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Does Dubas have another big deal in him before deadline???

February 22, 2019, 3:55 PM ET [389 Comments]
Mike Augello
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The Toronto Maple Leafs lost 3-2 to the Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals on Thursday and in a similar fashion to two previous losses against Arizona and St. Louis, where they were soundly outplayed in the first two periods and attempted to catch up in the third.

That resulted in a point on Tuesday when the Leafs scored two goals in 31 seconds against the Blues, but Toronto fell short in their comeback after Alex Ovechkin and Brett Connolly staked Washington to a 2-0 lead. Andreas Johnsson scored early in the third to narrow the deficit to 2-1, but Tom Wilson scored short-handed for the eventual game-winner and put a stop to the Leafs momentum.



“You can't outscore your defensive mistakes, you've got to be good defensively.” Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said after the game. “We had lots of great looks, as you saw, lots of good opportunity here, no question about it. We actually skated probably better than I thought after coming back off the trip. The bottom line is you've got to get points and we've suddenly got one of them in three games.”

Toronto failed to gain ground on Boston with one of their games in hand and are four points behind the Bruins for second place in the Atlantic. Both clubs are idle until Saturday, when Boston takes on the Blues in St. Louis and the Leafs take on the Montreal Canadiens at Scotiabank Arena.

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From now until the trade deadline at 3pm on Monday, we will mostly focus on the latest news and rumors involving potential Leafs trades.

TSN’s Darren Dreger and Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman both reported on Friday that Toronto had interest in Detroit defenseman Nick Jensen, but the Red Wings traded the 28 year old blueliner to Washington along with a fifth round pick for defenseman Madison Bowey and a 2020 second round pick.

Another potential rental option mentioned in connection to the Leafs was Adam McQuaid of the Rangers, but the veteran was held out of action after the first period on Thursday for precautionary reasons and indications are the 32-year-old blueliner suffered an injury.



McQuaid would seem to fit Babcock’s desire for size, sandpaper and experience on the back end, but Friedman indicated on his “31 Thoughts” podcast that he think that the former Bruin was not the type of player that Kyle Dubas would go for and instead of looking for a stop gap fix, the Leafs GM may still be big game hunting for a top-four right-handed defenseman.

Names mentioned as possibilities were Brandon Montour (ANA) or one of the Carolina righties (Justin Faulk, Brett Pesce or Dougie Hamilton). Montour has seen his ice time decrease since Bob Murray took over as interim head coach and the 24-year-old is due for a big payday after next season, which could mean the Ducks could be interested in moving him if the return was to their liking.

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