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The Toronto Maple Leafs were given a few days of rest and relaxation prior to embarking on the final push for a playoff spot and it appeared as if they were still basking in the Florida sun on Tuesday night, as the Florida Panthers took control early and never looked back in a 7-2 romp at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, FL.
The Panthers were in desperation mode, trailing Toronto by seven points in the race for an Eastern Conference playoff spot and jumped all over the Leafs, scoring three times and chasing Frederik Andersen after 20 minutes and scoring three more on backup Curtis McElhinney in the middle frame.
the seas parting for Reilly Smith pic.twitter.com/bEHl3cWyjD
— steph (@myregularface) March 15, 2017
Toronto were completely without structure in their own zone at times, missing assignments and allowing Florida skaters a clear path to the net. Leafs head coach Mike Babcock looked for some answers by scrambling his forward lines (placing rookies Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner together) and defensive pairings.
“You're in a game that you think you should be good, you think you should be rested and you think you should be jumping. From that point forward, we didn't skate good and made unbelievable mistakes that didn't help either goalie have any opportunity.… Babcock said following the game.
We were poor. Our decisions – I mean, right from the second faceoff of the game, we just went through that this morning, we just didn't do anything right. When you're not prepared and you don't compete at a high enough level you get fed your lunch and that was us today.…
At practice on Wednesday, the top two defensive pairings were shuffled, as Alexey Marchenko played the right side with Morgan Rielly and rookie Nikita Zaitsev shifted to the second pairing with Jake Gardiner, while William Nylander moved back on the line with Zach Hyman and Auston Matthews.
These changes could stay in place for the game against Tampa Bay on Thursday.
“I’m looking for the puck not to go in the net,… Babcock said. “Right now, (our defense is) not as smooth as it should be and it needs to be better, because we got good players in those positions. We’ll decide tomorrow what we’re doing.…
The continual shuffling of the defensive lineup that Babcock has done this season has not yielded any consistent results. The de facto shutdown pairing of Rielly and Zaitsev in recent weeks has been much less effective.
It is unknown whether that decline in performance is due to Rielly’s decreased mobility and early return from a high ankle sprain or just being worn down after playing against top lines all season.
There is nothing that Toronto can do about the club’s blueline situation for the rest of the regular season other than continuing to tinker in hopes of finding the right combination, but if breakdowns continue to occur over the remaining 14 games, it will just reinforce the belief that defense will be at the top GM Lou Lamoriello’s shopping list this summer.
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