT’S ELIMINATION MATCH. MARY SCHWALM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Leafs, that night, were far superior than indicated by the one–goal final margin. Close your eyes for a moment and envision the perfect playoff road game. The sort the Bruins almost always deliver while toiling at Scotiabank Arena. That’s what the Leafs turned in on that Good Friday eve — the usual script reversing itself during Game 5 of the 2019 series. It was a scoreless slog past the midway mark of the third period; the visitors grinding the normally raucous Garden crowd into puzzled quietness. Matthews broke through on Tuukka Rask with 8:27 left; the Leafs star pounding the dasher at the bench when video replay confirmed the goal. Kasperi Kapanen provided Toronto insurance just 2:12 later and the Leafs held off a furious Boston charge in the final minute after David Krejci ruined Frederk Andersen’s shutout bid with 44 seconds remaining. Babcock was masterful in handling the bench and rolling four lines that all worked diligently. Matthews, in particular, impressed the coach. “I thought tonight was his best 200–foot game of the playoffs,” said Babcock, who moved into seventh on the NHL’s all–time playoff list for coaches with his 90th victory. “He was involved in so many breakouts and was available for the defence. I thought he played great. I was impressed with him and proud of him. He should feel good about himself.”

Such is the potential the Leafs will miss tonight if Matthews doesn’t suit up… and word leaking out of Boston late in the afternoon graduated toward that outcome. No other player wearing blue and white has stepped forward against the Bruins in this lop–sided quarrel. Only Auston, in the final half of Game 2, provided Toronto a pivotal performance. Mitch Marner and William Nylander have been all–but invisible, while Morgan Rielly has failed, thus far, to elevate his value to the club, as in the opening round of last year’s tournament against Tampa Bay. John Tavares, slowed by age, still understands where to be on the ice (if he can get there) and has performed adequately. All other Leafs, aside from David Kampf, have vanished. Including Ilya Samsonov, who will sit tonight in favor of Joseph Woll. Nothing better illustrates how unsettled the Leafs have been during the Shanahan era at the game’s most–critical position than distrusting their No. 1 stopper while facing playoff expulsion for the first time.

But, other factors are at work, not the least of which is Boston’s difficulty with slamming the door on post–season rivals. In each of the 2018 and 2019 playoff clashes against the Leafs, the Bruins frittered a 3–1 lead only to win, decisively, in Game 7 on home ice. When they couldn’t close out Florida with a 3–1 advantage last spring, the Bruins folded and lost three straight. Against most odds and logic, I suspect the Maple Leafs will prevail tonight on the grounds of urgency. Which is often a term the Toronto players need to look up in the dictionary. Except for the rare instances when arriving with their backs against the proverbial wall helps to align the planets.

For one night, anyway.

Such as this evening at the TD Garden.

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