Breaking news: A terrible start sunk the Toronto Maple Leafs.
For the third consecutive game their first shot of the night was ten-plus minutes in the making. The Leafs have now been outshot 52-7 in the first 10 minutes of their last six games.
| Game | Shots for after 10 | Shots against after 10 |
|---|---|---|
| TB vs. TOR | 9 | 0 |
| FLA vs. TOR | 7 | 0 |
| MTL vs. TOR | 10 | 0 |
| CAR vs. TOR | 8 | 2 |
| PHI vs. TOR | 10 | 1 |
| BOS vs. TOR | 8 | 4 |
| Total | 52 | 7 |
Unlike the Florida game, the Leafs fought back to outchance and outshoot the Lightning in the final 40, but it’s hard to find positives when the team digs itself a hole and plays from behind constantly. They haven’t been able to establish an early rhythm in games because it seems to take 15 minutes for the team to begin executing clean exits out of their zone.
Here’s Babcock on the poor starts:
“We felt we were prepared going in with good energy, but then we took the penalty – tough penalty – and he shot it in the net I don’t know how many seconds later, and then we’re a little unravelled.
“I don’t think we’re not energized or not focused or anything, or anything of those things. The reality is, with the way the game started with the penalty and the goal, I think we got unnerved.”
You wonder if this type of habit starts to feed into itself once the group is fearing the worst to start the game. As Babcock mentions, the Leafs didn’t play like a “tight” team in the second and third and actually competed well once they got their feet under them.
Anyway, it goes without saying that a low-talent roster isn’t going to have much hope of grinding out a result if it repeatedly starts behind the eight ball. Unlike the Florida loss, at least this game stayed competitive as the Leafs got their structure back in place. They could’ve easily been two down after their miserable start, but there’s an argument to be made they were good enough to grab a point on the merits of their final 40.
Notes
– The powerplay moves to 0 for 26 in the last ten games. It’s easy to see why the shot attempts stats are complimentary of the PP unit even though the overall goals-per-attempt percentage is brutal. Their entries are efficient, and they generate enough shots – as many as the Lightning did in six opportunities vs. the Leafs’ three — but there is just no shot threat present. Opposition PK units don’t have to compensate for anything. Just keep the shape, don’t bite, and the Leafs’ PP fizzles out. Obviously, it’s significantly exacerbated by the fact that there isn’t JvR to worry about as the down-low option anymore.
– Not sure how Dion Phaneuf managed to leave this game without a goal after some of his chances down low. A new wrinkle to the powerplay was an experiment with Jake Gardiner roaming the slot. This should put things in perspective: Gardiner and Phaneuf are two of the team’s better shot threats available on the powerplay, yet Phaneuf hasn’t scored on the powerplay since February 26th of last season (70 games), has two powerplay goals in his last 118 games, and Gardiner hasn’t scored on the powerplay since April of the 2013-14 season (albeit while playing a minute less on the PP than Dion). The two are the leading defencemen on the team since 2014-15 in PP TOI/game at 3:18 and 2:18 respectively.
We can’t act surprised – take Phil Kessel and Cody Franson off last season’s units, mix in a JVR injury, and it’s the predictable result.
– Frank Corrado played Colton Orr minutes last night. It was an eventful 5:39 at least, with a couple of shots and a controversial hit. Will Babcock suddenly play Corrado if Polak is offloaded? It’s hard to picture right now. Essentially shortening the bench to five D by playing Corrado five minutes and change in a back-to-back situation is an emphatic indicator of the lack of trust in the player at the moment. (I suppose it’s worth noting that a small part of that is down to the six penalty kills in this game which meant a tonne of TOI for Polak and Hunwick – each played over eight minutes shorthanded last night).
– We’ll leave off on a positive: Good games from Nazem Kadri and Morgan Rielly. The two combined for 12 of the teams’ 30 shots with seven and five respectively. While the Leafs started miserably, Kadri at least seemed willing to start throwing the body around to try to get himself and the team in the game. He had a couple of fearless net drives and deserved one on the merits of his play. Morgan Rielly looks like he’s getting more of a green light from Babcock–rightfully so as this team scratches and claws to produce anything up front. Rielly rang a cross bar with a bullet of a snap shot which didn’t even count among his five shots on goal.
– Also a nice night out for Bernier amid a recent gust of trade winds surrounding his name. He look nonplussed in his first start in 11 days despite getting swarmed early on. Quietly one of his best starts of the season, I thought — he was huge in the first, singlehandedly keeping this game on the rails before his team woke up.
Shot Locations
Shot Attempts
Scoring Chances
Game in 10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iknVUrNYflY
Mike Babcock Post Game
Leafs Player Stats — Tampa Bay 1 vs. Toronto 0
| PLAYER | G | A | P | +/- | PIM | S | HITS | BKS | FO% | PPTOI | SHTOI | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M. Hunwick | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 2 | - | 0:00 | 8:35 | 25:27 |
| D. Phaneuf | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 0 | - | 3:35 | 2:58 | 20:46 |
| P. Parenteau | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | 2:45 | 0:00 | 19:35 |
| N. Spaling | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 50% | 0:00 | 4:50 | 12:17 |
| J. Lupul | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | - | 2:47 | 0:00 | 11:58 |
| F. Corrado | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | - | 0:00 | 0:00 | 5:39 |
| S. Matthias | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | - | 1:58 | 0:00 | 10:57 |
| P. Holland | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | - | 3:25 | 0:00 | 17:19 |
| R. Clune | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 0 | - | 0:00 | 0:00 | 6:31 |
| D. Winnik | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | - | 0:00 | 0:56 | 8:07 |
| M. Grabner | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | - | 0:00 | 5:33 | 16:36 |
| T. Bozak | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 52% | 4:02 | 0:00 | 18:11 |
| N. Kadri | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 0 | 39% | 3:42 | 0:00 | 17:36 |
| M. Rielly | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 0 | - | 2:39 | 1:42 | 24:59 |
| R. Polak | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 2 | - | 0:12 | 8:03 | 24:33 |
| L. Komarov | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 100% | 1:48 | 4:55 | 20:20 |
| J. Gardiner | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | 3:03 | 0:00 | 15:44 |
| B. Froese | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 44% | 0:04 | 5:04 | 12:38 |
