*******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.*******
The Toronto Maple Leafs excellent team defense and goaltending catapulted the club to the one of the top records in the NHL just prior to Christmas, but the Leafs have begun to slip back into old habits and also have not been getting big stops from Ilya Samsonov and Matt Murray.
The Leafs 5-1 loss to the Seattle Kraken on Thursday was another combination of soft play in the defensive zone, turnovers, bad special teams, and subpar goaltending.
Toronto dominated the opening 20 minutes, outshooting the Kraken 9-3, but could not beat Seattle goalie Martin Jones, failed to score on the power play, and allowed the Kraken’s opening goal during a man advantage early in the second. John Tavares tied the game midway through the middle frame during Yanni Gourde’s double-minor high-sticking penalty, but Vince Dunn’s reply 14 seconds later seemed to take most of the wind out of Toronto’s sails.
“We generated six odd-man opportunities in the first period, and that was all through, for the most part, how we moved the puck coming out of our end.” Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game. “They got one power play, and I thought we had an excellent penalty kill. I might be wrong, but I think it might’ve been the only shot attempt they had in a minute and a half. They get one shot attempt, and it goes in the net off of (Mark Giordano). That is kind of the way the game went for us. We didn’t capitalize on our looks early in the game enough. You leave the game up for grabs after that.”
Seattle added two more second-period goals and another early in the third to squelch any thoughts of a Toronto comeback, but the Leafs had little energy after allowing the Kraken to regain the lead after the Tavares goal.
“We need to get a big save there (from Murray).” Keefe said. “There are some funny goals going in there, but just as we needed our players in the first period to make a big play and take control of the game, we need the goaltender to make a big save to get us going and give us life. We didn’t get that.
Those are the kinds of things that stand out about the game, but as I said, there is a lot to like about our first period. If we play like that, a lot of nights, we take control of games and don’t look back. Today, we let them hang around (and) we paid for it.”
After consecutive shutouts against Los Angeles and Anaheim, Toronto has allowed 34 goals against and has gone .500 (4-4-1), with Samsonov going 2-1-1, with a 4.12 GAA and .850 save %, and Murray 2-3-0, a 2.82 GAA, and .876 save %.
“It is a tough game to play when you are constantly pulling the puck out of your net. I thought that took the life away from us a little bit, but I am not going to overthink that part of the game.” Keefe said. “It is a funny game there. We didn’t do enough offensively to really gain traction and keep ourselves afloat.”
Keefe shook up line combinations in the third, but they did not result in any kind of spark, but lineup changes could be in order for the final game of the Leafs three-game homestand vs. Detroit on Saturday. Toronto did not practice on Friday prior to back-to-back weekend games but could insert defenseman Conor Timmins or veteran Wayne Simmonds to provide a spark against their Atlantic Division opponent.
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»