After losses in Buffalo on Friday and at home against Vancouver Saturday night, the Toronto Maple Leafs are at the precipice of falling out of the top eight in the Eastern Conference for the first time this season.
In each performance, the club was overall defensive game was wanting, yielding five goals to a struggling and shorthanded Sabres club and another five against the Canucks, who had lost their two previous road games to conference bottom dwellers Carolina and Columbus.
In Buffalo, the Leafs penalty killing and lack of discipline was the culprit, as they took five consecutive penalties in the second period and allowed the Sabres to take control of the game with three power-play goals.
On Saturday, Vancouver took advantage of one of the more annoying traits that Toronto clubs in the Ron Wilson era have possessed; a puzzling lack of energy and timidity at the beginning of each period. The Canucks jumped on the listless Leafs in both first and second periods, applying heavy pressure in the offensive zone, preventing Toronto defenders from clearing the puck out and scoring before the patrons in the Platinums were able to return to their seats.
For all the positives of his play thus far, rookie defenseman Jake Gardiner may be starting to get worn down after being burdened with over 20 minutes of ice time on most nights. The 21-year-old was pickpocketed by fellow rookie Zack Kassian on Thomas Vanek's first goal in Buffalo and was -3 against Vancouver.
The goaltending has also been a cause for concern, as James Reimer has won only once since returning from his concussion/whiplash issues and Jonas Gustavsson continues to have problems with consistency. That was displayed Saturday night as “The Monster” made a number of impressive saves throughout the game, but could not make the "big” save later in the game that would have given his team a chance to get back into the game.
The troubling aspects of this team have not shown any dramatic improvement after 32 games. They are not getting consistent scoring from anyone other than the Kessel-Bozak-Lupul line, their porous team defense is illustrated by the fact that they are the only team in the top eight of either conference that has allowed more than 100 goals against and their penalty killing success rate is an unimaginable 50% over their last five games.
This combination is killing a team that has postseason aspirations. GM Brian Burke appeared not to be overjoyed in the visiting team's perch in Buffalo Friday night and if things don't get better dramatically in the next few weeks, you can expect him to make some significant changes.
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