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These are the kinds of games that should matter to this team.

The first matchup against the Blues didn’t go well, and sometimes you can chalk it up to “it happens.” But tonight, there was a rematch about a week later on Saturday night in St. Louis, and how they followed it up is noteworthy.

In the first period, it appeared to be a good effort, but things unraveled in the second period, and the team didn’t play a particularly strong third period. They did have a chance to tie the game against a St. Louis team that was missing its best player in Robert Thomas and was down to five defensemen after Phillip Broberg left in the second period with an injury, but the end result was a 4-2 loss.

Your game in 10:

1.  The Blues entered this game on a three-game losing streak, and when we add in their old coach coming to town, it gave them a clear sense of purpose and energy to start the contest. Both Morgan Rielly and Oliver Ekman-Larsson were recipients of crunching hits early on, and Jake McCabe also fought Brayden Schenn in a bout that did not go well for McCabe at all.

Beyond the physical play, the Leafs got off to a reasonable start, including an Auston Matthews chance off the rush in his first shift and a good chance for Bobby McMann in front off of a forecheck, although if McMann passed it over to Max Domi, he would have had an empty net tap-in.

At the other end, Kyrou couldn’t bury a wide-open chance in all alone. When the Leafs possessed the puck in the Blues’ end, they were able to create, but through the neutral zone, they struggled with St. Louis’ speed at times. It’s a theme to watch throughout the season; the Leafs are an older team and are not particularly fast, so quicker teams are giving them some noticeable trouble early on.

2.  Just over five minutes into the game, the Leafs broke the ice and took the lead in a sequence starting in the neutral zone. Marner applied pressure, causing a bad St. Louis pass for a turnover, which OEL immediately passed up to a Leafs forward (McMann). It led to the Leafs transitioning back into the Blues’ zone. Matthews gained the zone with speed, fumbled the puck, and then tried to rim a pass around the boards to Marner, which got picked off and cleared up the wall right to Conor Timmins.

We continue to highlight with Timmins exactly what he did on this goal: he got the puck to the net cleanly. He has a bomb of a shot when he has time, but he also has a nice snap shot he can sift through bodies. Getting pucks to the net gives you a chance, and that’s all Marner needed.

Marner tipped the initial shot, then kicked the rebound of his own tip back to his tape with an empty net to tuck the puck into. It’s a really good play in tight by Marner, and you have to appreciate just how difficult it is to do (tip, kick the rebound, control the puck, put it in) all in the span of about a second and a half. After starting the sequence in the neutral zone, Marner was rewarded with a goal at the end of it.

3.  After the Leafs went ahead 1-0, they controlled play and really poured it on, doing everything but scoring a second goal. John Tavares hit the post as his line generated multiple shifts with good zone time. The Domi line followed them up a few times by continuing to tilt the ice; on one occasion, it led to an offensive-zone faceoff where the Matthews line came out and executed a set play off the draw that led to a shot from the slot. OEL’s shot was also tipped just wide.

The Leafs were faster to pucks than the Blues all period and created a lot as a result. By the time the period ended, shot attempts were 24-13 and scoring chances were 12-4, according to Natural Stat Trick. Naturally, the problem was that they only held a 1-0 lead to show for it. That came back to bite them.

4.  The start to the second period wasn’t too bad for the first few shifts as the Matthews line won the faceoff and kept the puck in the offensive zone, and the second line generated an extended o-zone shift. However, the second line was caught deep in the zone at the end of their shift, and when the Blues transitioned up ice, Nylander was beaten down the ice backchecking. Kyrou was in all alone as a result, but Joseph Woll stood tall.

From there, the Leafs’ third and fourth lines were hemmed in, eventually leading to a Colton Parayko goal. The Leafs’ legs were tired, they were slow getting to the puck, and the Blues cycled it to the point, where Parayko had all the time in the world to uncork a one-timer past a screened Woll. The bottom six was a real problem in this period, and this shift/goal against set the stage.

5.  Five minutes later, the Blues scored again to take the lead, and while the goal itself was a fortunate bounce, the play was a byproduct of a bad backcheck by William Nylander. The Leafs were in a good position when the Blues attempted a chip into the zone:

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Nylander is in front of Kyrou (who is right behind him), and the Leafs are in good shape defensively. Instead of following the play and covering his man, though, Nylander drifts to the middle of the ice to nobody:

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Kyrou picks the puck up, tries centering it to Schenn, and it goes off McCabe’s skate and in. It’s clearly a bad bounce, but the defensive coverage by Nylander as the first forward back is so fundamentally poor that it should have never been a play that developed wherein Kyrou had all day to grab the puck, look up, take a stride in, and attempt to make a play in the first place.

