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Struggling to play “right way”, Leafs lose lead late & fall to Blues in OT |
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If the hope was that a little rest and a break from the hectic regular season was all that the Toronto Maple Leafs needed to get back on track, a 2-1 overtime loss to the St. Louis Blues at Air Canada Centre on Tuesday served to eliminate that as a cause to their lengthy struggles.
Connor Brown scored for Toronto midway through the third period on a shorthanded breakaway, but once again the Leafs surrendered a goal late that cost them points in the standings.
Former Leaf Alex Steen scored with 57 seconds remaining and goalie Carter Hutton pulled to tie the game and rookie Vince Dunn scored 1:03 into overtime to hand Toronto their third straight loss.
Both goals were a result of missed defensive assignments, as Steen was left alone in front of the net by Ron Hainsey to tuck the rebound past Andersen for the tying goal and Mitch Marner lost a puck battle to Dunn in the Blues zone that resulted in a two-on-one break the other way.
“I was disappointed with the sticks on their 5-on-6, we had the right people on the ice in the right scenario and we ended up getting outnumbered at our net. That shouldn't happen.” Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said after the game.
In overtime, you can't be on the wrong side of the puck, you just can't. What you learn from good teams is you don't cheat, you just keep doing things good and you stay patient and take your opportunities. When you cheat for offense, you lose.”
Frederik Andersen once again was sharp for Toronto, making 40 saves on the night, but the Leafs continue to waste his good efforts with their inability to generate offense while expending so much effort and energy playing sound defensively in their own zone.
With the loss to the Blues, the Leafs six-game homestand ends at 2-2-2, but even more troubling than that is the fact that the club has not won in regulation since their 7-4 victory in Arizona on December 28.
Babcock knows that the Leafs cannot win in the playoffs playing throttle wide-open hockey, as the club did last season and in the opening month, so he is trying to get a young team flush with offensive talent and weak on the blueline to buy into a more two-way game, but that has resulted in the club going .500 (8-8-3) since December 1.
Playing what Babcock calls "the right way" is a learning process and takes time to master, but the problem for Toronto is that their scoring numbers have dropped significantly and their power play has been less effective, which make their defensive mistakes lethal.
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Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
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