The Toronto Maple Leafs concluded their regular season series with the Edmonton Oilers with a 3-2 loss at Scotiabank Arena on Monday. Darnell Nurse scored 17 seconds in to overtime to break the Leafs three-game winning streak.
Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews scored his league leading 23rd goal of the season for Toronto in a low event game necessitated by the start of backup Michael Hutchinson. The Leafs played put forth a good defensive effort, keeping Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl off the scoreboard in regulation, but the dynamic duo finally broke through early in extra time, setting up Nurse for the game-winner.
“I think at different times in the games that we’ve played against Edmonton this season really have been the model of what we’re capable of as a team. I think in these last two games against Edmonton, we haven’t done it quite for three periods.” Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game. “The way that we focused in and defended, I thought we did a good job here again tonight against their best people. Obviously, that’s important.
You’re going up against the deepest opponent that we face in our division in terms of their forward lines and the depth that they have. We’ve got to have that level of focus every shift. That’s something for us to take away, for sure, but we’ve shown what we’re capable of.”
On the positive side, the concerns over Matthews wrist injury may be in the past, as their seemed to be no lack of willingness to pull the trigger throughout the game, and the second line of John Tavares, William Nylander and Alex Galchenyuk was once again energetic and generating offensive chances.
On the other side, the Leafs failed to respond for Oilers forward Zack Kassian after his hit on Tavares on Saturday, as well as a crosscheck from Kailer Yamamoto on Mitch Marner in the second period.
In spite of speculation that GM Kyle Dubas is looking to add a top-six or top-nine forward before the NHL trade deadline, the addition of Galchenyuk may make that unnecessary. The biggest area of concern that may need to be addressed before April 12 could be in goal.
Keefe had no update on the status of Frederik Andersen’s injury that has kept the Leafs starter out of action the last 10 days, and Jack Campbell appeared to tweak his lower body injury again against the Oilers on Saturday, forcing newly acquired Veini Vehvilainen to back up Hutchinson.
Keefe indicated after the game that Campbell should be available to start in Winnipeg on Wednesday, but the health of the Toronto goaltending is a potential game changer for Dubas. It has been pretty firmly established that the Leafs cannot depend on Hutchinson for anything more than an average performance, and in spite of Campbell’s excellent play, he has now re-injured his leg twice.
It would not be a surprise if Dubas investigated potential rental options such as Buffalo’s Linus Ullmark, San Jose’s Devan Dubnyk, or former Leafs Aaron Dell, Jonathan Bernier and James Reimer in the next two weeks.
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The Toronto Maple Leafs once again have dipped into the undrafted free agent pool, signing forward Alex Steeves to a three-year entry-level contract. The 21-year-old Steeves led Notre Dame with 32 points (15 goals, 17 assists) in his junior season and ranked 10th in scoring in the NCAA.
Alex Steeves (undrafted) scores his 15th goal of the season for Notre Dame.
According to the 2019 HockeyProspect.com Black Book, the 5’11”, 185 lb. center has some offensive skill and can make plays, but his skating was the big red flag for scouts in his draft year. The Leafs are never shy to take on projects in hopes that they can improve and be useful at the AHL or NHL level, and it sounds as if Steeves falls into that category.
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It’s game day! The Leafs will take on the Oilers again tonight.
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