UPDATE - Per Renaud Lavoie of RDS, the Leafs have sent down center Peter Holland to the Toronto Marlies. Could be an indicator that Dave Bolland will make his much-awaited return to the Leafs lineup on Monday.
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The Toronto Maple Leafs earned a point in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Center Saturday night, which is a positive towards their goal of making the postseason for the second straight year. But to look at how Randy Carlyle’s club has performed in the two games following the Olympic break, it is hard to imagine how they will be able to make a deep playoff run playing as inconsistently as they have.
The Leafs were outworked and outhustled by the hometown Habs for most of the opening 20 minutes, not registering a shot on goal until after Alex Galchenyuk and Max Pacioretty had made in 2-0. A late flurry by the Blue and White resulted in six shots on Montreal backup Peter Budaj and James van Riemsdyk’s deflected goal cut the lead in half before the end of the period.
The middle frame was perhaps the most dreadfully boring 20 minutes that the two longtime rivals have played in recent years, as both teams managed only 12 shots combined for the period and neither had a memorable scoring chance.
The Leafs mimicked the pattern they followed in Uniondale two nights before, trying to steal the victory with a third period of furious effort. With Nazem Kadri off for tripping, Van Riemsdyk tied the game on a short-handed breakaway, slipping the puck between Budaj’s pads. Just over two minutes later, Phil Kessel broke through the Habs defensive zone with speed and received a pass from Tyler Bozak, quickly snapping a shot just inside the far post to give Toronto their first lead of the game.
The game was marred by some strange and questionable calls from the referees. Defenseman Tim Gleason’s interference penalty resulted in PK Subban’s tying one-timer midway through the third.
“I really didn’t even hit him(Habs captain Brian Gionta), I just kinda one armed and didn’t grab him or anything like that.… Gleason said following the game.
“I was under the impression that if it was 1-1000, you could take the player’s body, if the player tries to make a play on it, but obviously with the way the referee saw it, it was different.… Leafs coach Randy Carlyle said following the game.
Van Riemsdyk and Andrei Markov took coincidental minors for tripping and diving later in the period and Kessel was given a delay of game call for shooting the puck over the glass late in regulation when the puck appeared to glance the top of the glass.
Toronto was able to kill off Kessel’s penalty in overtime but Bernier’s minor for delay of game after covering up a puck well out of the goal resulted in the coup de grace, as Pacioretty scored his second of the game to give the Canadiens the victory.
“Things didn’t go for us the way we’d liked for them to have gone in the hockey game, but we played a lot better tonight than we did in Long Island.… Carlyle said. “We were down 2-0, we came back from it, we found ways to create offense and I thought we had the majority of the puck time from the second period on.…
While some positives can be drawn from the comeback effort at the Bell Centre, the warning signs of potential problems for the postseason are ever more present.
The Leafs continue to have problems with a consistent and coherent defensive scheme, which has been most apparent in the third period of both games this week. Toronto lost one goal leads on two separate occasions on Thursday and could not hold onto the lead after Kessel’s goal on Saturday.
The blueline continues to be a glaring weakness. After a pathetic effort on Thursday, defenseman Jake Gardiner saw only 15:56 of ice time against Montreal, while Dion Phaneuf logged over 30 minutes for the first time this season.
The Toronto penalty killing had another up and down night, with success in their first two opportunities and tying the game on van Riemsdyk’s breakaway goal, but then allowing the tying and winning goals, just as it had allowed the Islanders to tie the game with the man advantage on Thursday.
Another concern has to be their total dependence on the Kessel,Bozak and van Riemsdyk for the club’s offense. Of the seven goals the Leafs have scored in the last two games, the Leafs top line forwards have either scored or assisted on six.
The second line with Joffrey Lupul and Nazem Kadri managed the go-ahead goal in New York, but has not been generating consistent scoring chances with either David Clarkson or Nikolai Kulemin playing the wing, while offensive production out of third and fourth lines has been non-existent.
What ails the Maple Leafs is not going to be wiped away by the return of center Dave Bolland, even if he was coming back at 100%. It is not going to be cured by adding a player at the trade deadline, because the will to give up futures for a quick fix on the part of Dave Nonis is not there.
The flaws of this team have to be corrected internally over the next six weeks if Toronto is to make the playoffs and go further than their painful first round loss 10 months ago or will have to be addressed by significant roster changes in the offseason.
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