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When the regular season is complete, if the Toronto Maple Leafs lose home-ice advantage or top spot in the Atlantic Division by a point or two, they have only to look at the 2-1 loss to the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday as the reason why.
Every team can lose to another in the NHL, but the Coyotes entered the game with the league’s worst record (7-23-3) and without head coach Andre Tourigny and their two most experienced defensemen in Jakob Chychrun and Anton Stralman.
The Leafs dominated play and generated numerous scoring chances, but were stymied by goalie Karel Vejmelka, who made 45 saves and frustrated Toronto in the contest. Auston Matthews scored his 24th of the season early in the third, setting a franchise record of goals in nine consecutive road games, but Ryan Dzingel scored his second of the game with 7:18 left in regulation to give the Coyotes the win.
Petr Mrazek faced only 18 shots in his first game since December 11, but after the game, head coach Sheldon Keefe found some fault in his goaltender, but more on his offense being unable to beat Vejmelka and his club’s effort late in the game.
"I think we need to get a save on one of (the Arizona goals), probably the second one, but it's Petr's first game back. I thought the guys did a pretty good job of making his night somewhat simple and easy. He didn't have to get called upon for big saves very often." Keefe said. "We needed one more big save, but goalies can't get wins when we only score one goal, so the game is not on him by any means."
Toronto generated 35 shots in the first two periods, but their level of play and energy tailed off in the third for the third straight contest. After the game, Keefe called into question the club’s stamina due to a lack of games, but that could also be a result of most of the players coming back from COVID in the last month.
"We didn't execute, and find ways to make it harder on their goaltender once he got into a groove." Keefe said. "The day off (Thursday) is going to be important for us. Our group look tired. I thought that third period, we seemed like we hit a wall and stopped playing for good chunk of time and a third period, (There was ) no life, no energy on our bench at a time when we needed it. To me that is a sign of fatigue. We've been on the road here for a bit. It's our third game, it's a back-to-back and all that, (but it) makes as we start to wonder about our conditioning and where we're at."
The club will practice in Arizona on Friday before heading to St. Louis for a Saturday night match with the Blues. Mitch Marner and Pierre Engvall are expected to join the club, but their status is still up in the air.
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