“You can tell we aren’t playing with a ton of confidence right now,” Jake McCabe commented in his post-game interview Sunday after the Leafs’ 4–1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche.
The Toronto Maple Leafs fans who trudged through Ontario’s biggest snowstorm of the season to get to Scotiabank Arena arguably put up a bigger battle against an avalanche than the Leafs did. Then, two days later, in the most important game of the season, the Leafs gave up seven goals to the Buffalo Sabres.
The Maple Leafs were dominated by the Colorado Avalanche and the Sabres, their losing streak now at five.
The opening Colorado goal was right after a lost turnover from McCabe, and in regular Maple Leafs fashion, the team’s confidence visibly dropped for the rest of the game. Max Domi snagged a power play goal near the end of the third period, at least avoiding the team being shut out at home.
On paper, Sunday and Tuesday’s games were fairly evenly matched. There is no excuse for the Leafs to be this much worse than Buffalo, and they should at least be competitive with the Avalanche. They beat Colorado just two weeks ago!
Lack of defence
Not all of the Leafs’ best defencemen have had much ice time this season. Chris Tanev has only played eleven games, and there’s a good chance he’s out for the rest of the season. Carlo, whose trade has been much debated as Fraser Minten continues to log points with the Bruins, missed 23 games this season before returning on Jan. 6. Frankly, the team has been relying on Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who, although he has generally similar stats to Rielly this season, has seemed much more present on the ice with triple the amount of hits (and Benoit will double Ekman-Larsson’s).
Ekman-Larsson’s stats are obviously standing tall next to Benoit’s, with his plus-minus of +2 compared to Benoit’s -5. McCabe only has 17 points to OEL’s 32, but is sitting at a plus-minus of +14. Rielly has the worst plus-minus of the Leafs’ defence (and is the team’s worst in the league) at -14.
A tired, old roster
Is Morgan Rielly a ghost this season? This seems to be one of the Leafs’ fans’ resounding complaints this season, and in seasons past. Rielly’s contract is cozy, not expiring until 2030, with a great no movement clause to keep him comfortable here. We mentioned earlier this week that it would have been great to see Rielly, our longest tenured Leaf, score against the Golden Knights.
As often becomes the complaint about tenured professors at universities, the job security might be…. a little too secure. Is that mean to say? Probably. I want Rielly to feel like a reliable, solid player who has been fighting with this team for the past 13 seasons. That said, after 13 seasons, we may not be seeing that fight we want from the defence. I’m not in that locker room, and I don’t like it when fans pretend to be. I’m not saying he’s not fighting (his attempted block at the top of the third could have been beautiful), but I think we deserve players who we don’t have to question whether or not they’re fighting for us.
The same could be said about Max Domi, who, despite Sunday’s goal, has a plus-minus of -16, the worst on the roster this season, only marginally worse than Morgan Rielly. Max Domi has been consistently playing in the first line this season, trying to fill out the Marner gap
Not helping the goalies
Against the Avalanche Sunday afternoon, Joseph Woll was once again left without a strong line of defence in front of him, letting in four goals. Then on Tuesday, he gave up six. The most interesting play by the Maple Leafs over the last two weeks was Nylander flipping the camera the bird from the press box. T
The New Year’s magic we were seeing at the beginning of the month is gone. And after a devastating loss to the Sabres, the season probably is, too.
