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The Toronto Maple Leafs may have felt as if they were at the top of the heap after sweeping the Oilers and shutting down Connor McDavid three straight games in Edmonton, but less than two weeks later the Blue and White appear disorganized, weary and frustrated. After a 5-2 loss to Winnipeg on Saturday, Toronto stumbled early and could not recover in a 4-3 loss to the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on Sunday.
Zach Hyman scored a pair and John Tavares added his ninth of the season, in a contest where the Leafs played catch up from almost the outset. The Sens opened the scoring just over six minutes into the first period on a weak Brady Tkachuk shot that dribbled past Toronto starter Michael Hutchinson. Ryan Dzingel increased the lead to 2-0 going five-hole on the Leafs backup just seven seconds later and head coach Sheldon Keefe was forced to pull Hutchinson in favor of Frederik Andersen.
“It’s a tough game to be playing from behind. We’ve been doing that too much lately. I thought we had parts of our game where we played well and had lots of pressure, did a lot of good things, but obviously our start and the hole we dug ourselves there,… Keefe said after the club’s fifth loss in six games. “Ottawa was better tonight. They were better at 5-on-5, they were better on special teams, they were better in goal. They deserved the result.…
Toronto narrowed the deficit to 2-1 on Hyman’s ninth of the year, but Ottawa regained control with a pair of goals 53 seconds apart by Drake Batherson. The Leafs scored a pair of goals late in regulation with Andersen pulled for an extra attacker, but could not tie up the game.
The game was formulaic in that Toronto’s special teams were again substandard (0 for 1 on the man advantage and allowed one power play goal) and they fell victim to a second straight poor effort between the pipes from Hutchinson, forcing their starter to enter the game in the second of a back-to-back and fourth game in six nights, but it is the club’s overall performance of the club has declined precipitously in the last two weeks.
The club seems to have forgotten the formula that saw them win 18 of their first 24 games, with more turnovers and less attention to detail in their own zone.
“We’ve had defensive breakdowns. I think against Winnipeg a lot of it was just one mistake and they come down and they’re such a good offensive team they’re able to score quickly.… Hyman said. “(Against Ottawa), we gave them a couple of odd man rushes and they got a PK one. Our PK needs to be better. I think that anytime you’re losing you want to shore up your defensive game because they’re scoring more than you are.…
The Leafs will welcome a four-day break to reset and rest before resuming their hectic schedule against the Calgary Flames on Friday, but in the interim GM Kyle Dubas must consider if his club needs to make some fine tuning in the four weeks leading up to the April 12 trade deadline.
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