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The 6-5 overtime loss to the New York Islanders on Monday was another dismal defensive effort by the Toronto Maple Leafs, who for the second game in a row, surrendered the lead twice in the third period.
Unlike the victory in Boston, where James van Riemsdyk’s goal late in regulation salvaged a victory, Toronto was unable to respond to Andrew Ladd’s tying tally with 1:29 left. Brock Nelson scored his second of the game past Frederik Andersen to give the Isles the win and a valuable two points in their pursuit of an Eastern Conference playoff spot.
“If it was 2-1, I probably wouldn't feel like I do right now. When you give up six goals, especially with some of the mistakes we made defensively….for me, to give up free ones, just tap-ins by our net, is not good enough.” Babcock said after the game. “We've got to get that fixed in a hurry. I didn't think we did that well in Boston, but we got away with it and won. In this one here, it's disappointing. We had the game won and we gave it up.”
Toronto has gone 1-2-1 in their four road games since the All-Star break, allowing 22 goals against.
Babcock looked for a more disciplined two-way effort after his young squad surrendered a three-goal lead on Saturday but instead got another wide-open affair where Toronto showed an inability to limit quality chances.
“Last night with the Islanders, you feel space offensively and everyone gets feeling good and we get dancing around and life is great and we think we’re the 80’s Oilers and then ‘bang-bang-bang’ (and) we just yell at the goalie ‘here they come again!!’ Babcock said. “It’s fun….I actually think the players are having fun and I think the crowd’s having fun and we leave pissed off every night. So why don’t we just play right?”
Frederik Andersen’s level of performance has declined since the Centennial Classic. In spite of struggling in October, Andersen had a 15-8-6 record, 2.47 GAA and .925 save percentage through December.
Since January 1, his record is 7-3-3 record, the goals-against has ballooned to 3.53 and the save percentage has dropped to .888, which could be symptomatic of Andersen being on pace to play over 65 games, the most of any season in his NHL career.
Morgan Rielly had mixed results on Monday. The defenseman played nearly 22 minutes and assisted on Nikita Soshnikov and Auston Matthews’ first period goals, but appeared to have limited mobility due to a high ankle sprain and was on the ice for three New York even strength goals, including Ladd’s tying tally.
Toronto returns to the Air Canada Center for the first of four straight at home against the Dallas Stars on Tuesday. The Stars ambushed the Leafs in a 6-3 win on January 31, scoring five first-period goals on Andersen and backup Curtis McElhinney.
“It was pretty ugly for us, (the Stars) slapped us around pretty good, I thought it was a river hockey game.” Babcock said.
Dallas has lost two straight and trail St. Louis by five points for the final wild card spot in the Western Conference and will go with Antti Niemi in goal, while the Leafs will start McElhinney in the second of back-to-back games.
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