The Toronto Maple Leafs chose the first of three games against the Ottawa Senators to reprise a notable event in the club’s past. Unfortunately that event was the three-goal collapse to Boston in Game 7 of the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Ottawa Senators are by no means anywhere close to the behemoth Bruins (who went on to reach the Stanley Cup Final that year), which makes it even more unforgivable that Toronto surrendered a 5-1 lead late in the second period to the league-worst Senators, losing 6-5 in on Evgeni Dadonov’s overtime breakaway.
The Leafs took advantage of the Sens through 40 minutes, as Auston Matthews scored a pair of goals to increase his league-leading total to 13, received offensive contributions from third liner Pierre Engvall, fourth liner Travis Boyd, and veteran Joe Thornton in his first game back from a rib injury, but that was all wasted by a stretch of complacency reminiscent to how they played during most of the 2019-20 regular season.
“I think it’s something that’s just been creeping into our game. I thought that the nature of the way the game was going, it wasn’t everybody, but I think there was enough guys. We just gave the game to them at a time where they really had nothing happening. They really only got what we gave them.” Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game. “Everything that we had against us was sloppy play with the puck that led to us spending more time in our end than we needed to. On the goals, same kind of thing, careless with it. Two shorthanded goals where you’re careless with the puck and situational awareness is poor.”
Nick Paul scored a short-handed goal with nine seconds left in the second to give Ottawa life, defenseman Artem Zub scored coming out of the penalty box on a breakaway to cut the lead to two. The Leafs killed off a double-minor to Zach Hyman, only to give up a goal to Connor Brown seconds later and completed the collapse as Dadonov batted the puck past Frederik Andersen with goalie Marcus Hogberg pulled for the extra attacker.
Although there were some standout absences on the night, such as the lack of impact that John Tavares and William Nylander had in the game, and a pedestrian performance from Andersen (6 goals on 31 shots), the fault lies completely with the club as an entirety, not being able to step on the neck of a struggling Ottawa team and letting them climb back and win the game.
If this collapse serves as a wakeup call and a reminder that no lead is safe and that you cannot sit back no matter who you are playing, then the Leafs should respond by returning to the form they displayed in the first quarter of the season. If Toronto begins to resort back to their 2020 form, than it should raise suspicion that their early success was a mirage.
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Just prior to the game, the Leafs acquired forward Alex Galchenyuk from the Carolina Hurricanes for winger Egor Korshkov and defenseman David Warsofsky. Galchenyuk has been a hot potato the last two-plus seasons after being selected third overall in 2012 by Montreal and playing six years with the Habs.
The 27-year-old played a full year in Arizona after being swapped for Max Domi, was dealt to Pittsburgh in the Phil Kessel deal in 2019, traded to Minnesota at the trade deadline in the Jason Zucker deal, signed with Ottawa in October and moved to Carolina for Ryan Dzingel, before being placed on waivers and sent to Toronto.
“I’d say is he’s another depth option for us to come in. Obviously, we’ve been looking to find a mix in our bottom six and I think he’s one of those guys that will compete for a spot like that.” Keefe said. “It gives us added roster flexibility given that he’s cleared waivers already. We’ve got flexibility there and that helps our depth.”
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