Coming off a lacklustre showing in Columbus, the Maple Leafs did not generate the expected response on home ice against their head coach’s former team, falling 5-1 to St. Louis. It marks the first time since the 2014-15 season that the Maple Leafs lost consecutive games by four or more goals.
Boos from the fans rained down on the Leafs late in this game — and a jersey was tossed on the ice — as the team fell to .500 on the season, with the complete performance against Tampa from literally three days ago feeling like a distant memory now.
When fans said they wanted to see the team play more playoff-style hockey under Craig Berube in the regular season, it wasn’t meant as Sheldon Keefe Leafs playoff–style hockey, where a bunch of high-paid scoring talent can’t break through on a hot goalie, Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews are fastened at the hip come hell or high water, and the power play turns into an overpriced pumpkin. Despite doubling up St. Louis in power-play opportunities, the man advantage struck out — moving to 3 for 27, with goals in just two of their eight games so far — as the Leafs scored two or fewer for the fourth time to start the season.
It’s very early yet, and expecting Berube to fix it all in eight games is ridiculous, but the lack of benefit of the doubt from those in attendance was, at the very least, understandable.
Your game in 10:
1. The Leafs started this game at a better pace skating and energy-wise (the bare minimum expectation), albeit it mostly led to dumped-in pucks, no sustained zone time, and not much in the way of scoring chances in the initial stages.
Five minutes into the game, they fell behind after a lost defensive zone draw by the top line, which, after a pretty good start to the season (albeit not hair-on-fire offensively good), has suddenly conceded a goal per period since the start of the Columbus game without contributing anything the other way.
With the puck on the wall, Mitch Marner didn’t take away the pass off the boards or get in the shot lane as the Blues’ left D, Philip Broberg, teed up a shot from the point. The Blues’ Pavel Buchnevich had the run of the front of the net to cut across Woll’s eyes while Auston Matthews, instead of engaging his man in front, tried his hand at a kick save, missing the block and only accomplishing a screen on his own goalie.
The Leafs have now fallen behind first in five of their eight games to start the season.
2. The top line responded with a pushback shift in the offensive zone that drew a penalty (via Marner). On the subsequent power play, the Leafs lost the first draw for a clearance, then unsuccessfully tried their common entry play up the left side that often fails (the handoff to a flat-flooted Tavares).
On the next entry, Matthews took the drop pass and called his own number, breaking in, barging through the defense, and making it in alone on Jordan Binnington, but he couldn’t solve the Blues goalie this time (or all night long, as it turned out). There was also a late chance for Bobby McMann in front off of a Matthew Knies setup, but yet again, the power play couldn’t get the Leafs going in a game.
3. A Jake McCabe high stick then sent the Leafs to their first penalty kill of the night at a time when the PK was building some positive momentum, going 15 for its last 16. There was a lot to like about the organized pressure of the first minute and a half before a breakdown happened for a goal against that was far too easy for the Blues’ Dylan Holloway, who was completely alone in front after a lost board battle.
This reminded me of a few similar goals against the struggling Leafs PK of last season, including in the playoff series against Boston. When there is a scrum/battle on the wall with two attackers’ backs to the goal, it’s (presumably) considered a trigger moment for the unit to overload or swarm, but they can’t be half-pregnant.
This amounted to a 3v2 on the wall in favor of the Blues while the Leafs’ two other PKers — Auston Matthews and Chris Tanev — were taking a front-row seat viewing the action. If this has been identified as a trigger moment for the unit, Saad shouldn’t have the opportunity to turn and make a play on the puck; he should have a Leaf right on top of him, and the other Leaf (Matthews) should be mindful of the threat in front of the net. The Leafs ended up with two guys stranded in no man’s land for a cheap goal against.
4. The Leafs went to the power play for a second time, just past the halfway point of the first period, and this was one of their better non-scoring PPs of the season (granted, it’s a low bar). They should’ve scored on a tic-tac-toe play off the entry, but Matthews didn’t quite connect. They then worked the puck around with some pace and urgency behind getting pucks to the net — with Matthews and Nylander as shooting threats on opposite half walls, as well as OEL up top — and they attempted to converge on a few pucks down low. Still, there are no moral victories here when it’s a 3-for-27 PP unit with this much offensive talent, but at least this one wasn’t a total momentum killer.
Back at five-on-five, the Leafs applied some more pressure. Binnington was caught out of his net, and Matthews had a chance with an empty cage, but his shot was blocked by Colton Parayko’s skates. Shortly after, Conor Timmins put a shot into a shinpad for a Braden Schenn breakaway, which was one of two big Joseph Woll saves late in the period (the other came on a 2v1).
That sequence speaks to a few of the issues for the Leafs tonight offensively: They struggled to get enough shots through cleanly (23 blocks for St. Loius), did not generate enough traffic when they did, and when they were 1v1 with the goalie, they did not cash in. It had a familiar feel — often reserved for playoff time in Toronto — whereby the stars couldn’t solve a hot goalie with their grade-A looks, and a lot of the shots from the outside lacked a screen component, only gassing up the goalie as the Leafs struggled to penetrate the net-front well enough.
5. The Leafs got themselves back into the game with a beautifully worked D-to-D goal during a good shift for the Lorentz – Tavares – Robertson line on the cycle. It was the second D-to-D connection for a pretty goal this season after the Jake McCabe-to-Morgan Rielly tally in the win over LA.
