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The Toronto Maple Leafs have made it a habit this season of either snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory or beating teams at the bottom of the standings, and on Saturday both were on display in a 4-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre.
Similar to the blueprint they followed in a loss to the last-place Arizona Coyotes in January, the Leafs severely outshot the opposition but were stymied by a hot goaltender in Jake Allen. Toronto outshot Montreal 51-18, (including 24 shots in the third period) but could not overcome going 1-6 on the power play and some critical defensive errors, as Paul Byron scored with 2:28 left in regulation to give the Habs their second victory over the Leafs on home ice.
“Not all the shots we got were of high quality. There is a lot of perimeter stuff there. We had more than enough chances to score more than we did. Didn’t make good on some of our stuff around the net and we didn’t get much luck.… Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “We had some pucks that the goalie found through traffic really well and some tips and things like that, that normally when you get that many at him, one of those find a way in for you. That didn’t happen for us tonight and we didn’t score enough to pull in the game so you let them run around and we make a couple mistakes and they made good on it.…
Auston Matthews gave Toronto the lead 36 seconds into the game, but the Leafs could not extend the lead. After a goal was reversed on an off-side review, the Habs tied the game on a David Savard tally thanks mostly to some lazy defensive coverage by William Nylander. Keefe demoted the winger to the third line and elevated Ilya Mikheyev to play with John Tavares and Alex Kerfoot.
"That's a tough one to give up, but to me, that was the third or fourth play like that for William, and that's why I thought it was it was time (to shake things up), but obviously things have been piling up for that line for a while, so it was overdue." Keefe said. "(I'm) not close (to being satisfied). I don't need to pile on Will here, he knows what makes him great and he knows what he needs to get back to."
Justin Holl’s bad penalty late in the middle frame allowed Montreal to take the lead on Cole Caufield’s 14th goal of the season before Nylander tied the game in the third with the man advantage.
Erik Kallgren made 14 saves on the night for his second straight loss, which keeps Toronto in a wildcard spot in the Eastern after not being able to keep pace with Boston and Tampa Bay winning on Saturday.
In spite of the one-sided nature of the shots in the game, the Leafs continue to lose games that they should win. Since the beginning of January, Toronto has gone 0-5-1 against the Sabres (26th overall), Coyotes (31st overall), and Habs (32nd overall), which is the difference between being in top spot in the Atlantic and one point from being in the last wildcard spot.
The Leafs will need to rebound quickly, as they take on the division-leading Florida Panthers at Scotiabank Arena on Sunday. Petr Mrazek will start in goal for Toronto and after Sergei Bobrovsky started in the Panthers 4-3 shootout victory in Ottawa on Saturday, it is expected that Spencer Knight will be between the pipes for Florida.
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