DALLAS – At least there’s no danger of anyone getting too carried away. Not after this clunker.
The Toronto Maple Leafs six-game winning streak came to a crashing halt on Thursday night and the Dallas Stars made sure the defeat was emphatic enough that no one in blue and white could feel anything but humbled. Not to mention a little embarrassed.
"It gets past the point of (being) mad and frustrated, it just gets to a point of disappointment and `what the heck is going on out there?"’ Leafs coach Randy Carlyle said of his emotions during the 7-1 spanking. "Those are the things that bring you back to earth in a hurry. This is the thud."
As much as anything, the game provided a look at what life might have been like for the Leafs this season had they not received such solid goaltending. It is one thing to monitor the stats and appreciate the work of Jonathan Bernier and James Reimer, but when they both play poorly it underscores how essential they’ve been to the relative success of the 27-21-5 team.
Of course, they were far from alone on this night.
Toronto’s top line had almost single-handedly fuelled the team’s longest winning run in eight years, but barely made an impact against the Stars. Phil Kessel, James van Riemsdyk and Tyler Bozak saw limited ice time by their normal standards and still ended up being on the ice for four goals against.
They were also held completely off the scoresheet for the first time since Jan. 9 in Carolina – another embarrassing defeat that players cited as a motivating factor behind the win streak that came after it.
"I think we just (need to) flush this one," Bozak said. "I think we’ve been playing well as a team and there’s going to be games like this throughout a year. It might help put us back to even-keel here – we were pretty confident and maybe a little overconfident after that win streak we had."
It’s clear that there is a narrow line between success and failure for the Leafs. After enjoying strong goaltending, excellent special teams and dynamic scoring from their core players for the last two weeks, all three of those things abandoned them in the Lone Star State.
The game turned during a disastrous second period that saw Bernier chased early after Valeri Nichushkin tipped home a third Dallas goal on just 13 shots. Reimer wouldn’t fare any better. He quickly surrendered a power-play marker to Shawn Horcoff and a short-hand goal to Rich Peverley – ending long scoring droughts for both veterans – before Trevor Daley made it 6-1 for the Stars prior to the second intermission.
"All good things come to an end at some point," Reimer said. "You don’t want it to be in kind of an embarrassment like it was tonight, but it’s just one of those games. …
"It sucks and all of us are pretty disappointed."
Added defenceman Jake Gardiner: "We weren’t prepared to play and they capitalized on it."
This had the potential to be a pretty good hockey game. At their best, the Leafs and Stars are both up-tempo teams with speed to burn and Dallas coach Lindy Ruff thought it might turn into a track meet. As it turned out, almost all of the action was heading in one direction, especially after Stars captain Jamie Benn and Leafs winger Nikolai Kulemin traded early goals.
The promise of end-to-end action quickly dissipated and the in-house operations staff made sure to kick Toronto while it was down – first putting a picture of the recently-arrested Leafs fan Justin Bieber on the scoreboard and later showing disgraced mayor Rob Ford.
That proved to be more entertaining than the "action" on the ice.
With the Olympic break fast approaching, the NHL schedule seems even more compacted than usual and fatigue seems to be factoring into games all over the league. Both Toronto and Dallas were given Wednesday completely off, but only the home team seemed to benefit from the extra rest.
"(It was) unexpected, disappointing, frustrating – all of those things," Carlyle said. "We didn’t really have anything going for a good part of the hockey game. … It was open season on turnovers and circling."
There will be no shortage of film for the coaching staff to break down before the Leafs wrap up a four-game road trip in Winnipeg on Saturday night. That game will feature a Jets team that has been rejuvenated since the hiring of new coach Paul Maurice. A visit to MTS Centre also carries some extra significance for Toronto, which has six players from that area of the world and Carlyle who considers it a second home town.
A desire to wipe the bad memories from Dallas should also be on the agenda.
This was the eighth time this season the Leafs were beaten by three or more goals and the second time in three weeks that they surrendered seven. Quite prophetically, Carlyle had said "we still have lots of room for improvement" after the morning skate at American Airlines Center.
You can’t argue with that.