OTTAWA — Does killer instinct come from within?
Or can it be taught?
Toronto Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube found the topic to be fascinating Friday when posed with those questions during his press conference at Canadian Tire Centre.
With his team up 3-0 against the Ottawa Senators in its best-of-7 Eastern Conference First Round, Berube knows the final dagger can be thrust into their Battle of Ontario foes in Game 4 at Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, TBS, truTV, MAX). A victory would mean the first playoff series sweep by Toronto since the 2001 Maple Leafs won all four games against the Senators, also in the first round.
But Toronto is 2-13 in potential series-winning games since 2004. It’s a disturbing trend Berube hopes he can help his team buck. Now he has to see if his team has the killer instinct to actually do it.
“Well, you can learn it and apply,” he said. “I mean, most athletes, veteran athletes, have it. They understand.
“But again, all we can do is understand what you need to do every shift as a player, and know the battling and competitiveness you need, and the puck play, the smart puck play. That’s the process you need to focus on. The killer instinct will take care of itself.”
Those who look at the Maple Leafs in a cup-half-full way see them having shown that trait in the past two games, each 3-2 overtime victories.
On the other hand, the cup-half-empty view suggests Toronto too often has bumbled and stumbled when it has had the chance to eliminate teams in the past 24 years.
In that span, the Maple Leafs have won just three series, and one since 2003-04, when they defeated the Senators in seven games in the first round.
Now they have the chance to finish off a young Ottawa team that must be discouraged behind closed doors. Keep in mind that the Senators were one shot away from winning Games 2 and 3 of this series and could very well be leading it 2-1 instead of trailing 3-0.
The series, despite three consecutive Toronto wins, has been that close. As such, the last thing the Maple Leafs want to do is let the Senators off the mat when they have them down.
“It can definitely be a good thing,” defenseman Brandon Carlo said of disposing of opponents quickly in the postseason. “There’s been times in my career that you finish off the series fast, and you have a long break between. That can become kind of awkward. But overall, I think rest is a weapon. And for us, confidence wise going forward, you want to continue on the right track.”
Carlo would know. Prior to coming to the Maple Leafs before the NHL Trade Deadline on March 7, he’d played 72 postseason games, all with the Boston Bruins, a run that included five playoff series wins.
The Maple Leafs are on their own impressive run right now, winning 12 of their past 13 games dating back to the final few weeks of the regular season.
But they’ve been far from dominant in the past two games against a Senators team that is now looking for an historic comeback.
Only four teams in NHL history have overcome a 3-0 deficit to win a postseason series: the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs against the Detroit Red Wings, the 1975 New York Islanders against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the 2010 Philadelphia Flyers against the Boston Bruins, and the 2014 Los Angeles Kings against the San Jose Sharks.
For their part the Senators still believe, and they need only to look to forward Claude Giroux, who was part of the 2010 Flyers. Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk also said he recently watched a documentary on the 2004 Boston Red Sox, who are the Major League Baseball team to come from three games down to win a series, that coming against the rival New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series.
In each of those instances, the Senators say there is inspiration.
And hope.
“The only thing we can do right now is look at the positive,” said Senators forward David Perron, who won a Stanley Cup under Berube with the 2019 St. Louis Blues. “We feel like we’re right there.
“What’s history saying so far? Not great. But we’re going to try to turn this thing around one game at a time.”
