maple leafs

The Leafs Annoying Lack Of Attention Span Strikes In Again In Loss To Sens

Dec 28, 2023 • 2:01 pm

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Chicago twice, Buffalo twice, Ottawa twice, and Columbus; seven losses and two of a possible 14 points against four clubs in the bottom seven of the NHL standings in less than half a season(yes....they beat Ottawa and Columbus, but we are talking about losses here). When the Toronto Maple Leafs end up playing against Tampa Bay or Florida in a difficult first-round matchup instead of playing an Eastern Conference wildcard team, you can point to the outcome of these games.

Following their normal blueprint of playing down to the competition or taking a team at the bottom of the standings for granted, the Leafs bolted out to a 2-0 lead against the Senators in a span of 23 seconds in the first period on Wednesday, but could not finish off the Atlantic bottom dweller. Ottawa scored a short-handed goal to get on the board, tied the game in the middle frame, took the lead on Drake Batherson’s second goal of the game in the third and scored an empty-netter for a 4-2 victory at Scotiabank Arena.

Matthews steals the puck on the forecheck and finds Knies pic.twitter.com/aePWR8Wi6I
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) December 28, 2023

Matthew Knies and Tyler Bertuzzi for Toronto, but the Leafs could not get another puck past Joonas Korpisalo, who stopped 34 shots to snap the Sens five-game road losing skid and hand the Leafs their third regulation loss in four games.

“We couldn’t score the third goal or didn’t score the third goal. We let them hang around.… Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game. “They were better than us in the second period for sure. It looks a lot worse because our power play gave them a freebie, some life, and energy. Some of our details just slipped on each of the goals against. I thought Ottawa got better and harder as the game went on. We didn’t respond to that.…

Drake Batherson scores again and the Sens take the lead pic.twitter.com/p8kyAf1xQW
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) December 28, 2023

Martin Jones made 26 saves in the loss, but other than allowing a goal from an odd angle on Batherson’s game-winner, the veteran was not the reason for the Leafs loss. Their puzzling complacency against the league’s lesser light is. It would be excusable or ignorable if it was not an ongoing issue. This occurred last season with losses to San Jose, Chicago, Anaheim, Arizona, Montreal, Buffalo, Ottawa…..etc…etc…etc.

“It is just in the details of our game. There are things we would like to do a whole lot better on each of the goals that we gave up.… Keefe said. “We are certainly aware of it. To me, when things don’t go well for us, we don’t move the puck efficiently from the defense to the forwards on breakouts and regroups.…

The Leafs will be favored on Friday when they take on the Columbus Blue Jackets for the second time in less than a week at Nationwide Arena on Friday, but based on their modus operandi, no one should be brimming with confidence about earning two points.

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At the World Juniors in Gothenburg, Sweden on Thursday, team captain Fraser Minten scored a goal and added an assist in Canada’s 10-0 victory over Latvia.