TORONTO — Sheldon Keefe was ticked off.
But the head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs was careful not to criticize his own elite players too harshly after his club flipped a 3-0 lead into a 5-3 regulation loss to the Colorado Avalanche — coming up convincingly short in their first true measuring-stick game of 2024.
Keefe stickhandled around the issue by heaping praise on the opposition, a legitimate Stanley Cup contender led by MVP candidate Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, Cale Makar, and Devon Toews.
“When MacKinnon’s line gets out there with Makar and Toews, the calibre of play, that’s not the NHL,” Keefe said, in the wake of a second straight blown-lead loss.
“That’s another league.”
The Leafs, it was announced Saturday, will be sending four players to the All-Star Game. But outside of Morgan Rielly‘s remarkable first-period solo dash, none of them matched the game-breaking moments of MacKinnon & Co. on this night.
Each member of MacKinnon’s line scored, including Jonathan Drouin, who drew a penalty, then pounced on the power play for the first of five unanswered (one an empty-netter).
Toronto was facing a delayed penalty at the time, yet T.J. Brodie lifted his foot out of the way of an Avalanche pass instead of getting the whistle. A costly mental lapse.
“A freebie,” Keefe called it. “We stopped playing.”
Colorado’s second goal was the direct result of a tape-to-tape D-zone pass from Auston Matthews to Samuel Girard, who wears the wrong sweater and snapped one on net. Rantanen deposited the rebound.
“They took over the game,” Rielly said.
“It sucks, obviously. Having a 3-0 lead like that and giving it back,” winger Mitch Marner added.
Keefe argued that, despite the favourable score after 20 minutes, his bunch never truly had control.
The coach said only Max Domi’s third line was playing well in the first. And once things began to unravel, and the Avs gathered momentum from their superior power play, Keefe dropped Matthew Knies down the lineup and bumped William Nylander up to form a super line with Matthews and Marner.
Maybe going best-on-best with the MacKinnon group would inspire his own elite players or, at the very least, prevent the ice from tilting down goalie Martin Jones’s throat.
“Trying to get more out of Willy. Willy on his line was not good. That (John Tavares) line was not good for us at all,” Keefe said. “They didn’t have one good shift that I can remember, so I had to get Willy away from that.”
Two things must happen for the Maple Leafs to defeat an opponent as legit as Colorado: win or saw off the special-teams battle; and win or saw off the battle of the superstars.
Neither happened.
“If their best players outplay ours,” Keefe said, “you’re not going to beat that team.
“You saw what their best people did today.”
Again, Keefe took it easy on his own all-stars at the post-game podium.
He chose admonishment by omission.
“The top group they have, that’s big time,” Keefe said. “We just weren’t sharp.”
Toronto has now fallen to 1-4-1 in games when they don’t get a goal from a member of the Core Four, and everyone is well aware of the recipe in these parts.
While there is some credence to the argument that a lopsided power-play count (4-1 in favour of the visitors) played a factor, the better team was full value for its two points.
At even-strength, Colorado generated more high-danger chances (15-9) and doubled Toronto’s expected goals (4.00-1.97), per NaturalStatTrick.com.
Much like Thursday on Long Island, the Leafs’ special teams were rotten, their one power-play ineffective, their penalty kill hanging on by fingernails.
That said, there is no disputing Matthews deserved to draw a cross-checking penalty on Josh Manson, who delivered a vicious stick to the centre’s ribs in the third. No call.
“The ref told me he didn’t get cross-checked, he fell by himself into the boards,” Keefe said. (Again, he made his point without crossing a line.)
Nylander was more blunt.
“It’s a hard non-call for us. And he gets hurt, too, on the play a little bit. So, I don’t know,” Nylander said.
“We didn’t really get any power plays either. I thought that was a little bit unfair tonight.”
Sure, a little unfair.
But even with the missed whistle, the better team won.
Maybe why Keefe is so ticked is that this was the closest thing to a playoff-like adversary the Maple Leafs have faced in weeks.
And he watched his special teams vanish, his stars shrink, and a 3-0 lead blow up on home ice.
Fox’s Fast Five
• After trotting out Jones for a seventh consecutive start Saturday, Keefe conceded he would “need another guy” for Sunday’s tilt against the Red Wings. The busy Jones must rest up for Connor McDavid & Co. Tuesday in Edmonton.
Keefe declined to reveal, however, whether that guy would be Ilya Samsonov, who backed up Thursday and Saturday, or prospect Dennis Hildeby, who pitched a shutout for the AHL Marlies on Friday.
We’d pick Hildeby.
• In the past, Keefe has praised Tyler Bertuzzi–John Tavares–William Nylander as his most consistent line. Bertuzzi and Tavares operate at a similar pace, and both thrive below the dots. Nylander drives that unit as a puck carrier.
Still, the coach hints that, with a half a season to play, he’ll experiment by trying Bertuzzi with other linemates.
The left wing didn’t mesh with Matthews out the gate, but Keefe wonders if that was because Bertuzzi was still getting acclimatized to his new team. Bet on a reunion at some point.
• Eyebrows raised Thursday on Long Island when Keefe started Jake McCabe — not Rielly — with Matthews and Marner for 3-on-3 overtime.
McCabe soon forced a pass to a covered Matthews that resulted in an icing, then got beat by his man, Mathew Barzal, on the resulting D-zone draw. Bang. Game over. Bonus point lost.
“We have lost a lot of games in the first minute historically with Matthews, Marner, and Rielly together,” explained Keefe, whose club is 4-7 in games decided in the fourth period.
Keefe said defence coach Mike Van Ryn recommended McCabe as the best option to start overtime.
“You are hoping to get through the first bit, and then you can get into your lineup,” Keefe said. “It didn’t work out the other night. Some of it is historic and some of the things you have been through. Some of it is trying to spread it out a little bit.”
• [Insert eyeballs emoji here.]
• Forgot to mention: There was a John Klingberg sighting Thursday on Long Island. The injured Maple Leafs defenceman, who underwent season-ending hip surgery in New York, came to root on the boys in street clothes and crutches.