The Maple Leafs made a game of it with a big third-period push, but two largely underwhelming periods and a decisive special-teams deficit left them chasing a Utah team that was far more structured and connected over the first 40 minutes.
The first period was really ugly for the Leafs. Toronto was out-attempted 23–7, struggled badly on breakouts, and generated little sustained offensive-zone time outside of a few lunch-pail shifts from the fourth line. Utah gifted the Leafs two offensive-zone penalties, but the power play produced nothing. They almost got out of it with the game scoreless, but with less than 30 seconds remaining, Dylan Guenther beat Sergei Bobrovsky with a shot from up high on the power play. Jake McCabe couldn’t get into the lane, and Bobrovsky didn’t pick it up until too late.
The first half of the second period was largely more of the same, with Utah holding a 23–13 advantage in shot attempts over the middle frame, although Auston Matthews started to make things happen in the latter half by forcing turnovers and creating looks. His work helped produce the tying goal after a sequence that nearly put Toronto further behind. Troy Stecher was beaten off the rush as Utah struck its third post of the game, before the Leafs transitioned the other way with both defensemen joining the attack. OEL found Stecher for a great opportunity, only for Stecher’s stick to snap at the key moment. Matthews then recovered the puck down low and centered it to Jack Roslovic, who buried the chance.
Four minutes later, Utah restored its lead on an Andrew Peeke point-shot goal that, to me, clearly warranted a coach’s challenge (we’ll get into that more in-depth in the notes). The coach’s challenge decision wasn’t the main story through 40 minutes, though. A very good five-on-five team was outclassing the Leafs, moving together in a more connected fashion through all three zones while Toronto often struggled to execute basic puck plays.
The Leafs finally found their legs and rhythm to start the third. Through the first half of the period, they were winning battles, pushing play, and putting Utah under sustained pressure. Matthews created the equalizer with a heads-up pass; an injured Cooley was slow getting off the ice, and Matthews nicely picked out Roslovic streaking into space. Roslovic has been close to automatic with clean looks, and he was clinical again here in alone.
The period/game turned shortly afterward on a frustrating sequence for the Leafs. On a nice setup play by Gavin McKenna, William Nylander had a great chance but partially fanned on it and missed the net by several feet, and then Darren Raddysh was assessed a cross-checking penalty at the other end. Raddysh went overboard and earned a call, but to me, it should have been offsetting minors, with Hayton also penalized for grabbing and holding onto Raddysh’s stick.
On the ensuing kill, Chris Tanev failed to clear roughly 50 seconds in, leaving the Leafs’ PK unit exhausted. Colton Sissons and Teddy Blueger no longer had the legs to close down the puck up top, allowing Mikhail Sergachev to set up Clayton Keller at the backdoor. Bobrovsky got across for a fantastic first save, but Utah got to the loose puck in the crease first against a tired McCabe-Tanev pairing and took the lead for good.
The Leafs genuinely threatened at six-on-five — with McKenna, in particular, asserting himself and dishing the puck nicely — including a prime Nylander chance that went through Sebastian Cossa’s legs but caught enough of him (and the post) to stay out. It was a good late push, but the Leafs left themselves behind the eight ball after spending most of the first two periods chasing the game. Relying only on opportunistic offense and winning the special teams battle (which was 2-0 Utah tonight) isn’t a sustainable recipe, as they have to start controlling games at five-on-five better over 60 minutes.
Post-Game Notes
- A true 60-minute performance is something every team chases and rarely achieves in the strictest definition of the phrase. But in the four games since their excellent win in Edmonton, the Leafs haven’t come remotely close to one. This is a good Utah team, and the Leafs were playing the dreaded first game back after a Western road trip, but they had an off day and a practice day to shake off the jet lag and get situated back at home. In the last few days, there was a lot of talk about generating more offensive-zone time and cleaning up neutral-zone turnovers now that practice time is available. The Leafs were decidedly poor in both of those areas for much of the first 40 minutes. Frankly, they were largely outclassed at five-on-five until they entered the third period trailing, and it easily could’ve/should’ve been by more than one goal at that point. This is a tough six-game homestand in terms of strength of competition, and this should be a wake-up call ahead of a few practice days followed by a massive game against Montreal on Saturday.
