The Maple Leafs’ modest three-game winning streak is over, but they managed to pick up a point from a game in which they probably deserved none.

For all the rightful consternation about the loss of Joseph Woll and the impact of his injury absence, Dennis Hildeby was the Leafs‘ best player (until the shootout). Unfortunately, nobody else in the Leafs‘ lineup came even close to matching Hildeby’s performance — in particular, the team’s top players — and you aren’t going to win many games when this is the case.

Back at home after a fairly successful road trip, the Leafs got off to a pretty good start to the first period. They had two early looks off Morgan Rielly’s stick; the first was a hesitation and cut-in where he fired wide, and the second was a backdoor play where William Nylander just missed.

Toronto’s third line generated a good look in the slot — Dakota Joshua got tied up — before a great Auston Matthews chance off the rush drew a power play. Predictably, the Leafs‘ power play continued to accomplish nothing, zapping some momentum from the team. 

Montreal tilted the ice as the first period went along, but they couldn’t generate anything of significance in a period that ended 0-0 with little in the way of notable chances or saves. 

The second period was a complete abomination by the Leafs. Shots in the period were 13-3 for Montreal, and that’s actually a generous depiction of the Leafs’ showing in the middle frame. It was the same old story with this team: can’t break out cleanly, can’t sustain offensive-zone time, and consequently, they were tilted for 20 minutes. The Leafs repeatedly dumped pucks out to center, and Montreal repeatedly reloaded and got right back onto offense. 

The sequence leading up to Montreal finally opening the scoring featured a calamity of errors by the Leafs. Before Troy Stecher’s penalty sent Montreal to the power play, John Tavares won two defensive-zone draws about as cleanly as possible, but the Leafs couldn’t break out either time. It has been a major story all season: The Leafs start with the puck, but they can’t do anything productive or intelligent with it. Eventually, after the Leafs were hemmed in, Stecher took a penalty on what was really a dive by Joe Veleno. 

Compounding the issue for the Leafs was that Stecher was now in the box, and Jake McCabe was on the ice for the previous sequence, so they pulled off McCabe and ran a confusing PK defense unit of Rielly-Benoit. If the coaching staff doesn’t think Philippe Myers can penalty kill, I’m not sure why he’s in the lineup; he offers nothing with the puck, and it’s not like he’s some noteworthy physical presence who instils fear in the opposition.

The Rielly-Benoit pairing on the PK went exactly as expected. Benoit is a fine penalty killer, but not on his offside, and Rielly isn’t a good penalty killer, period. The combination of both those factors led to the Leafs’ PK getting repeatedly seamed until Montreal scored a backdoor tap-in.

The Leafs went to a power-play opportunity of their own with a chance to respond after what was, truthfully, a terrible call. The power play was cut short by yet another Montreal dive, and the Leafs were able to send McCabe-Stecher out for the actual penalty killing portion, which they killed off with relative ease by comparison.

All-situations shot attempts in the second period finished at 28-10 for Montreal. The most positive thing you could say about the Leafs’ middle-frame performance was that the score was only 1-0. 

The Leafs came out with a bit more jump in the third period. After a Max Domi chance off the rush right away, McMann centered it to Joshua following another rush, but Joshua just missed. However, as has been the case all season, the Leafs couldn’t sustain much pressure. With 15:46 left in the period, they still had just 10 shots on net. 

Berube made one switch to shake it up, swapping Cowan and McMann. Cowan looked better on the third line inside third-line matchups, including sending OEL in through the neutral zone for a partial break.

The Leafs took a too-many-men penalty halfway through the third period, and while it felt like “here we go again,” the Leafs actually managed to tie it with a shorthanded goal. Nic Roy batted a puck out of the air on a play that might have been a high stick (I’d say it probably was), then sprung Scott Laughton on a breakaway, where Laughton wired a slapshot bar down to tie the game.

The goal went to the Leafs’ legs, and Dakota Joshua was robbed in the slot off a centering pass by Cowan. Dobes made the save of the game, but the Leafs generally carried play from there and out-attempted the Habs 18-7 at five-on-five in the period.

The overtime frame was cagey by the Leafs, who grinded possession, but there were two big chances to win it. The first was a borderline 2v0 with Nylander and Matthews, where Nylander shockingly decided to take a mediocre shot on net instead of passing, more or less summing up Nylander’s night. The second notable overtime opportunity was a 3v1 where Max Domi found Rielly high, but Rielly didn’t even hit the net with a shot when in all alone. It goes without saying, but Rielly has to at least force the goalie to make a save there. 

As for the shootout… Well, it’s the shootout. 

Post-Game Notes

– I felt for Dennis Hildeby, who ended the game by getting schooled twice in the shootout after a great performance. He stopped 33 of 34 in the actual game and made several big saves, including a big stop on Alex Texier at the beginning of the third period to keep the score at just 1-0. In the shootout, though, he simply looked like a goalie who didn’t have a proper prescout. Both Cole Caufield and Alex Texier have scored those goals before. Those were go-to moves for both players, and Hildeby got beaten cleanly on both. That can happen when there is a rookie goalie in the net who doesn’t know the league. Still, it doesn’t negate the fact that Hildeby was the Leafs’ best player.

