Well, that early jump from Auston Matthews and his Leafs? Yeah, it didn’t age too well. After kicking things off with back-to-back dubs in Round 2, Toronto suddenly hit a wall, aka the Florida Panthers, dropping two in a row and now finding the series tied up at 2-2. Just hours ago, it was Big Game Bob doing Bobrovsky things, swatting away 23 shots to shut the door on Toronto with a clean 2-0 win in Game 4 at the ever-loud Amerant Bank Arena. Carter Verhaeghe cashed in with a nasty one-timer off a slick feed from Matthew Tkachuk (who else?), lighting the lamp on Florida’s fourth power play of the first.

Joseph Woll stood tall with 35 saves for the Leafs, but the Panthers just kept coming, outshooting the Leafs 29-12 through two frames. The final nail came courtesy of Sam Bennett, who snapped one home on a cheeky partial 2-on-1 after a messy turnover in the neutral zone, just waited out Woll like he was brunch reservations. From that point on, Florida clamped down hard, holding Toronto to just four more shots the rest of the game. And now, Auston Matthews steps up to defend the Leafs’ tough loss to the Panthers as his jaw-dropping playoff stats come to light.

Auston Matthews hit the post-game mic with some real talk after the Leafs’ rough tumble in Florida, and honestly, he didn’t sugarcoat a thing. It’s clear the guy knows they’ve got work to do, but he’s far from panicking. After all, they’re up against the reigning champs and it ain’t exactly a walk in the park.

“A couple days here at Reset. We knew it wasn’t gonna be easy. We’re playing the defending cup champs. They’re a good team. You know, both teams took care of home ice. So, you know, here we are. We just got to continue to push, clean up some things, you know, get better in different areas and, you know, going back on home ice, be excited about that.” Matthews dropped that with the kind of energy that says, ‘Yeah, we’ve been hit, but we’re not down.’

And well, the Florida Panthers are skating in the series wearing that shiny crown from last year’s epic Stanley Cup win, where they edged out the Oilers 2-1 to snatch the 2024 title. Yup, the champs are in the house, and beating them? Definitely not a walk in the rink. But plot twist; Auston Matthews and the Maple Leafs seem to be caught in a chilly slump, and fans are side-eyeing those playoff stat sheets. As PuckEmpire cheekily dropped, “From Captain America to Captain Underpants, Auston Matthews has 0 goals and just 5 points in his 9 career games played past the first-round of the playoffs.” Oof.

And to make it sting even more, Big Head Hockey came in hot with, “Auston Matthews game log: May 11th vs Florida: 0 goals May 9th vs Florida: 0 goals May 7th vs Florida: 0 goals May 5th vs Florida: 0 goals May 1st vs Ottawa: 1 goal April 29th vs Ottawa: 0 goals April 26th vs Ottawa: 0 goals.” And the kicker? Matthews and crew apparently have access to the opponents’ locker room, yet still can’t crack the code.

Auston Matthews reveals having access to the Panthers’ locker room!

Craig Berube wasn’t blinking, not even a little. The Maple Leafs coach knew exactly what kind of storm they were skating into for Round 2. “They play a hard game, I agree. They forecheck hard, they’re physical, they’re in your face the whole game,” he said cool as ever. But intimidated? Not even close. “We’re a physical team too. And we have to be physical ourselves. We have to initiate as much as possible.” That fearless fire from the bench is exactly the kind of energy Auston Matthews and the crew need as they dive into battle. But let’s be real—Berube’s grit isn’t the only secret weapon hiding in Toronto’s locker room.

Matthews, Nylander, Tavares, Marner… that lineup is already dripping with playoff firepower. Word is, Auston might’ve gotten a sneaky little leg up on the defending champs, and not from game tape. A reporter hit Matthews with a perfectly timed question: “Auston did you talk to any of the three former Florida guys ahead of the series about their takeaways from being on that team last year?” And Auston? He didn’t dodge. “Yeah it’s good to have those guys’ perspective obviously you know them being on that team last year that won and being close I’m sure with a lot of those guys. So it’s I think it’s always good to get you know their perspective on things you know things that we can be aware of things that we can you know assert ourselves in and stuff like that.” Basically, he’s out here picking playoff brains like a champ, taking notes from the guys who’ve lived it.

Those “guys” just so happen to be Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Steven Lorentz, and Anthony Stolarz; all of them now rocking Leafs blue and gearing up to skate straight through their old squad. So yeah, Toronto’s got some Panther DNA in the locker room and they’re not afraid to use it. But still, with all that insight, the Leafs are in a serious pickle right now. The defending champs aren’t backing down, and those playoff lights are only getting hotter.