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The Toronto Maple Leafs have to consider their first 10 games a success, with a 7-3 record and near the top of the NHL in goal scoring, but concerns about their defense popped up once again in their 6-3 loss to Carolina on Friday.
Toronto fell behind 2-0 less than three minutes into the game and played catch up most of the night. The Leafs scored twice early in the middle frame to tie the game 3-3, but in the ends were undone by giveaways and sloppy play in their own end.
“(The Hurricanes) score a couple of goals right off the bat like that, that definitely gets us back on our heels and it’s tough to climb that hill.… Auston Matthews said after the game. “We’ve got to make sure we’re starting on time because tonight we definitely weren’t very good on either end.…
Following the game, the general feeling was frustration and dissatisfaction with the effort put forth and a realization that the club cannot continue to depend on their offense to cover up for defensive mistakes.
“We were no good. (Carolina) deserved to win, we didn't deserve to win. We didn't work, they worked. They were organized, we were unorganized. They were prepared, we were unprepared.… Leafs coach Mike Babcock said after the loss. “We didn't compete. If you don't skate and you don't compete, you can forget where you stand and any of that stuff. We didn't work hard enough. We couldn't fix one thing technically tonight because we didn't work hard enough.…
Toronto has allowed 36 goals (26th in the NHL) through 10 games, but is the only team that has given up more than 30 goals that has a positive goal differential.
Frederik Andersen made 32 saves on the night, and has a respectable 6-3 record thus far, but his goals-against ballooned to 3.54 and save percentage dropped to .893 after the loss.
Matt Martin suffered a upper body injury in the third period, which necessitated Babcock shaking up his forward lines, but the Leafs winger took part in a brief practice at the MasterCard Centre in Etobicoke on Friday.
James van Riemsdyk, who played 15:21 on Thursday and was -2 on the night, did not participate and his status for Saturday’s match against Philadelphia is in question.
The only unit that remained unchanged at Friday’s practice was the Hyman-Matthews-Nylander line. Patrick Marleau and Mitch Marner skated with Tyler Bozak, Connor Brown joined Nazem Kadri and Leo Komarov and Josh Leivo took the place of Marner with Martin and Dominic Moore.
Practice was unusually short on Friday, and the coaches collected all the pucks and sent the players off the ice.
“We obviously had a little chat, but more importantly got to work for a short period of time. I think we were out there 24 minutes.… Babcock said. “I didn’t want anybody wasting energy fooling around, I want (that energy) at game time.…
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