- At the same time, we are clearly seeing the difficulties of the Leafs missing two of their top-six forwards, as they’re struggling to put together a functioning middle six in between their top line and fourth line. With the top line on the ice tonight, the Leafs were up 2-0 in goals, 18-10 in shot attempts, and 10-5 in home-plate shot attempts at five-on-five. With the top line off the ice, the shot attempts were 49-30 for Utah, and the home-plate shot attempts were 21-8. Nick Paul can’t be the second-best player on a second line while playing center (he was really fighting the puck at times tonight, leading to a bad penalty in one instance), and Colton Sissons is quite handy in his appropriate role but is playing too much with skilled players generally (he killed a promising McKenna-Nylander rush at one point at the offensive blue line). Every team would face serious challenges without two top-six forwards like Marchenko and Tavares, but at the same time, you wish the structure of their five-on-five play could help them through it rather than actively hurting them.
- The McKenna-Sissons-Lettieri line was out-attempted 9-0 in just 3:20 together at five-on-five. That speaks for itself. It’s pretty wild the Leafs aren’t trying a Marlie other than Lettieri on that line. I also won’t pretend there is a clear and obvious solution as it stands, other than hoping John Tavares is ready for Saturday, but I think I would’ve tried to find a way to keep Joshua with Sissons and McKenna after the Vancouver game.
- I don’t want to make this fully about Jim Hiller’s challenge call, or lack thereof, knowing this is a very fuzzy grey area in the league’s rulebook, as the league is in a maddening spot where no one can clearly define what is and isn’t goaltending interference at this point. But to me, Sergei Bobrovsky had established his position at the top of the crease when Hayton skated into his side, clearly impeding his ability to make the save. The contact happened outside the crease, but that alone doesn’t (or shouldn’t) make it incidental. This wasn’t Bobrovsky pushing out to challenge a shot and colliding with a forward who had equal claim to that ice; Hayton had every opportunity to take a path in front of Bobrovsky instead of through him. I understand the uncertainty of a league review that must decisively overturn a good-goal call on the ice, and the danger of Utah’s power play, but passing on that challenge was a clear miss for me (and won’t do much to dispel Hiller’s reputation for dubious challenge decisions under pressure). I think most would’ve fully defended a challenge call even if the league got it wrong, and the Leafs’ PK, its recent regression aside, has generally been able to step up.
- This has been an underwhelming start to the season from Sergei Bobrovsky but also a tough-luck one. Multiple times now, his better performances (thinking back to the loss to Vegas in a similar vein) have lined up with particularly poor games from the team around him; plus, he got screwed tonight on the lack of a goalie interference call. This was a good performance: he faced a ton of volume in the first 40 minutes, and to me, he looked good while allowing just one legal goal on those 30 Utah shots/48 Utah shot attempts over the first two periods.
- With the game at 2-2, the third period turned on the Darren Raddysh penalty, and credit to Raddysh for straight-up owning it in the post-game comments. He can’t get baited into one there, given the game’s current state (tied in the third) and the team’s momentum at the time. I feel for him, though, as Hayton clearly latched onto his stick as Raddysh was trying to get back into a position to defend. It should’ve been offsetting minors. It’s crazy Hayton didn’t see the inside of the penalty box in this game.
- We’ll end on a positive note: With two goals tonight (both excellent finishes), Jack Roslovic is now fourth in the NHL, tied with Connor McDavid, in even-strength goals (eight) and seventh in even-strength points (16), one behind Auston Matthews for the team lead/sixth in the NHL.
Game Flow: 5v5 Shot Attempts
Heat Map: 5v5 Shot Attempts
