The Toronto Maple Leafs completed their four-game road trip with a 4-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena in Tampa, FL on Thursday.
Toronto snapped a 16-game losing skid away from Air Canada Center against the Florida Panthers on Tuesday, but resorted to recent form by falling behind early and not being able to generate enough offense to come back against the Lightning, who moved to within two points of first place Montreal with the victory.
New Leaf blueliner Eric Brewer was a central figure in his first game with the Blue and White, as the veteran defenseman was on the ice for five of the six goals scored in the game. The 35-year-old former Olympic gold medal winner was caught out of position on Nikita Kucherov’s opening goal, accidentally deflected Ryan Callahan’s goal mouth pass past goalie Jonathan Bernier and left Alex Killorn wide open in front of Bernier for an insurance goal late in the third.
David Booth second period goal snapped a 33-game goalless streak and narrowed the Tampa lead to 2-1, but third period tallies by Vladislav Namestnikov and Alex Killorn put the game out of reach for Toronto, who suffered their 21st road loss of the season(second only to the last place Buffalo Sabres in the NHL).
Tampa is in better shape to take a run through the Eastern Conference than this time last year, as superstar center Steven Stamkos was returning from a fractured ankle and goalie Ben Bishop was out for the season with an arm injury. They are also stronger on the blueline with the addition of veterans Jason Garrison, Anton Stralman and the trade deadline acquisition of Braydon Coburn.
The Lightning also appear to be the model that the Leafs under Brendan Shanahan are looking to emulate in the next couple years. The club’s core group are talents acquired at the top of two consecutive drafts(Stamkos – 1st overall in 2008, Victor Hedman – 2nd overall in 2009), but also include players cultivated by good drafting, scouting and proper development.
Leading scorer Tyler Johnson and defenseman Andrej Sustr were signed as undrafted free agents, forwards Namestnikov, Nikita Kucherov and Ondrej Palat were selected in the 2011 draft and GM Steve Yzerman has made sharp trades to add Ryan Callahan, Jason Garrison and Bishop and astute signings of free agents Anton Stralman, Brian Boyle and Valtteri Filppula.
Toronto hopes to draft cornerstone building blocks in the next two to three seasons, but will have to succeed in the deeper rounds of the draft and develop their own players to surround those top picks with a support structure that is conducive to a winning team. This is not a short term scenario, this is a long term plan and as former GM Brian Burke proved in his tenure in Toronto, there are no short cuts.
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Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman had some interesting insight in his weekly 30 Thoughts column on the deal between the Red Wings and Maple Leafs for Dion Phaneuf that did not come off before NHL Trade Deadline.
The two clubs discussed the 29-year-old defenseman, but Friedman believes the deal was too complex to get sorted out before 3pm Monday and that the landscape of the return for the veteran blueliner was changed after former Wing Steve Yzerman gave up a 1st, 3rd and Radko Gudas for Braydon Coburn, who has another year left on his contract.
The reality is that Toronto expects to have to take a bad contract in a deal for Phaneuf(which has been rumored to be forward Stephen Weiss) but want to get future assets for Phaneuf and after the Coburn deal, that expectation is realistic.
Friedman believes that there was hesitancy on the part of Wings GM Ken Holland to part with his 2015 first round pick, since Detroit had already moved their second in the 2014 rent-a-player deal for David Legwand, but the Wings have all their picks in 2016 and that the groundwork for a deal in the summer has been laid.
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