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Leafs offense shooting blanks in loss to the Blues |
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The Toronto Maple Leafs through the first two weeks of the regular season were the envy of the NHL, averaging over five goals per game and leading the league with a 6-1 record, but in successive games against Pittsburgh and St. Louis, the Leafs offense has been neutralized in part because their opposition has clogged up the middle and done their best to neutralize their speed, but also due to a lack of energy and an increasing penchant for bad giveaways.
The 4-1 loss to the Blues at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday was Toronto’s second straight and in spite of their 6-3 record, the club is under .500 (2-3-0) on home ice, with an overtime win over Montreal and victory earlier in the week over a bad Los Angeles Kings squad and losses to Ottawa, Pittsburgh and the club with the worst record in the Western Conference entering the game.
Toronto only managed eight shots on struggling Blues netminder Jake Allen through two periods before opening the throttle wide open and registering 15 third period shots to attempt to close the gap.
Morgan Rielly scored the Leafs only goal in the third period, but the club’s best defenseman had a bad night, flubbing a shot attempt that allowed Vladimir Tarasenko a clear cut breakaway on goalie Frederik Andersen and a series of giveaways that tested the mettle of the Toronto netminder.
“I actually thought we skated real good at the start, but I thought St. Louis came in here to play hard. They were on the inside, they backchecked, they worked hard. We stayed on the outside, never got the puck to the net, never got inside. In the end, they worked hard and they competed harder on the puck. In the hard areas, and we turned the puck over.” Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said after the game. “We weren't good enough. I thought we had a bit of that the other night and then, obviously, we're figuring out that – we scored early, we scored easy, it was pretty loose and everything was great. Now we're finding out it's in the NHL, it's hard to score, teams compete hard on you, teams adjust and they're going to play you hard.”
Andersen made 22 saves and kept the Blues off the scoreboard early, but goals from Robert Bortuzzo, Zach Sanford and Ryan O’Reilly staked St. Louis to a three-goal lead after 40 minutes. Rielly’s goal early in the third narrowed the lead to 3-1, but the Leafs were unable to draw closer on two power plays and their goalie pulled for the extra attacker.
Babcock juggled his forward lines in the third period in hopes of generating some momentum, moving Nazem Kadri to the wing to play with Auston Matthews and Kasperi Kapanen and later putting together a unit of Matthews, Patrick Marleau and Mitch Marner, but with only limited success.
“We got off to a good start and then we haven't been as good as we need to be to be successful.” Babcock said. The good thing about (making lineup changes) is I don't have to decide that right now. By the time I'm done watching the game tape prior to practice, I'll have a good handle on it. You can put everything back or you can change it all, we'll see. We'll look at it carefully, without emotion and make that decision.”
It is a relatively light week for the Leafs. They will practice Sunday, have a day off on Monday and get on the ice Tuesday morning before departing for Winnipeg for their first meeting with the Jets on Wednesday night at the MTS Centre.
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