MONTREAL — It came down to one period.
The Toronto Maple Leafs fell to the Montreal Canadiens 5-2 at the Bell Centre on Saturday, a loss defined by a disastrous second period.
The Leafs actually started well, carrying the pace of play and outshooting the Canadiens 9-3 in the opening frame. But once Montreal opened the scoring on Lane Hutson’s goal midway through the first, Toronto wasn’t able to get its game back.
Advertisement
What ensued was a fall expected from a team having lost their confidence. Montreal struck one more time in the first period and twice more in the second period, outshooting the Leafs 16-2, leading up to their fourth Habs goal. That marker finally prompted the mercy pull of goaltender Joseph Woll.
It is a familiar narrative for a Leafs team that has now lost seven of its last eight games.
“We just weren’t able to get off our heels there for a good portion of it,” John Tavares said of Montreal’s play in the middle frame. “And then we give up the early one, which really hurts,” Tavares continued. “That continues to feed life into their game and [forces] us to continue to have to dig out of a bigger and bigger hole. So, we have to do a better job of maintaining the momentum and then how we get our game going… the other direction and staying with it and battling through times like that.”
Advertisement
The Leafs clearly lack confidence during this recent slump. While head coach Craig Berube acknowledged injuries to much of the roster as a contributing factor, he seems to be out of answers when trying to figure out why the Leafs stop playing when trailing in games.
“What I’ve seen a few times this year is when we get down a couple of goals at times — this happened in the second period — where we go out there and we don’t play. We don’t play with any urgency or any confidence in the second period because we get down a couple of goals,” Berube said. “That’s an excuse all day long for me. This is a veteran hockey team. It’s inexcusable, and it’s on me too. It’s on all of us. And with a veteran team like that, that shouldn’t happen.”
This is essentially a plea from Berube to the leadership group to step up when times are tough—something they haven’t done. That’s fair, but there is no sign that a solution is going to come from anywhere else.
Advertisement
Toronto doesn’t have the assets or ability right now to make a big trade. They need help before things sink fast.
“This is what we have, and we’ve got to be better. We’ve got to be better. That’s the bottom line. I mean, we showed we could do it,” Berube said.
“These guys have been out for a while now. We played some pretty good hockey at times. That didn’t happen tonight. And like I said, we came up with that mindset in the first period and we did a pretty good job. But you can’t lose all the momentum because they scored a couple of goals. Like I said, we’re a veteran team and it’s inexcusable.”
The Leafs have now lost seven of their last eight games and fell to 1-6-0 on the road this season. That doesn’t bode well for a club that is about to embark on a five-game road swing beginning Wednesday against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Advertisement
Latest stories:
Why The Maple Leafs Are Swapping Sammy Blais For Jacob Quillan Ahead of Game Vs. Canadiens
