The Maple Leafs’ offense hit the skids in a low-event game against the Islanders, who were down to 10 forwards after the first period.
At five-on-five, the Maple Leafs generated just six high-danger chances (by Natural Stat Trick’s count) before garbage time late on, and none came from the top line in 11 minutes of Roslovic-Matthews-Nylander together. The unfortunate reality is that right now, the Leafs just aren’t getting the calibre of defensive play or the lights-out goaltending to grind out results when their stars don’t find the scoresheet.
The opening 40 minutes could not have been much closer overall, with the Leafs slightly edging the slot chances (9-8) and odd-man rushes (8-6) while losing the zone-time battle (17:56-13:26). The second period was considerably worse for the Leafs than the opening period, though; while there wasn’t a ton of quality among the shot attempts, the Isles were up 23-7 in shot attempts at five-on-five, and the Leafs generated very few scoring chances of note. The result of each period was the same, as the Leafs lost the first and second frames 1-0 and entered the third down two.
The Isles’ first-period goal came after a weird decision by Kirill Marchenko to turn back behind his own net when he might’ve had the Isles caught for a potential odd-man rush if he tried to turn the corner up ice with it (or chip it to the wall and turn up ice). He turned back and lost the puck, and Anthony Duclair took a pass off the wall and beat Sergei Bobrovsky back against the grain.
In a second period with very few scoring chances — the Leafs’ best look was a point-blank look for Marchenko in the slot off an Easton Cowan feed — they conceded a back-breaking goal with less than 1.5 minutes left. Gavin McKenna went on a partial break but didn’t test the goalie, and when play came back down the other way, Troy Stecher partially fanned on it when he tried to go off the glass and out. It created a quick 3v3 down low, where Morgan Rielly sold out on the shot block, Sergei Bobrovsky made the initial save, and McKenna turned away from the net, hoping to break for offense the other way. That left Bo Horvat alone to bury the rebound.
The Leafs went to a series of power plays late in the second and first half of the third to try to climb back into the game but didn’t take advantage of any of them. Their lone goal came on a post-PP shift where Jim Hiller threw back together the Paul-Sissons-Cowan line. They got a cycle going, and Sissons tipped a Stecher point shot past Ilya Sorokin. It was the kind of dirty offense the game was begging for, but the Leafs’ top lines hardly looked up to creating it.
The Leafs went to their third power play after the Sissons goal, where Marchenko, set up by Matthews, ripped a perfect one-time shot from the bumper that was bound for the top left corner but, excruciatingly, it clipped Sorokin’s stick knob. Soon after, with six minutes to play, the Isles all but put the Leafs away.
The Leafs were overextended on a minute-plus shift for Nylander, Blueger, Sissons, and McCabe-OEL (who were out for nearly 1:30). It all started after Jake McCabe, below the goal line, seemed to want to bump a pass off his backhand into the middle but had three Isles forecheckers overloaded in the area; the right play was switching it with a rim to the other side, but he froze, didn’t make a play on it, and got stripped. It’s been a constant issue for the Leafs’ blue line this season: bad reads, and can’t break the puck out with any real consistency.
The Leafs initially survived the pressure, but when McCabe moved it up to Blueger, he was gassed and couldn’t gain the red line or get it deep. It was right back into the Leafs’ end, where the Leafs were sucking dirty pond water trying to play defense. A tired Blueger didn’t pick up Simon Holmstrom, who made it 3-1, all but putting the game to bed, given how dormant the Leafs’ offense was.
Post-Game Notes
- Post-game, Jim Hiller dropped a “lack of fortitude” line regarding getting off the perimeter and to the inside more in this game, and the description applies in a few ways. The Isles won the clocked zone-time battle and still registered 11 more hits (29-18). They also only blocked four shots while shutting the Leafs down. 18 and change is the Leafs’ hit average per 60 right now, right near the bottom of the league. This has been a theme all season: It’s not like the Leafs are owning the puck all game, and yet they’re getting handily outhit regularly. Zack MacEwen did throw his first hit of note tonight, but there was nowhere near enough of it overall. Nothing was going on in the game; finish some checks, throw some pucks at the net, drive the crease, and see what shakes loose. Get some emotion going in the building.
- By Jim Hiller’s standards, the line blender was on low-speed tonight. There was the customary mixing and matching after special teams, and a few five-on-five McKenna shifts with Matthews later in the game, but he largely kept the top six together. I’d have liked to have seen Easton Cowan with Matthews and Nylander for a shift or two. Five of the Leafs’ seven high-danger chances, plus their one goal, came with Cowan on the ice.
- We’re nearing the point where the Leafs need to try a few different 11th/12th forward options over Bo Groulx and Zack MacEwen while John Tavares is out. Brendan Brisson has six goals and nine points in five games with the Marlies. Vinni Lettieri has nine points in five games (after a massive playoff last spring), and Luke Haymes is off to a solid start, too, with five points in five games. The fourth line has played a few good games in a row — it was the only one to win the shot-attempt battle in this game and drew a third-period penalty — so it wouldn’t be crazy to roll Duhaime-Bleuger-MacEwen again, but they have a top-nine spot open with the Tavares injury and should probably try some different options there.
- Important caveats: Neither of the last two losses are on Sergei Bobrovsky; you almost never win scoring one goal in this league, and there was nothing he could do about the Bo Horvat goal tonight. But if you put together a compilation of the shots that beat him from the last two games vs. Buffalo and NYI, it’s not like it’s a collection of breakaways, 2v1s, backdoor tap-ins, or deflections right in front of him. There are quite a few where he’s squared up to the shooter but gets beat — which will happen, but they need a few more big saves, too, and they definitely need Anthony Stolarz to find some early-season traction here with such a busy schedule kicking off for the rest of the month.
- After the infamous McBenching™, Gavin McKenna clocked 18 minutes tonight. Thought we got the full experience of an 18-year-old finding his way again. He made a few nice plays, gave a few pucks away, had a 2v1 look with Sissons, nearly got on the end of a rebound on PP1 after a Matthews one-timer, egregiously overpassed on a point-blank PP look in the third period, missed the net on a partial break, and needed to stop in front of the net on the Horvat goal scramble.
- I mentioned the bad reads and breakout headaches in the game summary; it was fitting the game started with a sketchy play where McCabe tried to bump it to the front of the net just as Raddysh was vacating to go behind the net, and Bobrovsky paddled it away. They’re often disjointed/not on the same page overall. The Isles were disciplined and above the puck most of the night, but there were also a handful of times when they had numbers committed deep and the Leafs just couldn’t cleanly execute a breakout to threaten them in transition. They’re stalling out a lot, and it’s really frustrating to watch.
- On a related note, here was Elliotte Friedman’s Headlines report about the Leafs’ search for defense help, for anyone who missed it:
Friedman: There has been a lot of talk, with Chris Tanev out — who skated today — about what they’re going to do on the blue line. There are a couple of things.
They’ve made it very clear they’re not interested in a band-aid solution. They have said they will pay a premium asset if they believe they are getting a difference-maker on the blue line.
Also, they’ve told people they’re not moving what they consider A assets for a B-level replacement.
They’ve also indicated that they would consider moving an older guy for a younger one.
That is what Toronto is looking at right now.
Game Flow: 5v5 Shot Attempts
Heat Map: 5v5 Shot Attempts
