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The Toronto Maple Leafs came up empty handed on their California road swing and have fallen out of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, as the Anaheim Ducks scored four unanswered goals in a 5-2 victory at the Honda Center on Friday night.
Toronto led 2-1 on goals from Zach Hyman and Nazem Kadri, but Jakob Silfverberg and Rickard Rakell scored 16 seconds apart midway through the second to give the Ducks a lead that they would not relinquish.
Curtis McElhinney made 31 saves in the loss and Jonathan Bernier stopped 37 for the victory over his former club.
The game was rife with defensive mistakes that ended up costing the Leafs.
Jake Gardiner was caught pinching at the Anaheim blueline and could not get back to prevent the odd man break on Rakell’s opening goal, Mitch Marner’s errant backhand pass allowed the Ducks to gain possession and Silfverberg to score the tying goal and the rookie winger missed an assignment on Sami Vatanen’s insurance goal early in the third.
Rickard Rakell sweeps home his 2nd of the night! pic.twitter.com/1YMxJpovMO
— NHL Daily 365 (@NHLDaily365) March 4, 2017
“The National Hockey League is too good a league to think you're going to outscore your mistakes. You've got to take care of the puck and you've got to check right and you've got to know what you're doing without the puck and tonight on three of those goals we didn't.… Leafs coach Mike Babcock said after the game. “That part was disappointing to me. I thought we pushed, I thought we created lots of opportunity around their net. (Anaheim’s) a good team and once they had the lead, it was hard for us. In saying that, we've got to be better without the puck and working with the puck – we turned it over and gave them goals.…
Toronto earned only one of a possible six points in San Jose, Los Angeles and Anaheim, all teams with more experience and battling for playoff positioning in the Pacific Division.
A major concern for the Leafs bid for the postseason was how they would deal with other teams playing tighter checking ‘playoff-style’ hockey with their inexperience and shortcomings on defense and that has revealed itself in the last 10 days, as Toronto has scored two goals or less in their five-game losing streak.
“Sometimes it's not as fun as playing in exhibition, where it's loose and you can fly all over the rink, but it's just the reality of the National Hockey League. When you're a team pushing for the playoffs it gets more and more competitive as it goes on, so you have to play right. That's just the way it is.… Babcock said.
With the loss, the NY Islanders moved ahead of the Leafs into the second wildcard spot with a point earned in a 2-1 shootout loss to Chicago on Friday and could have Florida pass them in the standings before their next game against Detroit on Tuesday. *******
Listen to the latest edition of Off The Post with Russ Cohen, Anthony Mingioni and myself as we review last week’s Trade Deadline:
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