The Toronto Maple Leafs had not lost a game this season when leading after two periods, but the Vancouver Canucks erased the Leafs lead and completed the comeback with Alex Edler’s overtime goal in a 3-2 overtime victory at Rogers Arena on Wednesday.
Toronto led 2-0 after 40 minutes on second period goals from Ron Hainsey and Morgan Rielly, but the Canucks replied with tallies from Loui Eriksson and former Leaf Josh Leivo within a span of 1:52 in the third to tie the game.
“I didn’t think we started great. I thought we had a real good second and I didn’t even mind our third, to tell you the truth. I didn’t think it got tilted or anything like that, but any way you look at it, we went in the period and we were up 2-0.” Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said after the game. “We should have found a way to win that game. That part’s disappointing. I just thought our first period wasn’t as good. I thought they were more urgent than we were.
Unlike his performance in the 6-2 win over Calgary, Frederik Andersen was unable to bail his team out from a sluggish and inconsistent effort. Babcock had trust issues with both his bottom defense pairing and fourth line.
He relied heavily on his top four of Rielly, Hainsey, Nikita Zaitsev and Jake Muzzin (who all played in the neighborhood of 24 minutes), having one of them on the ice with either Martin Marincin or Justin Holl, while the newly formed unit of Trevor Moore, Nic Petan and Tyler Ennis saw only limited ice time.
“I couldn't use (them) as much in (the defensive) zone. Babcock said. “Everybody loves players, that's great, but you've got to be able to use lines and everyone's got to have a role. Someone's got to penalty kill and someone's got to be able to take faceoffs. I didn't think I gave our team with that lineup as good an opportunity as I might have wanted.”
Based on his comments after the game and the way he utilized his lineup during the game, the Leafs head coach does not appear pleased with the current lineup options he has to work with.
GM Kyle Dubas moved the defensive-minded Par Lindholm (who was part of the club’s four-man forward rotation on the penalty kill) in exchange for the more offensive Petan and is mixing things up until Nazem Kadri returns and Connor Brown shifts down in the lineup. On defense, Babcock has been rotating Marincin, Holl and Igor Ozhiganov with Travis Dermott and Jake Gardiner out injured, and has little options with Calle Rosen and Andreas Borgman also out.
Dubas could not or chose not to add any size or sandpaper up front or on the blueline before the trade deadline, players that undoubtedly Babcock would have wanted and utilized down the stretch. It will be interesting to see how he will make due with what the Leafs have on hand over the next six weeks and going into the expected first round matchup against Boston.
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