The Toronto Maple Leafs clearly felt the absence of a sizable chunk of their secondary offense in a 3-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild at the Xcel Energy Center on Friday night.
Cody Franson’s third period power play goal during a 82 second two-man advantage was the only time that Toronto beat Wild goalie Darcy Kuemper, as the Leafs uncharacteristically outshot their opposition 35-29.
The Leafs were without winger Joffrey Lupul, centers Peter Holland and Nazem Kadri, who all suffered injuries in the shootout victory over Boston on Wednesday, which forced head coach Randy Carlyle to shift veteran Leo Komarov to the middle, give fourth liner Trevor Smith more ice time and insert Richard Panik and AHL call up Greg McKegg in the lineup.
Jonathan Bernier was sharp, making 26 saves and keeping Toronto within striking distance with a number of impressive saves early, but appeared to lose his angle on Jared Spurgeon’s game-winner at 7:23 of the third period.
Frustration appeared to get the better of the Leafs late in the game, as Daniel Winnik’s undisciplined slashing penalty on Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin led to Mikko Koivu’s power-play insurance goal midway through the third and Phil Kessel’s chirping at officials following a slash from Marco Scandella led to a minor for unsportsmanlike conduct. In spite of the loss, the Leafs played a more defensively responsible game conducive to how they have to play to limit the opposition’s offensive chances, but without the most of their second offensive line available, Carlyle frequently double-shifted the top line to try and get the lead in a close game.
Kessel and Tyler Bozak played over 25 minutes on the night and James van Riemsdyk saw over 23 minutes, while fourth-liner Carter Ashton saw just 2:45 and McKegg played just 4:22.
“Hopefully this is the style of play that we can adopt and we feel that we can execute at that level.… Leafs coach Randy Carlyle said following the game. “It always starts in our own end with our puck recoveries and defensive zone coverage. We weren’t as porous. They had a few flurries but they weren’t dominating us in possession time in our zone. We had as much time in their zone as they had in ours.…
Toronto will have to find some way of generating offense with their depleted lineup and not relying completely on the top line for goals in the near future.
Lupul is expected to miss up to a month with the lower body injury caused during a wrestling match with Milan Lucic on Wednesday, Holland suffered an unspecified upper body injury and his recovery period is described as “week-to-week…, while Kadri’s lower body injury will keep the center out 7-10 days.
The Leafs have lost four of the six games on their season-long seven-game road trip, which comes to an end on Saturday night against the Winnipeg Jets at the MTS Center. The Jets are holding on to the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference with a 19-12-7 record(45 points) in spite of injuries to Zach Bogosian, Tobias Enstrom, Jacob Trouba, Mark Stuart and Evander Kane.
It is expected in the second of back-to-back games that Toronto will go with Morweena, MB native James Reimer in goal, while Michael Hutchinson will be between the pipes for Winnipeg.
Carlyle will have to spread out the minutes of the forward lines against the Jets after the major minutes played by Kessel and Bozak on Friday, but the Leafs coach has been wary of giving the likes of Ashton and McKegg any significant ice time.
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