maple leafs

More holes popping up before the deadline? Leafs vs. Capitals

Feb 28, 2022 • 7:33 am

Be sure to like HockeyBuzz on facebook!

For the latest Leafs updates or Follow @mikeinbuffalo on Twitter

*******If you are interested in sponsorship or advertising your business in the Greater Toronto / Southern Ontario area on this column, please send a message for more information by clicking on the “Contact… button at the top of the page.*******

It is rare that a game in late February should be the cause of much consternation, but the 10-7 victory over the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday sounded alarm bells in the world of the Toronto Maple Leafs, not only because they turned a 7-2 laugher after 40 minutes into a game where the outcome was in doubt, but the reason for the lead evaporating was more due to the poor goaltending of Jack Campbell and to a lesser extent Petr Mrazek than the short-handed blueline without veteran Jake Muzzin.

Campbell showed bad body language early in the game, looking to the sky on goals by Lucas Raymond and Sam Gagner, and after allowing a bad goal to Joe Veleno to make it 7-5, head coach Sheldon Keefe was forced to put a cold Mrazek into the game. The former Wing could not stop Detroit’s momentum, with Michael Rasmussen narrowing the lead to 7-6 before the Leafs turned on the offense again, scoring three goals to preserve the win.

Toronto’s top line of Michael Bunting, Auston Matthews, and Mitch Marner combined for 15 points, with Marner posting the first four-goal performance of his career, but the third-period chaos almost completely overshadowed that tremendous effort.

“Let’s not let the craziness of the third period take away from the fact that we played an excellent game,… Keefe putting on his best positive spin after the game. “The craziness of the period, that is going to be the focus, but our guys played a really good game today. You go into the third period and you really just want to get out of there, then all of a sudden they throw a floater at the net and it goes in and they get life. They get a couple more just like that and it changes things. Things changed there quickly, but let’s not lose sight of the fact that our guys played a really good game today.…

The focus of Leafs GM Kyle Dubas with three weeks to go before the NHL trade deadline was thought to be a) a top-four defenseman to play alongside or replace Jake Muzzin and b) a winger to play on the second line with the struggling John Tavares and William Nylander, but with the drop in Campbell’s performance has to be a growing concern.

From the start of the season until December 1, Campbell went 13-4-1, with a 1.72 GAA, and a .943 sv %, but since then his goals-against is 3.37, and save percentage is .892 (with a 10-4-3 record). It is fairly unrealistic for Dubas to be able to address every area of need before March 21, so the hope has to be that the Leafs tandem will straighten out before the playoffs and bolstering the blueline will help cut down on scoring chances.

Toronto will continue their goalie rotation during their busy schedule, with Mrazek making his 11th start of the season against Washington at Capital One Arena. Keefe indicated that there would be a lot of game-time decisions on Monday with a wave of non-COVID illness working its way through the Toronto locker room.

*******