For the latest Leafs updates or Follow @mikeinbuffalo on Twitter While it seems that the Toronto Maple Leafs defensive issues can spring up at any time, the club’s recent history has seen their frequency occurring in the third period. Last week against Florida and Anaheim, the Leafs surrendered 3-1 leads in the final frame, allowing four straight goals in a 5-3 loss to the Panthers and the Ducks to erase two leads to force overtime before winning 5-4. The Leafs 2-1 overtime loss to the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre was a slight departure from recent collapses, but the end result was losing a valuable point in the tight Eastern Conference playoff race because of the club’s inability to play sound late in the game and hold a lead. Toronto held the territorial advantage in a scoreless opening forty minutes, outshooting Montreal 21-11, and took the lead early in the third on John Tavares 23rd goal of the season. The Leafs seemed focused on trying to defend the one-goal lead in front of Jack Campbell and went the final 18:54 without registering a shot on goal. That effort failed, as Montreal registered 16 shots and numerous excellent scoring chances on Campbell in the third, finally breaking through with 2:33 left in regulation on Marco Scandella’s long shot and earning the extra point on Ilya Kovalchuk’s overtime marker at 1:43.
“(Montreal was) pushing (in the third and) we didn't handle it well. When I say that, I thought we handled it very well defensively. I didn't think we cracked,… Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game. “I didn't like how we played offensively where we had the puck, we did all the things that we don't want to be as a team and we just gave it back to them, so we never had a chance to get going.… In their third game in four nights, fatigue may have been an issue for the Leafs, but Saturday was not the first time that Toronto has been incapable of successfully playing shutdown hockey at crunch time or being able to score a goal to put away a team. “I'm not focused on (fatigue), it's part of the League. It's part of the demands of what goes on in the schedule, the ebbs and flows of it. I thought we played a good game and a hard game. I thought we competed. What happened in the third period is a lot different than what happened (against Anaheim).… Keefe said. (Friday) we were not engaged, we were not competitive or physical enough and on our heels. This game here I thought we defended very well, defended very hard and didn't give up the middle of the ice much at all. We just were very poor with the puck. When you have a team that's pushing, they have the energy of the crowd and you just continuously give them the puck you're going to be on your heels a lot.… Similar to what the Washington Capitals went through before becoming a more aggressive two-way club under Barry Trotz, there does not seem to be enough buy-in from the Leafs as a whole to play that way to achieve the ultimate goal. It took years of suffering and disappointment before high-end offensive talent like Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Niklas Backstrom and TJ Oshie realized that they had to play a different way.
The Leafs young core of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander may be at that point, but the argument can be made that the Leafs do not have good enough personnel and that GM Kyle Dubas has his work cut out for him to make upgrades either before the February 24th trade deadline and next summer. The Leafs moved two points ahead of Florida for third place in the Atlantic with the loser point on Saturday and the Panthers regulation loss to Pittsburgh. In the race for the wildcard, Columbus and the NY Islanders lost in regulation, but Carolina and Philadelphia won. The Isles, Panthers, Canes and Flyers have games in hand on Toronto. *******
Listen to today's @TheLeafsConvo, discussing the #Leafs OT loss to the #Habs. https://t.co/q7o0sTVaBU
— Michael Augello (@MikeInBuffalo) February 9, 2020