The Toronto Maple Leafs were coming off a 2–1 loss to the Ottawa Senators—their second loss in a row— heading into the game against the Minnesota Wild last night. However, the Maple Leafs remained first in the Atlantic Division with 62 points and third in the Eastern Conference.
Some good news for the Maple Leafs is that goaltender Anthony Stolarz practiced with the team on Tuesday, nearing his return to the lineup after being sidelined with an injury since Dec. 12. Max Pacioretty was activated from IR yesterday and made his return to the lineup last night.
Still, with all these injuries, including to key players like John Tavares and more recently Matthew Knies, the Maple Leafs need to find a way to put in decent efforts and win games as the playoffs get closer. Let’s take a look at the main storylines of last night’s game.
I’ll take “How to Score” for $200, Alex
A few games ago, captain Auston Matthews called out the fans at Scotiabank Arena for being too quiet in response to Ryan Reaves’ first fight of the season. That didn’t sit right with many fans.
Matthews followed those comments up with a zero-point performance in a 2–1 loss to the Senators, followed by deflecting the second goal of last night’s game past Joseph Woll and another zero-point performance on the night. Not a very good look after calling out the Leafs’ faithful.
But the Maple Leafs are noticeably scoring fewer goals this year. Other than the recent 7–3 win against the Montreal Canadiens, the Maple Leafs haven’t had the explosive offence that we are accustomed to seeing.
Max Domi has three goals on the season, with zero goals in his last 18 games. After a decent December, Nicholas Robertson has only two goals in January, with one goal for one point in the last nine games. Bobby McMann went on a seven-game pointless streak earlier this month. The bottom six has also not scored many goals this year, let alone recently.
If the Maple Leafs want to score in the playoffs, which has been a problem in almost every playoff series in the last eight years, GM Brad Treliving needs to address this as we head into the trade deadline.
The Swedish Connection
It’s not Pontus Holmberg’s fault that he’s playing up higher in the lineup than he should be with the injury to Tavares. Holmberg, who has played on a line with fellow Swede William Nylander for the last couple of weeks, has not produced very much offence. In fact, Holmberg is on pace for the worst offensive year of his career.
Heading into last night’s game, Holmberg had only one assist in his last 12 games. Even head coach Craig Berube called Holmberg out earlier this week saying he expects more from him.
Holmberg came through in last night’s game with an assist on William Nylander’s 2–1 goal mid-third period:
However, it was too little, too late as the Leafs gave up the empty netter while trying to tie the game. While Holmberg is playing higher in the lineup than he should be, and will be put back into the bottom six once the injured players return, Holmberg finally generated something offensively.
The offensive black hole that is the defence
Many points have been made about how the Maple Leafs are better defensively this year under Craig Berube. Chris Tanev and Jake McCabe have been absolute rocks on the back end this season.
However, the offence is non-existent. This was posted on last night’s broadcast:
| Situation | Goals | NHL Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 11 | LAST |
| Even-Strength | 9 | LAST |
| In Third Period | 1 | LAST |
| Game Winners | 3 | T-15th |
While the Maple Leafs have historically not had a very offensively-inclined back-end, this year is a whole new level. Last in the league with goals by defencemen with 11. Only nine goals at even-strength by defencemen.
The Maple Leafs need to either make a trade for some offensive defencemen, or change up the strategy in the offensive zone to allow the defencemen to be more creative. While the Maple Leafs defencemen are more active in games lately, they have a hard time getting pucks through to the net.
The Maple Leafs are losing out on a possible weapon on the power play (which is 16th in the league) or in tight games when down by a goal like last night’s game. The team cannot go into the playoffs with such an offensively challenged back end.
On to the next
The Maple Leafs lost their third game in a row for the second time this season after a mediocre effort in the first 40 minutes. The Maple Leafs play on Saturday against the Edmonton Oilers on Hockey Night in Canada. Given the Oilers like to pick up former Maple Leafs, perhaps John Klingberg will play against his former team on Saturday (and score).
The Oilers are second in the Western Conference and are chasing the Winnipeg Jets for first place. If the Maple Leafs want to bust their slump, Saturday would be a great time to do it.
