TORONTO – The Toronto Maple Leafs coaching staff had seen enough.
After the shutdown defence pair of Jake Muzzin and Justin Holl were caught on the ice for the Tampa Bay Lightning’s first three strikes, two at even strength, they were split up for the rest of the night.
Muzzin played the second half of the game with Timothy Liljegren, Holl with Kristians Rubins.
A rare evening where the rookies had to pick up some slack for the vets.
“We gave them too many rushes for free. It’s something that’s been creeping into our game a little bit the last couple of games,” said a frustrated Holl, following a 5-3 home loss to the reigning champs.
“I can’t blame Jake or anything like that. We both have to be better in some ways. This is professional sports, and some nights are gonna be like this. Obviously, it’s disappointing and never feels good.
“It’s disappointing because we know the recipe.”
The Muzzin-Holl duo kept its head above water during the Leafs’ near-flawless November, when wins flourished and records broke. But the pair struggled mightily in October and has stumbled again here in December.
It’s a sore spot.
And one that the players need to solve themselves over the next couple of months, or there could be a personnel adjustment.
Management made the much-debated decision to protect Holl, the club’s only right-shot blueliner with experience, during the Seattle Karcken expansion draft. But he was healthy-scratched for a five-game spell in early November, and was subjected to trade rumours as the team stacked points without him. He has one assist this season, and his confidence has clearly taken a hit.
As for Muzzin, his minus-2 rating is the lowest among all defencemen on a team with a plus-17 goal differential. Absolutely, plus/minus is an imperfect statistic. But the 32-year-old posted a plus-21 last season, and the off-nights — like this one — have grown more frequent.
Coach Sheldon Keefe avoided pointing fingers and instead criticized his back end as a whole.
“I thought all of our defence, for the most part, our execution was just off with the puck,” said Keefe, whose options are limited with Rasmus Sandin (knee) and Travis Dermott (shoulder) injured.
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Leafs turnovers in their own zone and the neutral zone fed one of the best rush offences in the sport. Toronto gave the puck away 14 times.
“You can’t make those kind of plays — spot them three goals at 5-on-5. The 5-on-5 goals are inexcusable. Those are gifts,” Keefe said.
“We made mistakes, and they made us pay.”
As we race toward Christmas, you can start to draw a hard line between the Atlantic Division’s haves and the have-nots. Not unlike the way Santa does between the naughty and nice.
And with so many Western Conference dates frontloaded on the Maple Leafs’ calendar, it was refreshing to see how the local heroes stack up against a potential playoff opponent like Tampa Bay — riding into town on a four-game win streak and out with a fiver.
So even though we’re still in early days here, and even though both sides are missing key bodies (Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, Anthony Cirelli on one side; Mitch Marner, Sandin and Jason Spezza on the other), every Blue vs. White tilt looks like an intrasquad game but feels like a measuring stick.
“Back-to-back Stanley Cup champs. They’re playing great hockey. I think they have that next-man-up mentality where they shift around their lineup, and they still play great. They’re an unbelievable team,” Wayne Simmonds said.
“It’s a huge game. It’s a four-point game and a divisional rival.”
So, although William Nylander one-timed a bouncing puck past Andrei Vasilevskiy and a pinballing Ondrej Kase scored two honest goals, pinch-hitting nicely for Marner on the power-play, Tampa held a decisive edge in smart 5-on-5 play.
That proved the difference.
Seize a lead on the road, tighten up around the net, and let the world-class Vasilevskiy do the rest.
That is coach Jon Cooper’s recipe when he’s short a couple all-stars.
“When you’re not giving up too much, you’re giving yourself a chance to win,” Cooper said. “We did a pretty good job of defending, and it’s basically how we have to survive here with some of our top offensive guys out.”
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With Marner’s return still weeks away, it’s abundantly clear Keefe wants his crew to take notes.
“They play hard, the way we thought they would in terms of counterpunching when we make mistakes. The biggest thing is their team doesn’t make those kind of mistakes,” Keefe said.
“They got those mistakes out of their game a few years ago, and they’ve won a couple of Cups since. Our team’s gotta figure out not to give up those kind of mistakes.”
Jon Cooper becomes fastest NHL coach in history to reach 400 wins (659 games), nudging out Bruce Boudreau (663 games). https://t.co/WTaVCK4lnY
— luke fox (@lukefoxjukebox) December 10, 2021
Fox’s Fast 5
• Light moment at the beginning of Toronto’s morning skate. Muzzin stepped on the ice and immediately slipped and ended up on his keister, giving everyone a laugh. He needed the trainers to attend to his skates.
Initially, it looked like someone had pulled the ol’ clear-tape-on-the-blades prank.
“No. We got too many injuries in the room already,” Simmonds smiled. “He got a brand-new pair of wheels on today, and I don’t think they got sharpened — so he wiped out. It was actually pretty funny.”
• Toronto’s trade of forward Kurtis Gabriel for Chicago’s Chad Krys Thursday appears to be a do-right move to give Gabriel a better chance at reviving his NHL career. Despite injuries and a rash of lost forwards (Michael Amadio, Adam Brooks, Kirill Semyonov), the rugged winger had yet to receive a callup to the Leafs.
The Kyle Clifford pickup was the death knell for Gabriel’s status on the depth chart.
Krys, 23, is a stay-at-home, left-shot defenceman in his fourth AHL season. He and Auston Matthews played for the same U.S. national team as teenagers.
• Team Canada hopeful John Tavares auditioning in front of Team Canada head coach Jon Cooper: two assists, 17-3 dominance in the faceoff dot, 69 CF%.
• There is no “off” position on the Spezza switch. The suspended forward put in a full on-ice session with the injured Petr Mrazek (groin) and Travis Dermott (shoulder) in advance of Toronto’s morning skate. He then joined the main group and participated in the morning skate as well.
• Dermott, Keefe says, is the closest of any injured Leaf to a return. His shoulder injury is minor. Ilya Mikheyev had another doctor’s appointment Thursday to examine the healing of his broken thumb. Both he and Mrazek are nearing full health as well and should get in a good, hard practice with the club Friday.
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