The Toronto Maple Leafs continued to display the same defensive shortcomings against Tampa Bay that cost them a victory against the Florida Panthers on the weekend, as they squandered an early lead and lost 3-2 to the Atlantic Division-leading Lightning at Amalie Arena on Monday night.
Steven Stamkos scored his 20th goal of the season midway through the third period for the game winner, which handed Toronto a second loss in as many days in the state of Florida and their fifth loss in the last six games.
Toronto once again were significantly outshot by the opposition (41-23 by Tampa), went long stretches without even touching the puck and showed a complete inability for extricating themselves out of the defensive zone throughout the game.
“They did a good job with their forecheck, they made it tough for us to break out of our zone and made it tough to execute.… Defenseman Cody Franson said after the game. “We did a little better job in the third, but not good enough.…
Even with all these disadvantages, the Leafs somehow managed to jump out to a two-goal lead by the eight-minute mark of the first, as Mike Santorelli converted a Nazem Kadri cross-ice pass for his eighth of the season and a nice three-way passing play by Phil Kessel, Tyler Bozak and Joffrey Lupul resulted in Lupul’s ninth of the year.
The Leafs beat Tampa’s Ben Bishop on their first two shots, but managed only two more shots on the Lightning net in the first and went almost 20 minutes without registering another shot on goal.
“That seems to be our Achilles heel right now is when we do get opportunities, we’re able to score, but were not getting enough of them.… Coach Randy Carlyle said following the game. “I thought the way the game went it was like we got scatter-brained for a bit in the second period, but in the third period we kind of got more of our game going where we were a little bit better with the puck.…
Tampa applied heavy pressure with their forecheck and bottled up the Leafs in their own zone, as they could not even manage the simplest escape routes. Tampa were outshooting Toronto 26-4 by the midway point of the game and evened the score in the second as Ryan Callahan tallied on the power play and Victor Hedman’s point shot deflected off the skate of Valtteri Filppula past James Reimer.
Reimer did not falter late in the game as he did in Sunrise on Sunday and gave the Leafs a chance to earn at least a point in a game that they were severely outplayed, but he could not hold off Tampa, who finally claimed the lead with nine minutes left in regulation on a play that was symbolic of Toronto’s defensive mishaps.
After Tampa controlled the puck in the Leafs zone, Dion Phaneuf fired a pass off the boards in hopes of clearing. The puck went too far for David Clarkson to help it along and not far enough to prevent Matt Carle from firing a shot towards Reimer. Phaneuf was slow in getting to the front of the net and allowed Stamkos an unhindered chance to deflect the puck past Reimer for the winner.
Toronto is now 1-3 on their season-long seven-game road trip. They will practice in Boston on Tuesday before embarking on another challenging three-games in four-night stretch with a New Year’s Eve bash against the Bruins.
Goaltender Jonathan Bernier joined the Leafs in Tampa, but the club decided to go with Christopher Gibson as Reimer’s backup to insure that Bernier’s flu did not spread to his teammates. According to Carlyle, it is expected that Bernier will be available and get the start in Boston.
*******
Watch the latest edition of Leaf Buzz with myself and SIHR's Paul Bruno:
*******If you are interested in sponsorship or advertising your business in the Greater Toronto / Southern Ontario area on this column, please send a message for more information by clicking on the “Contact… button at the top of the page.*******
For Those on Twitter: Follow @mikeinbuffalo
KINDLE USERS: Please sign up for Maple Leafs Buzz, which includes a free-of-charge 14-day trial and is just 99 cents per month afterwards. For more information click here.