The Toronto Maple Leafs were disorganized and outworked by a short-handed Detroit club in the first two periods, but staged a late rally to earn a point in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Red Wings at Scotiabank Arena on Thursday.
Kasperi Kapanen, John Tavares, Zach Hyman and Andreas Johnsson scored for Toronto, who trailed 4-1 after 40 minutes, but scored three times in the third period in just under nine minutes to tie the game before Dylan Larkin’s breakaway goal at 2:48 of overtime gave the Wings the victory and ended the Leafs five game winning streak.
The Wings were the more energetic club early in the game, blocking numerous Toronto shot attempts at goalie Jonathan Bernier and taking advantage of some scrambly play by the Leafs forwards and shaky goaltending from backup Garret Sparks.
Detroit quickly rebounded from Kapanen’s opening goal early in the first, as Jonathan Ericsson and Luke Glendening replied within two minutes to give the Wings the lead, which was extended late in the opening frame on a goal by Gustav Nyquist and midway through the second on a long shot from veteran Mike Green.
Leafs head coach Mike Babcock had shuffled three of his four lines with the addition of winger William Nylander to the lineup to start the game, but that was abandoned in favor of the line combos that played together in Buffalo on Tuesday in the third, which spurred their late comeback.
Nylander did not register a shot in over 12 minutes of ice time and appeared not to be up to speed after missing training camp and two months of the regular season due to a contract impasse. The winger sat the bench the last 12 minutes of regulation and the nearly three minutes of overtime, but Babcock thought he played well for having little practice time and getting inserted just five days after signing his six-year deal.
“We were supposed to practice together, we never even gave the guy a practice. We wanted to get him in. You've got two guys on that line, one coming back from injury (Matthews) and one who hasn't played.” Babcock said. “(The benching) has nothing to do with Willy, it has to do with me and trying to win the game, that's all. I want him to play a ton, I just want to get him out there and get him going. Any time you've missed that amount of hockey, it's going to be hard for him.”
The start of Sparks was unusual, as Frederik Andersen has started nearly all of non back-to-back games since being acquired from Anaheim in 2016, but was done to give Andersen three full days of rest after facing 40+ shots in his last four starts and as a test of the backup’s dependability after some hot and cold play in his first five games.
While giving Andersen a break is a necessity, the performance of Sparks on Thursday is likely not going to infuse Babcock with a higher level of confidence. Both Ericsson and Green’s goals were long shots with traffic in front where a goaltender has to battle for position and a clear line of sight, Nyquist’s goal late in the first was scored while he was deep in the crease and after a couple nice saves with the Leafs trailing late, Sparks did not see a shot that hit off both posts with 11 seconds left in regulation.
“It's the National Hockey League, we expect everyone to be good every night. That's just the way we are.” Babcock said. “As the coach, you look at yourself after a game like that. We weren't ready to go, that's on me. (Sparks) game is on him. We're all responsible. The way you fix things is when you own it.”
Toronto dodged a bullet midway through the game, as Matthews appeared to be injured after being throttled into the boards by Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall. The Leafs center did not head to the dressing room or miss a shift, but the hit once again reveals the concern that the Leafs have very options when it comes to pushing back on the opposition if one of their players are being pushed around physically.
The days of enforcers like Colton Orr and Fraser McLaren are gone and spots on the fourth line cannot be occupied by one dimensional players any longer, but the Leafs are in desperate need of players with a physical edge to their game.
A big winger like the Marlies’ Mason Marchment has NHL tools and might be an option to be called up later in the season, but if Toronto does not want to get pushed around come playoff time, then GM Kyle Dubas will have to add a player with that component to his trade deadline shopping list.
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