6.  Suddenly, the shots were 17-8 for the Leafs, the Blues were up 2-1, and the second goal really seemed to take the wind out of the Leafs’ sails. Berube put L4 on after the Blues took the lead, and they were completely run over. The only reason the Blues didn’t score is that Kampf poked a puck away from a Blues player who was looking at an empty net.

I know Berube has to find a role for the fourth line—and they are supposed to be an energy unit—but right now, they are simply a bad line. As they were dominated on the shift, the Blues crowd piped up, and now the Blues grabbed full momentum that they carried over shift after shift.

It led to a Blues power play, and while the Leafs technically killed it off, the Blues gained the zone at the very end of the man advantage with relative ease and worked it to Parayko for another clear one-timer that he bombed off the post and in. The entry from the Blues was so easy; OEL did not maintain a good gap as the Blues were easily able to skate in, curl up, and work it back to the point. Considering the painful experience of watching the Leafs try to gain the zone on the PP, watching them give it back the other way is particularly tough to swallow.

7.   After they went up 3-1, the Blues clogged the neutral zone and made things tough on the Leafs. The Leafs did go to a power play to end the second period, and Max Domi had a good chance, but otherwise, the Toronto power play was once again listless.

To start the third period, there wasn’t much going on, either, until the temperature of the game started to ratchet up after Marner was smoked by Ryan Suter away from the puck and Matthews took exception, starting a scrum.

Good on Matthews for stepping in. I’ll take the penalty — especially this early in the season — any day of the week, but it was crazy that Suter also didn’t receive two minutes there. Berube was as animated as we have seen him behind the bench, and he was right to be. The team seemed to respond to the sequence; in particular, McCabe obliterated Texier, starting another scrum where Pontus Holmberg fought Buchnevich, which did not go well for him. Kudos to Holmberg for dropping them, but he’s not a fighter, and it showed.

8.   The Leafs pushed afterward and eventually went to another power play with a chance to get back into the game. Once again, it was unsuccessful. They are currently zero for their last 18, bordering on unfathomable. I will dive deep into it next week, but for now, we’ll just say even an occasional power play goal would make their lives a lot easier.

Luckily, the Leafs were bailed out right after not scoring by the fourth line, who scored a similar goal to the Leafs’ first one (maybe something they should do more of?). McCabe simply picked the puck up off the wall after the Blues tried to rim a clear and threw it to the net. David Kampf was standing in front and dug at the rebound, and it shook free to Steven Lorentz, who calmly collected it, pulled it around Binnington, and tucked it into the net.

It was a good moment in an otherwise poor showing from the fourth line, and it gave the Leafs some hope.

9.   The Leafs made a push after getting within one. Notably, Matthew Knies was stopped on a one-timer in the slot, and Marner had a down-low 2v1 where the pass was cut off. Marner tried to rip it shortside, but Binnington made a good save. Pacioretty also went on a nice rush after he stapled Schenn to the boards.

Otherwise, there was a sequence where Matthews simply refused to shoot while Marner kept trying to give him the puck. The puck was bouncing — he was likely trying to settle it down — but at some point, he’s the best goal scorer in the world, there is traffic in front, the team is losing, and he needs to shoot the puck.

The Leafs did not get a shot on net afterward, and the empty-net sequence resulted from Nylander not chipping the puck in, turning it over, and the Blues heading up ice for an easy goal to ice it.

10.  There are several ways to view this performance from the Leafs. They outshot the Blues 37-24 and both power plays went 0/4, but the Blues scored a goal exactly one second after a power play expired, and the Leafs’ power play is at the point where we’re celebrating them simply entering the zone cleanly or getting a scoring chance. It’s really hard to win in those circumstances.

Compounding the issue is a bottom six that is looking relatively ineffective. The McMann – Domi – Holmberg trio has not scored a goal this season, and two of those players have zero goals so far. They aren’t a great defensive line, and they aren’t chipping in offense. It felt like the top line would have to score, or Nylander would need to produce a solo moment of brilliance.

The Leafs need to assemble a third line that can do something well. While he seems to get a tough rap in the market, the reality is that Calle Jarnkrok can help. So, too, can Nick Robertson. If the coaching staff can’t put something together with the pieces in the current bottom-six mix, we’re again back to needing to split up their top forwards across three lines.

Game Flow: 5v5 Shot Attempts

Heat Map: 5v5 Shot Attempts

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