It was a cool movement showing off the high-level offensive instincts of the OEL-Rielly pairing, with Tavares rotating up high as Rielly and OEL quickly switched sides and worked a beautiful high-seam one-time play for OEL’s first Leaf goal. With the Leafs down multiple goals so early in the game, OEL-Rielly played most of the game together and were a bright spot. Given it was mostly just Rielly-Liljegren that Mike van Ryn could turn to when chasing games before, the goal demonstrated the valuable dimension OEL has added from an offensive point of view (a much-needed one on this D corps).
The Tavares line, before it was shaken up in the third, also put together some positive shifts like this one, with Steven Lorentz up on the left wing instead of Max Pacioretty (or Pontus Holmberg). It’s not a permanent solution, but the mix of size, strength, speed, and simplicity that Lorentz brought helped this line play on offense and aided it in the transitional parts of the game; Lorentz also drew a penalty after a nice play to poke the puck by a defenseman and drive inside. Pacioretty-Tavares provides a lot of skill, strength on the puck down low, and finishing ability around the net, but the downside is that the line is a touch slow regarding the transition components of the game.
6. The 3-1 goal just a minute and a half later was a back-breaking momentum killer, and it was another cheap goal against from the Leafs perspective.
Jake McCabe surprised Auston Matthews with a bit of an odd and unnecessary between-the-legs pass into the middle of the defensive zone, but Matthews absolutely should’ve dealt with it better, as he had some time and struggled to settle the puck down, then combined with McCabe to lose the puck battle to Pavel Buchnevich below the goal line.
When you’re loading up a line with Matthews alongside Marner, needless to say, they shouldn’t have their lunch money taken by the likes of Pavel Buchnevich and Sean Monahan these past two games (outscored 5-0 at 5v5). Both need a response effort in Boston this weekend.
7. The clip of Berube yelling at Matthews on the bench will get a lot of media play for the next 48 hours leading up to the Boston game. It’s definitely not the best look that the new captain was involved in what his new head coach labeled a “lazy play” after the game, with the team now off to a 4-4-0 start, having just been outscored 11-3 by two non-playoff teams from last year.
Berube giving it to the Leafs first line 👀 pic.twitter.com/83qWZhic3t
— Spittin' Chiclets (@spittinchiclets) October 25, 2024
The bench reprimand is probably more than we’d have seen Sheldon Keefe do, but at the same time, actions speak louder than words. Against Columbus, Berube shook up the entire lineup except for Matthews-Marner. Tonight, Marner played over 18 minutes of his 19 and change with Matthews on the ice, as Berube again would only flip Knies and McMann on the other wing. They were never broken up for a single shift, despite Matthews making three mistakes in the defensive zone contributing to goals against, the two combining for no real scoring chances of note, and Marner throwing pucks away with impunity (#16’s best chance was a 2v1 where he was caught from behind, and his shift with 10 minutes left in the third was borderline bench worthy, given how careless he was with the puck).
We’ll see where Berube goes with it from here. He hasn’t lived the ins and outs with this team for years and should be afforded the grace period to see things for himself and come to his own conclusions, but this felt all too familiar. No one is disputing that Matthews-Marner can and will create magic together this season, but all the signs were there early on in the game — especially coming off of the Columbus debacle — that he needed to move away from it tonight.
8. With three minutes left in the second period, on a power play stemming from the penalty drawn by Lorentz, the Leafs’ man advantage had another opportunity to get the team back into it.
Little was accomplished, followed by a pretty quick pull of the top unit this time, with the main group leaving the ice around the minute mark. I’d have liked to have seen Knies and Domi with Matthews and Nylander for a PP shift; Knies is confident offensively and has been really strong battling around the net front, and Domi showed direct intent attacking the net and hunting shots tonight (in addition to dishing for some good looks). I wasn’t/will not hold my breath on it.
There was one more PP opportunity in the third period with the game basically over, but Matthews turned it over and also sailed a good look over the net. Nylander also didn’t cash in on a chance in tight. It’s as simplistic as it gets, but the handsomely paid leaders of this team need to say enough is enough, bear down on their looks, and get this thing back on the rails pronto. A couple of games on the road probably doesn’t hurt right now after the boo birds came out late on.
9. Relative to the amount of time William Nylander spends putting defenders in the spin cycle up high in the offensive zone, it’s very rare to see him turn a puck over in that area of the ice. Tonight, he did just that, and it ended the game under four minutes into the third period, as Jake Neighbours buried past Woll on the rush the other way. The odd-man rushes against were a few too many in number again tonight, be it off broken sticks (no one’s fault there, in Simon Benoit’s case), blocked shots, or turnovers high in the zone.
Woll’s performance was difficult to judge, given the season debut and the nature of the game and goals against. It shows as four goals on 27 shots, but it’s hard to pin any of it on Woll, and he made a few big saves on some of the odd-man opportunities. As good as Stolarz has been, it wouldn’t have made much sense to roll with him tonight and toss Woll the Boston road start as his first game of the year.
10. The Bruins and Jets matchups coming up after the two losses this week might sound daunting, but they also could be for the best. When the team hit its lowest regular-season lows under Sheldon Keefe, it always nipped a true, full-blown crisis in the bud with solid wins over high-quality opposition, and the Leafs have been a strong road team over the last year, especially at times of adversity.
Game Flow: 5v5 Shot Attempts
