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The Toronto Maple Leafs for as long as one can remember have underwhelmed or taken teams with less talent for granted. That was the case during the Pat Quinn/Mats Sundin era, puzzlingly losing valuable points to the Atlanta Thrashers, and that tradition has continued with the current edition of the Blue and White, who put forth a dispassionate, mundane effort in the first 50 minutes of a 4-2 loss to the Arizona Coyotes at Scotiabank Arena on Monday.
Goals by William Nylander and Mitch Marner 24 seconds apart midway through the third erased the 2-0 Arizona lead, but Shayne Gostisbehere scored on the power play with 1:33 remaining to give the Coyotes their first win of the season. Toronto thought Alex Kerfoot had tied the game with Erik Kallgren pulled for the extra attacker, but video review determined (wrongly in my estimation) that Morgan Rielly had batted the puck with his glove to a teammate.
they're looking for a hand pass pic.twitter.com/U6e3xC0oVZ
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) October 18, 2022
In spite of the fact that some believe the call was incorrect, this game was lost not by a bad call, but by a club that continues to take teams at the bottom of the standings for granted and expects to earn two points by turning on the effort like a light switch.
“As the game went on, they gained confidence, and our team got frustrated and lost it’s way,… A flustered Sheldon Keefe said after the game. “Our best people have not found a rhythm. The difference between us and Arizona is that we have elite players. Our elite players didn’t play like elite players today and couldn’t make a difference, in that sense the game is going to be close.…
If you take last season as an example, the Leafs went 0-1-1 against the Coyotes, lost twice to last place Montreal, twice to Buffalo, and once to San Jose. Had Toronto earned eight of a possible 13 points in those games, they would have jumped over Florida for first place in the Atlantic Division and played Washington in the first round, instead of the two-time Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightning.
Muzzin to the dressing room. pic.twitter.com/2qLG7dG0EF
— ًًً (@twistedleafs) October 18, 2022
In what is expected to be a tight race for positioning in the Atlantic and the Eastern Conference, the difference between a more favorable position when the postseason rolls around could be earning the points against the league’s lesser lights. Less than a week into the season, Toronto has lost to last year’s 31st and 32nd place teams.
Defenseman Jake Muzzin played only 9:54 in the game and did not return after suffering a neck injury. Keefe did not have an update after the game, but there is some concern that after spending three times on injured reserve last season with concussion issues, that the veteran blueliner could be on the injured list for a prolonged period of time once again.
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