The Toronto Maple Leafs opened their five-game pre-Christmas home stand with a 52-shot barrage of goaltender Semyon Varlamov, but the Colorado netminder dampened the holiday spirit by stopping all but one of them in a 3-1 Avalanche victory at Air Canada Center on Sunday.
After a rare road win in Boston on Saturday, Leafs coach Mike Babcock chose to give Antoine Bibeau his first NHL start against the last place Avalanche, who had lost 10-1 in Montreal on Saturday.
The rookie goaltender made 26 saves in his debut, but the veteran Varlamov stymied his teammates. Toronto outshot Colorado 21-8 in the first, but the Avalanche took the lead on a Mikko Rantanen power play goal late in the period. Nathan MacKinnon extended the lead midway through the third on an impressive individual effort and Colorado relied on Varlamov to maintain the lead.
Nathan MacKinnon gets high sticked by Leo Komarov, is cut open, but still dekes out the rest of the Leafs and rips one past Bibeau. 2-0 Avs pic.twitter.com/FSwtg1ZwSM
— Jeff Veillette (@JeffVeillette) December 12, 2016
Jake Gardiner narrowed the lead to 2-1 with his fifth of the season on a six-on-three power play, but Blake Comeau scored into the empty net to hand the Leafs their third loss in the month of December.
Leafs head coach Mike Babcock seemed pleased with the effort of Bibeau, who was recalled earlier in the week to replace 5’10… veteran goalie Jhonas Enroth.
“(Bibeau) was 6-foot-3 the whole game, he was square, looked calm. I thought the release on the second goal – I thought he should have been out a little bit on that, but I thought he made some good saves.… Babcock said after the game. “They didn't have a ton(of chances) but he had to make some good saves and I thought he did a good job. My big thing for me is I just felt comfortable. I wasn't in panic mode when he was in the net and neither were the players.…
The loss gives Toronto a 1-2-1 record in December, with their two regulation losses coming at home. The Leafs entered the month with an 8-3-0 record at ACC and are relying on their success on home ice to remain within shouting distance of an Eastern Conference playoff spot.
“We've got to win. (The home stand is) an opportunity for us.… Babcock said. “Now we've got a real good team in San Jose and we've got to get ready for them. We’ll take an off-day tomorrow, get our energy up and get ready to play.…
The Leafs head coach continues to use line assignments as a motivational tool with his youngsters. After relegating William Nylander to centering the fourth line in the last week, Babcock moved the talented Swede back with Auston Matthews and Zach Hyman on Saturday and got the desired result, as Nylander had an assist and played well in Boston.
Babcock’s target of negative reinforcement on Sunday was the slumping Mitch Marner, who has just four assists in the last 10 games and has not scored since November 17th.
“I've just been watching the games.… Babcock said regarding the brief demotion.… “I think there's been a message going on for a bit and that's just a process of growing up in the National Hockey League, it doesn't go your way all the time. You've got to work hard every single day in practice, games, period.… Marner saw shifts with Ben Smith and Matt Martin before returning to play Tyler Bozak and James van Riemsdyk and registered an assist on Gardiner’s goal.
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Leafs 2015 draftee Jeremy Bracco’s consecutive scoring streak ended at 26 games, as the London Knights held the forward without a point for the first time this season.
The 19-year-old Long Island native leads the Rangers with 51 points (17 goals and 34 assists) in 27 games and is third in OHL scoring behind Erie’s Alex Debrincat and Taylor Raddysh.
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Listen to the Blue N' White Tonight Podcast with a review of the week's events and an interview with Sportsnet FAN 590 morning host Dean Blundell:
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