The Maple Leafs experimentation with playing seven blueliners is over for the time being, as the club announced Sunday the demotion of Stuart Percy to the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League.
The 21-year-old Percy(the Leafs 2011 first-rounder) had three assists in seven regular season games with Toronto, but after being scratched in the 4-1 loss to Detroit on October 17th, saw limited ice time due to head coach Randy Carlyle's decision to play seven D and 11 forwards.
Percy saw only 10:17 TOI(lowest of the seven defensemen) in Saturday's 4-1 loss to Boston.
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The Toronto Maple Leafs continued in their inability to find any cohesive offensive attack and defensive structure on home ice, as they were outhustled and outworked in a 4-1 loss to the Boston Bruins at Air Canada Center on Saturday.
In spite of the absence of team captain Zdeno Chara, the Bruins had no trouble in shutting down the Leafs, who are 2-12-2 against the perennial Eastern Conference power in their last 16 meetings.
“To me, what’s frustrating is there’s not a reward for your effort if you’re standing still and not prepared to skate and move.… Carlyle said. “(The Bruins) won the puck battles, they squeezed our hands off, they were skating and they were moving off the puck. They didn’t turn the puck over in the first 20 minutes.…
Carl Soderberg, David Krejci, Gregory Campbell and Dougie Hamilton scored for Boston, while Richard Panik tallied his first goal for Toronto.
Jonathan Bernier was pulled after allowing two goals in rapid succession early in the third, but head coach Randy Carlyle indicated following the game that the Leafs goaltender was more a victim of the team that played in front of him than responsible for the loss.
Tuukka Rask made 32 saves for his 10th career victory against his former club, but over half of those shots came in the third period, after the Bruins took a commanding 4-0 lead.
“Frustration, anger…..those were two things that were probably front and center from a coaching staff’s perspective.… an exasperated Carlyle said following the contest. “We didn’t win too many battles early in the hockey game.…
The club did not open the locker room to the media for almost 20 minutes following the game, as the coaching staff and players discussed another disappointing effort, which drew a chorus of boos from home fans for the third time this season.
“We’re two different teams on the road and at home, for some reason.… Nazem Kadri said following the game. “I don’t think (Carlyle) was happy(following the game), he shouldn’t be, neither were we. It’s not like we were sitting in, laughing and joking around.…
The Leafs play 14 of their first 23 games at home in October and November, but the club has not been able to take advantage of that, with losses to Eastern Conference foes Montreal, Pittsburgh, Detroit and Boston at the ACC. Their only victory came in overtime against the Colorado Avalanche on October 14.
Home Ice Disadvantage
Record Overall 3-4-1 Home 1-4-0 Away 2-0-1
Goals For Home - 10 (2.00 Goals Per Game) Away - 11(3.67 Goals Per Game)
Goals Against Home - 15(3.00 Goals Per Game) Away - 10(3.33 Goals Per Game)
PP%
Home - 16.7%(20th in NHL) Away - 16.1%(21st in NHL)
PK% Home - 79%(16th in NHL) Away - 92.3%(4th in NHL)
Pts from JVR & Kessel
Home - 3*(in only home victory vs COL) Away - 10
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