The Toronto Maple Leafs fate revealed itself Saturday as it has many times this season, in a short span of puzzlingly inept defensive giveaways that erased a lead over the Detroit Red Wings, leaving the fans at Air Canada Center stunned and the harsh reality that the club’s longest losing streak since the 1985-86 season will prevent Toronto from making the post-season for a second year in a row.
“It’s tough to stay positive right now. We have to win the rest of our games and get help now.… winger Joffrey Lupul said following the club’s eighth consecutive loss. “This was as close to a do-or-die as you can get.…
Toronto put together a steady workmanlike opening twenty minutes and took the lead on a Cody Franson blast past Detroit’s Jimmy Howard, but any optimism or confidence was deflated early in the second by a Phil Kessel turnover which sprung Darren Helm on a short-handed breakway.
“It’s always tough when you lose and the situation that we put ourselves in amps it up ten-fold.… a somber coach Randy Carlyle said following the game. “I haven’t got an explanation for it other than the fact it just seemed that everything that we’ve been doing or the body of work that we put in early in the game, we weren’t able to maintain it and carry it in the last half of the hockey game.…
Helm was stopped by goaltender Jonathan Bernier, but continued to fight for the puck after the missed attempt, disrupting Jake Gardiner to cause his pass to be intercepted by Joakim Andersson, who quickly returned it back to Helm for the tying goal. For all intents and purposes, the game was over at that point.
Gustav Nyquist scored 92 seconds later to give the Wings a lead that they would not relinquish and Helm scored again just short of eight minutes into the middle frame on a deflected Jakub Kindl point shot.
Toronto narrowed the lead to 3-2 late in the second on a terrific Morgan Rielly sweep pass that setup Joffrey Lupul for his 22nd goal of the season, but the Leafs could not manage to mount any evidence of a coordinated comeback in the third.
Rielly saved Gardiner from another disastrous miscue preventing Tomas Jurco’s breakaway attempt with a diving poke check, but a Franson turnover at the blueline just under a minute later gave Helm an almost carbon copy chance, which he did not miss.
With the loss and the Blue Jackets 2-1 overtime win in Carolina on Saturday, the Leafs now trail Detroit and Columbus by two points, with both clubs having two games in hand.
Toronto has six games left against Calgary, Boston and Winnipeg at the ACC this week, before going on the road to Tampa Bay, Florida and Ottawa to finish the schedule.
Over the next two weeks, the results of the games will give way in importance to the recriminations of who is to blame for the Leafs second great regular season collapse in three years.
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