maple leafs

Leafs Flailing About In Loss To Florida

Oct 20, 2023 • 2:07 pm

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The Toronto Maple Leafs are fortunate to be 2-2 after questionable efforts in three of their four games. The Leafs opened up a five-game road swing against the Florida Panthers appearing discombobulated at times in a 3-1 loss in Sunrise, FL on Thursday.

The Leafs fell behind on two long range goals from Kevin Stenlund and Oliver Ekman-Larsson late in the first period, and spent the last 40 minutes of the regulation trying to beat Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, which they failed to do with regularity in the second round of the playoffs 5 months ago.

Mitch Marner’s power play marker was the only shot to beat the Florida netminder, while Ilya Samsonov kept the game close after allowing two questionable goals, making 28 saves in his first loss of the season.

MITCH MARNER 🚨

PPG! First of the year! pic.twitter.com/v8KrHSROYB
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) October 20, 2023

“We did a nice job (defensively) throughout the game. We didn’t give up much five-on-five.… Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game. “We gave up two goals from distance and not much else other than that, (but) we didn’t do enough to generate enough offense. If you don’t score, you don’t win. That is the way it works.…

Keefe continued to scramble his line combinations late in the game, searching for a group that would click, but also in part because winger Tyler Bertuzzi was dealing with an injury that kept him from playing regularly on the top line with Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner.

Bertuzzi’s status may have spurred the Leafs to make a move just in case, as the club demoted defenseman Simon Benoit and recalled center Pontus Holmberg. Holmberg scored two points (1 goal, 1 assist) in two games with the Toronto Marlies, and played 37 games for the Leafs last season.