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The Toronto Maple Leafs needed to take advantage of a block of games against some of the NHL’s worst clubs in hopes of opening up some space between themselves and the Tampa Bay Lightning in pursuit of home-ice advantage in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but the Leafs split a pair against the Eastern Conference bottom-dwelling Columbus Blue Jackets, beat the Montreal Canadiens, and split with the Western’s worst Chicago Blackhawks, losing 5-3 at the United Center on Sunday, with Patrick Kane scoring a natural hat trick.
John Tavares, Noel Acciari, and Mitch Marner scored for Toronto, who erased a 3-1 deficit, but rookie Cole Guttman scored his first NHL goal with 8:18 remaining. Ilya Samsonov was not sharp after returning from illness, making 23 saves in the defeat, but after the game head coach Sheldon Keefe blamed fatigue as much as Toronto’s penchant for coming up small against the league’s lesser lights.
“When you are tired, you have to be really smart, structured, and all of that. Some of the clean looks we gave up tonight are the result of just not being smart.… Keefe said. “Those kinds of mistakes, you continue to look at. In terms of the energy and execution by the group, we knew it was going to be a tough one today, and yet you are right there in the game.…
It was a particularly rough night for Leafs core players Morgan Rielly, William Nylander (both -3), Auston Matthews, Ryan O’Reilly, and Michael Bunting (all -2), but in spite of that Toronto had an opportunity to steal the victory until a critical error on Guttman’s game-winner.
“The goal came off of a four-man rush that ended up being an odd-man rush the other way. It is something that we talked about this morning because a very similar player happened yesterday and it came back to hurt us tonight.… Keefe said.
The Leafs lead Tampa Bay by three points after their 5-4 loss to Vegas on Saturday, but the Lightning have two games in hand. Toronto finishes off a three-game in four-night stretch in Buffalo on Tuesday, as they take on the resurgent Sabres at Key Bank Center.
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