The Toronto Maple Leafs finished the road portion of their nightmarish 2014-15 regular season as cannon fodder to the red-hot Columbus Blue Jackets, who scored three times in the opening period and coasted to a 5-0 victory at Nationwide Arena on Wednesday.
Artem Anisimov, Boone Jenner and Scott Hartnell scored in a span of just over five minutes in the first that sapped the energy out of Toronto. Ryan Murray’s power play marker early in the second chased goalie James Reimer, in what could be the Morweena, MB native’s final appearance in a Leaf uniform.
Jeremy Morin added another goal on Jonathan Bernier late in the middle frame for the Blue Jackets, who will all their injured players back have gone 10-0-1 in their last 11 games. The Leafs finished the season with an abysmal 1-21-3 road record since January 1.
Team captain Dion Phaneuf showed a level of frustration after the game but held back commenting about his future with the team and thoughts about the season following the game.
“It’s not enjoyable when you get beat like that.… Phaneuf said. “I will talk about at the end of the year about why we had problems this year and what went wrong.…
According to Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos, Phaneuf was upset that the club could not get a deal done at the trade deadline with the Detroit Red Wings, who would not meet the Leafs asking price for the defenseman. It is expected that talks with Detroit and possibly other clubs will resume over the summer, but that a deal will be contingent on teams interested in Phaneuf offering significant future assets back.
The Leafs loss helped in the pursuit of finishing fourth in the NHL Draft Lottery, as the club remains two points in back of the Carolina Hurricanes, who play in Philadelphia on Thursday.
If the Canes earn a single point against the Flyers or in their finale versus Detroit in Raleigh on Saturday, they will clinch 26th place. If Carolina loses both in regulation and Toronto wins the season finale against Montreal at Air Canada Center on Saturday, they will fall to fifth in the draft lottery.
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Forward Leo Komarov suffered an undisclosed lower body injury in Columbus on Wednesday and did not return to the game, but indications are that the feisty Finnish Olympian was not seriously injured and could play on Saturday.
The Leafs recalled forward Colton Orr from the Toronto Marlies on Thursday and the 33-year-old winger will play in what may be his final NHL game against Montreal.
The Winnipeg, Manitoba native registered eight goals, five assists and 637 penalty minutes in 231 games with the Maple Leafs from 2009 to 2014 and has played only 14 games with the AHL Toronto Marlies this season. Orr will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season and it is expected that the enforcer will retire.
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