ANAHEIM, Calif. — Hockey is a game played on ice with a vulcanized piece of rubber. There are going to be bounces, and they won’t always be kind.
It is a sport that can leave you forever wondering if you’re doing the right things — or following the proper path — especially when you play four of your strongest defensive games of the season and still get outscored 14-7 on aggregate.
This is where the Toronto Maple Leafs found themselves as they pulled into San Jose early Thursday morning with the memory of shutout losses in Anaheim and Los Angeles still fresh in their minds.
No team has ever gone through a three-game tour of California without scoring a goal. Toronto needs one against the Sharks at SAP Center to avoid an undesirable place in the history books.
But this isn’t about offence, not really, particularly for a Leafs team that was until recently the highest-scoring outfit in the entire league. What has undone them time and again is horrendous defensive play — at least until interim coach Peter Horachek replaced Randy Carlyle last week and the Leafs took on a new complexion.
The one fear emanating from the visiting dressing room at Honda Center following a 4-0 loss to the Ducks on Wednesday night was that some of the commitment to defence might waver because the scoring has dried up.
You see, a few of the formerly frustrated Leafs players believe the group has taken strides over the last week. Now they don’t want to see those baby steps squandered by a return to old habits.
“We’re just telling the guys to keep doing it,” said goalie Jonathan Bernier, who shook his head in frustration as we spoke. “We’re playing better.”
This is probably not a popular opinion in an impatient world where everyone wants everything and they want it right now. But it is a sound one.
You don’t even need to ascribe to hockey’s increasingly accepted analytics to understand the improvement because the traditional stats tell the same story. Simply put: The Leafs have a better chance of winning games when they face fewer shots, and since Horachek took over they’re averaging 22.75 against — more than 11 (!) fewer per night than they were giving up through 40 games under Carlyle this season.
That hasn’t yet translated to many victories, but the law of averages suggests that it will even out over time. You just have to believe in the process and there’s no way yet to know how deep the Leafs faith in this tenet is.
It is always dangerous to react too strongly to one loss, especially with the way Wednesday’s game played out in Anaheim. It was a strange night.
The Leafs took two minor penalties simultaneously in the first period and surrendered a goal to Kyle Palmieri during the final seconds of the 5-on-3 disadvantage. They actually allowed another one to Hampus Lindholm on the same sequence that was annulled when video replay showed that Palmieri’s shot when in and out of the net quickly.
Corey Perry then scored a natural hat trick, but there was nothing natural about the goals. The first ricocheted off Cody Franson’s skate while the second came on a breakaway where the puck skipped by the Leafs defenceman and Perry appeared to be offside.
The third was into an empty net.
“Those are difficult situations,” said Horachek.
“That’s just kind of the way it’s going for us right now,” added Franson. “I thought we played a pretty strong systematic game. … We’ve definitely got some tough puck luck right now and it’s frustrating, but we’ve got to stick with it.”
At the other end, Ducks goalie Frederik Andersen was sharp. He denied Daniel Winnik on a golden opportunity in the slot and saw a dangerous Phil Kessel shot hit the outside of his net.
You have a different game if one or both of those end up in the net.
The Leafs would clearly have benefitted from being more opportunistic or perhaps getting a goal out of one of their three power plays. By Horachek’s count, his team finished the night with 10 scoring chances.
“The chances are maybe less, but we’re giving up a lot less,” he said. “I mean 40 shots (against) as opposed to 25 is a big difference.”
It’s the kind of change that will profoundly impact the team’s fortunes if it can be maintained.
That is far from a guarantee. The Leafs depth is getting tested after David Booth was lost to an apparent concussion after being elbowed Sami Vatanen and Leo Komarov sat out following a collision with the end boards in Los Angeles.
More importantly, this is a group of players that has shown absolutely no hint that it can consistently lock the game down over the past couple seasons. It’s reasonable to expect some slippage while this leopard tries to change its spots.
At the top level of the organization, there is a fundamental belief that it needs to happen now. Some of the men in the trenches recognize it, too.
“We were giving up 40 shots, we might score three or four goals, but you never knew if we were going to win the game,” Franson said of the first half of the season. “(Now) we’ve made a conscious mindset to get away from that. When you play structural like that in your own end … you’re tougher to play against and you don’t give up as many shots, but it’s tougher to get your offence.
“We’re in the middle of trying to find that balance between the two right now.”
Even if the path ahead is uncertain, the one thing we know for sure is that the answer to the Leafs problems isn’t reverting to the past.