No Excuse for Another Collapse (Rangers Win)

 

Photo Courtesy of ABC News

 

 

The Leafs were coming off a wild win in St Louis on Saturday and would travel to Madison Square Garden to battle the Rangers. Reading the headline, you can already figure out how this one ended. Toronto has some real issues showing up on this road trip, each game on this road trip has seen the Leafs start great getting leads but for some reason they haven’t been able to hang on and tonight was no different.

 

The first started out well with Toronto controlling the play keeping the Rangers in their own end of the ice and it didn’t take the Leafs long to open the scoring, but Pierre Engvall would cause a turnover following it up with a backhand attempt on goal. Igor Shesterkin, the Rangers starter would give up a rebound and fortunately for the Leafs Ilya Mikheyev would capitalize on the rebound and chip the puck in for his 6^th goal of the season and Toronto would grab the early 1-0 lead. The strong play would continue, and the Leafs would be rewarded as Chris Kreider would get a tripping minor. With the Leafs on the man advantage after winning the draw Marner would send the puck behind the Rangers goal to John Tavares who would send the puck around to William Nylander. Willy would then send a back hand pass to Mitch Marner who would rifle the puck into the Rangers net doubling the Leafs lead 2-0. This goal would be the 8^th of the season for Marner and his first power play goal in two years and on this goal with the primary assist William Nylander would reach the 300-point milestone.  Midway through the opening period with the Leafs holding a well deserved 2-0 lead it would be the Rangers cutting the lead in half as the Leafs would fail to clear the zone and Greg McKegg would send a pass out front to Ryan Reeves who surprisingly was left all alone in front and his wrist shot would beat Leafs starter Jack Campbell for his first of the season and his first as a member of the Rangers. The Leafs would find an answer as late in the opening period as in the neutral zone the Leafs would counter attack with Marner and Matthews would come in on an odd man rush and Matthews would send a backhand shot into the pads of Shesterkin and the rebound would go too Michael Bunting and deflect off him and into the net for his 9^th goal of the season and the Leafs would head into the first intermission with their two goal lead restored wit the score being 3-1.

 

The game would completely turn in this second period as the Rangers would take over the game entirely. Right from the opening draw in period two you could sense an entirely different Rangers team and within minutes the New York Rangers would pull within a goal as Kandre Miller’s point shot would hit off the end boards and go right to Ryan Reeves who would chip the puck over the shoulder of Campbell for his second goal of the game.  The Rangers would continue to set the tone of this contest using their physical forecheck forcing Toronto to defend longer than they had hoped too and late in the second period the Rangers would manage to tie the game at threes as Dylan Strome would have the puck around the goal line and he would center a pass to Defenseman Adam Fox who snuck down low undetected by both Tavares and Kerfoot. Fox’s wrist shot would beat Campbell through the pads for his 6^th of the season for the defending Norris Trophy winner.  Toronto would head into the dressing room after forty minutes tied as for the fourth time in five games on this road trip the Leafs would see a multi goal lead evaporate.

 

The final frame would see mental mistakes continue for the visiting Leafs as midway through the final period Ryan Lingren would send a seam pass to Ryan Strome whose chip shot would give the Rangers the lead for the first time. Now trailing 4-3 it would be wrong to say the Leafs didn’t have their chances to tie this game because they did as they would outshoot their opponent in the third by a large amount. The Leafs would collect two breakaways in the third period alone as both Nylander and Engvall would be turned aside as Shesterkin continued to stand tall for New York. Chris Kreider would put the Rangers ahead by two as Jacob Trouba would send a pass to Kreider who some how was left alone in front of the Leafs goal beating Campbell for his 25^th goal of the season matching Auston Matthews’ goal total. Anyone reading this article in case you weren’t aware Auston was looking to match the leagues record for consecutive road game at eleven. The Leafs and their fans thought the record had been tied when just a few minutes later Tavares would knock down a lose puck sending it through the crease to Matthews who would direct the puck into the net with his skate. The officials would review it and decide that Auston kicked the puck into the goal so what was thought to be a record tying goal would be erased and the Leafs would remain trailing their Original Six members, the Rangers 5-3. Toronto would see any hopes of a comeback erased as late in the third period New York would win a draw in their end and Adam Fox would fire the puck into the open Leafs net from his team’s end.

 

Toronto would lose this game 6-3, now I know that this Leafs team will get out of this rough spot they are in because they are to talented not too but blowing leads like they have been  on this road trip is a definite concern for the Leafs and coach Keefe because earlier in the season really untill the teams Covid shutdown the Leafs could have a one goal lead at the start of the third and grind their way to a win. Now, for some reason on this road trip holding leads has been a big issue for the Leafs. For some reason Toronto seems to panic when they are holding a lead and their opponents know that this team is a fragile group currently and the opposing team knows that being down a few goals doesn’t mean game over because right now if you can get one goal back on the Leafs, you’re likely going to tie things up.

For the Leafs to get out of this and any fan reading this knows the Toronto Maple Leafs like every team throughout a season will have ups and downs they must just go back to basics. Earlier in the season when the Leafs had a lead in the third, they would grind the game down till the final horn. Right now, the Leafs when they have a multi goal lead like they have throughout this road trip act as if things are going to be easy and the goals are just going to continue. We saw this at times during Babcock’s time as bench boss and we have seen it occasionally under Sheldon Keefe. Don’t get me wrong this Leaf team continues to show promise and upside and personally I think this year’s team is better than the North Division winning team last year. For this team to regain their confidence and swagger again they must keep things simple. Don’t look for the fancy highlight play forcing a pass sometimes playing old school chip and chase hockey can help bring success. I know there is still plenty of time left in the season but if this Leaf team wants to be taken seriously when the tournament starts in May the Leafs have to get back to grinding their way to victories like they did prior to their shutdown recovering from Covid.

The Leafs had left some valuable points on the table as their record on this road trip falls to 2-2-1 but they get a chance to finish this six-game road swing positively and with a winning record as they travel to Long Island for a meeting with the Islanders and the last time these teams squared off the Leafs came away with a 3-0 victory.

Although I am frustrated with this result I am confident that this team will get back on track but things will surely be challenging because I realized now that I forgot to mention that Justin Holl and Ondrej Kase have been in covid protocol and remain in Arizona and Jake Muzzin will be out for at least a week as he was diagnosed with a concussion during the St Louis game meaning that an inexperienced defense group for the Leafs is going to be tested for a little while. Again, although this loss is frustrating, I am confident in this group and know they will turn this rough patch around.

Before I wrap this one up I want to mention that I have started an Instagram account strictly for my blog just search boyerfromthebenchblog and that account will have all future articles for this blog, thanks as always for reading.