NEW YORK – For all of the turbulence that greeted the Toronto Maple Leafs during an up-and-down opening stretch to the season, the 39 games before the Christmas break basically amounted to this: three more losses than wins.
Of course, five of those outings came with a loser point attached so Toronto’s 18-16-5 record was good enough to hold down the last wild card spot in the Eastern Conference with the NHL now on hiatus for 72 hours. But just barely.
A 2-1 shootout loss to the New York Rangers on Monday night basically encapsulated the Leafs season to date. There were some early signs of good play before a 15-minute stretch without so much as a shot on goal, but the team managed to escape with one point in the standings because of some spectacular goaltending.
A slightly new twist arrived at Madison Square Garden, where the referees failed to blow the play dead before Nazem Kadri poked the puck past Cam Talbot with just 1:24 left in regulation. The Rangers were furious because they felt the rookie goaltender had it frozen before the Leafs centre swooped in for his 11th goal of the year.
The home team’s concerns were assuaged slightly after seeing Mats Zuccarelo and Derek Stepan beat Jonathan Bernier during the shootout. It felt like a just result all around.
Despite another loss – Toronto’s 12th in 16 games overall – there almost seemed to be a sense of relief while the players packed up and started exchanging Christmas wishes before heading their separate ways. You got the feeling that the break couldn’t have come at a better time.
“It’s been a real hectic schedule here for the last three weeks, I’ll tell you that,” said coach Randy Carlyle. “It seems like we play every second day and there’s no relaxing time and there’s very limited practice time. The day between games you’re trying to figure out if you should be doing more work or (resting).
“It’s made for a difficult time for our hockey club, but our goaltenders have sure given us a chance.”
Amazingly, the team has given up nine more shots than it has taken on average and still has its head above water. No wonder the Leafs sport the NHL’s fifth best save percentage despite giving up more goals than all but nine teams.
Unless the trends can be reversed, this will catch up to them – even in an Eastern Conference that is weaker than its big brother out West.
Carlyle would admit as much himself. During the most recent episode of HBO’s “24/7” we saw a Leafs coach that was practically begging his players to dig deep and find another gear. While the team managed to produce a few good games recently, it hasn’t shown it can do it with any regularity.
“Average” was the word Kadri used to describe the team’s overall performance so far.
“We’ve been good and then we’ve been not so good,” he said. “The bottom line is that we’ve got to find consistency. In this league, you’ve got to win a few games in a row to kind of give yourself some breathing room.
“We’re going to take these couple days to kind of just relax and breathe and come back ready to work.”
Perhaps they’ll take some time to reflect on Monday’s game. Facing a Rangers team that was playing on back-to-back nights and has endured its own recent spate of poor play, the Leafs came out with speed and put in a good opening 20 minutes.
The yarn started unraveling near the midway point of the game when an exhausted group of Toronto players got pinned in their own zone for an extended period of time. Captain Dion Phaneuf was on the ice for almost three straight minutes during that stretch and saw the Rangers pour five shots on goal.
That was immediately followed by a couple of Leafs penalties and suddenly New York had all the momentum. It outshot Toronto 22-5 in the frame.
“I was just trying to breathe,” said Bernier. “It was actually hot (in the building). I just felt exhausted after the second.”
If not for him, the score certainly wouldn’t have been 0-0 heading to the final period. And it wouldn’t have been 2-1 at the end of the night either. Bernier has played only slightly more than half the games so far, but has already faced more rubber than any previous season in his NHL career.
However, he’s trying to remain positive right now and believes that the team will benefit from the slightly easier schedule ahead.
“We’ve got to find a way to win more games,” said Bernier. “I thought that was probably our toughest stretch of the season so that’s good that it’s over.”
Carlyle seems to be banking on the same thing.
“This is the dog days of hockey when you get close to the 40-game mark and you’ve got to find new ways to generate some energy,” he said.
That shouldn’t be too hard when everyone reconvenes at Air Canada Centre on Dec. 27. The Winter Classic will be right around the corner by then. And with 107,000 fans expected for the New Year’s Day outdoor game against Detroit at The Big House – many of whom will be wearing blue and white – the Leafs won’t want to fall flat on the big stage.