– As for those who should actually be the Leafs’ best players, there were a lot of mediocre performances. William Nylander played less than Dakota Joshua at five-on-five and didn’t create anything of note. Nylander is now on a three-game pointless streak, and while I think something is off injury/sickness-wise — he clearly has no jump — he’s not even remotely engaged in the games right now. His partial breakaway in overtime had almost no speed to it, and that’s a situation where he usually pulls away. The shot he put on net was a weak attempt there, too.

And then there’s Auston Matthews, who did play 22:52, but once again, he didn’t pick up a point and recorded just one shot on net in the game. In one sequence, he walked in with time and space on the power play and passed out of it:

This isn’t a case of overreacting to one game at this point. Matthews simply hasn’t been good enough, plain and simple. The second-highest-paid player in the league has 19 points in 23 games. His line was fine in the game — they outchanced the Habs in their minutes — and he was solid defensively, but that’s not the bar when he makes that kind of dough. The standard is definitely not set at tracking under a point per game and spearheading a power play in shambles.

– Speaking of the shambolic power play, the Leafs went 0/3 in this game, including a power play late in the third period in which they recorded zero shots on net with the game tied at 1-1. It’s pretty clear to everyone now that Marc Savard is completely lost at the helm of the team’s man-advantage units. It is evident on the ice, and I doubt anyone would argue in his favour. Matthew Knies, third on the team in scoring, watched from the bench as rookie Easton Cowan (eight points in 20 games) booted the puck around on the power play late in the game and the top unit accomplished nothing. You’d love to see better from Cowan there, but you can’t blame the 20-year-old kid playing the 20th game of his career. It’s on the coaching staff to make sensible decisions and put the proper players on the ice. The Leafs are 28th in the league on the power play, and it’s getting worse by the game at the moment.

– Conversely, the Leafs’ penalty kill conceded a goal, but they got it back on their own and generally showed well against a top-five Montreal power play. On the goal against, a bizarre Rielly-Benoit combo was on the ice and was predictably torched. When their proper unit was on, the PK locked it down nicely. Scott Laughton has become a real driving force on their penalty kill with his anticipation and compete level, and his shorthanded goal was awesome.

– Coming off a game where the Simon Benoit–Philippe Myers pairing was out-attempted 19-1 in under 10 minutes of five-on-five ice time, they played just over nine minutes together and were out-attempted 12-2 tonight. Myers couldn’t handle a puck all night, and Benoit certainly isn’t going to lead proper breakouts on his own. The pair is getting routinely caved in while Dakota Mermis watches from the press box and any number of defensemen with a pulse play for the Toronto Marlies. 

When we look at the Leafs’ puck possession numbers in this game, McCabe-Stecher mustered a modest 14-17 split in tough-matchup minutes, and the Rielly-OEL pair was up 14-7. The other pair was completely tilted.

– Nick Robertson played just 6:58 as Craig Berube has simply lost him on the fourth line at this point. He wants to use that fourth line as a checking unit to help free up the Matthews line — fair enough — but that is not where Robertson excels. He deserves to be in the lineup, especially over Calle Jarnkrok, but it’s awkward.

– And then there’s Easton Cowan. Everyone involved probably needs to take a timeout and step back. I like Cowan — he’s been better than I expected — but he’s still a kid, and he’s playing like one. Against Carolina and Florida this week, he really struggled on the walls, and he was benched for a shift at one point against Carolina as a result. In this game, he was moved down the lineup. Yet, by the end of the night, he finished one minute below Matthew Knies, who has 28 points in 25 games this season. Those two should not be close in ice time, especially in a game where Cowan was actively shifted down the lineup. We already talked about the end-of-game power-play nonsense, too. Play your best players. Cowan isn’t ready to play 17+ in a big rivalry game right now, either.

– Another solid game for the third line, but I didn’t understand Berube’s plan here. They played all their minutes, essentially, against the Habs’ third line. Isn’t this a checking line that’s supposed to free up the Matthews line? At home, no less? The Roy line tilted the Habs’ third line and created some good looks. Nic Roy, in particular, was effective again and did pick up the assist on the Laughton goal, but the Leafs can’t count on this line to score every night. They can count on them to open up opportunities for the Leafs’ top line. Roy played just 48 seconds against Suzuki at five-on-five, while Matthews played 8:24. It played right into Montreal’s hands.

– With the Leafs’ loser point and the Senators’ loss, the Leafs have now moved into a tie with Ottawa in the standings. It’s technically true that they’re just three points out of a playoff spot, but both wildcard teams have played two fewer games than the Leafs, and Montreal (third in the Atlantic) is also three points up with a game in hand. There are four other teams between the Leafs and the wildcard, too. That’s a lot of frogs to leap.

The Leafs are still very much in the mix, but it demonstrates the hole they’ve dug for themselves. They will still need a winning/point streak of significance to firmly lift themselves out of it. They need to keep stacking points, and this week will be a tough one to do so with Tampa, San Jose, and Edmonton coming to town.

Game Flow: 5v5 Shot Attempts

Heat Map: 5v5 Shot Attempts

Game Highlights: Canadiens 2 vs. Maple Leafs 1 (SO)

 

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