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After winning seven straight road games in the midst of a 15-2 stretch, the Toronto Maple Leafs encountered some difficulties over the weekend, earning a point in a 4-3 shootout loss to the Minnesota Wild on Saturday and a 6-3 defeat against the Winnipeg Jets at the Bell MTS Centre on Sunday.
The Leafs put forth questionable and incomplete efforts in both games, falling behind 3-0 and being manhandled by Minnesota early in the game, before rallying to tie the game with three goals late in the second.
Against the Jets, Toronto played questionable defensively in front of rookie Joseph Woll, allowing numerous odd man opportunities in a middle frame that saw Winnipeg bolt out to a four-goal lead that the Leafs could not come back from.
"(There was) a lack of attention to detail, a lack of structure, lack of purpose and the things that have made us successful." Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game. "It's not what our team has looked like here for a long time now. Maybe it's easy to go to the fatigue factor (playing consecutive nights), but it's not good enough. We need to find ways here. This is the reality of the schedule, you're gonna play back-to-back, so if anything, you got to be that much more focused, detailed, and structured."
Michael Bunting, Auston Matthews and Ondrej Kase scored for Toronto, and Woll made 35 saves, as the Leafs fall to 17-7-2 on the season.
Rasmus Sandin is down.
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) December 6, 2021
Goes knee-on-knee with Neal Pionk pic.twitter.com/Nh1wVXSb9Y
The game turned ugly in the third period, as Jets defenseman Neil Pionk collided knee-on-knee with Leafs blueliner Rasmus Sandin. The incident was not penalized and moments later veteran Jason Spezza retaliated against Pionk with a knee to the head, Kyle Clifford dropped the gloves with Brenden Dillon and Wayne Simmonds mixed it up with Logan Stanley.
"It looks to me like it's a five-minute major. It's a knee-on-knee, a guy gets carried off,… Keefe said. “We needed to have some sort of response. Our team I thought was emotionally engaged in that time, and it needed to have a response it some nature, and you're willing to just go with it and get a penalty kill there and give ourselves a chance to come out of it. It didn't work out that way, but I certainly did like the emotional response of our team given the circumstances."
Jason Spezza is an avenger
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) December 6, 2021
Goes right for Pionk pic.twitter.com/95v2TID9UE
Sandin was unable to skate to the dressing room without help, and there is concern that the young Leafs defenseman could miss significant time with a knee injury.
Simmonds received a $2,500 fine from the NHL on Monday and both Pionk and Spezza will have hearings with the NHL’s Department of Player Safety and face potential suspension.
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Lot’s of â¤ï¸ for the 💙ðŸ¤
— Norman James (@IamNormanJames) April 26, 2021
Convo on Podcast.#theleafsconvo https://t.co/Xdn3CDLVCI
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