NHL
The Leafs lost in Montreal on Saturday, their seventh in eight games. Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images
MONTREAL — The play-by-play of the first 13 minutes of Saturday’s second period between the Maple Leafs and Canadiens went as follows:
Shot for Montreal.
Shot for Montreal.
Shot for Montreal.
Shot for Montreal.
Shot for Toronto.
Shot and goal for Montreal.
Shot for Montreal.
Shot for Montreal.
Shot for Montreal.
Shot for Montreal.
Shot for Montreal.
Shot for Montreal.
Shot for Montreal.
Shot for Montreal.
Shot for Montreal.
Shot for Montreal.
Shot and goal for Montreal.
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Sixteen shots (and two goals) for Montreal, which entered the period with a 2-0 lead already. One shot for Toronto.
It was all but over after that.
Afterward, Leafs head coach Craig Berube still couldn’t understand why it snowballed the way it did.
“This is a veteran hockey team,” Berube said. “It’s inexcusable. And it’s on me too. It’s on all of us. We’re a veteran team … that shouldn’t happen.”
That’s now seven losses in eight games for the Leafs (1-5-2), the kind of prolonged run of futility Toronto simply hasn’t expereinced in the last decade. The only win in that stretch came in overtime, over a weak St. Louis Blues team.
The Leafs have lost all but one of their seven road games. Their season is going off the rails, if it hasn’t veered off entirely already.
“We’re not happy with not being able to really get things rolling,” John Tavares said after the loss in Montreal.
It was a loss that looked like so many others this season.
The Leafs started off just fine, well, even. They were aggressive, on top of their rivals. And then, boom, things turned. The Leafs came up empty on a power play and the Habs scored soon after when Jake McCabe turned a puck over inside the Montreal line.
Berube considered challenging the goal for goaltender interference but decided against it.
Less than two minutes later, a Noah Dobson blast that appeared to ricochet off William Nylander’s stick resulted in another goal.
Then came that second period where things went from bad to worse in no time, where any and all pushback disappeared. Another goal for Dobson on poor defensive coverage, a power play for Montreal, and then yet another after the Leafs simply could not regain control of the puck.
Josh Anderson’s goal came next, leading Berube to pull Joseph Woll, who was peppered and peppered to the point of mercy from his head coach.
“We were just giving freebies to them,” the Leafs coach said.
The pull was both a message to the team and an act of preservation, he added.
“I just don’t understand why we can’t go out in the second period and dictate how we’re gonna play the period,” Berube said. “They dictated the game in the second period. They put their foot on the gas and took it to us.”
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It felt like the Leafs were building the smallest sliver of momentum in the way they played in the win over the Blues and an overtime loss to the Blue Jackets. Nothing to get overly excited about. But progress.
Then, this, another one-sided loss in which the coach sounds exasperated — again.
Injuries are certainly having an impact, and might keep management from making a coaching change.
The Leafs played the Habs without Auston Matthews, Matthew Knies, Chris Tanev, Anthony Stolarz, Brandon Carlo, and Nic Roy. That’s two top-line forwards, two top-four defencemen, a top netminder, and a middle-six centre.
The result: A depleted lineup that struggled to take any kind of real shape. Berube couldn’t find even one line he seemed to like. The most that any trio played was five minutes.
And then came one more injury, when McCabe departed after he took a puck to the face. His absence, for even a game, would be disastrous at this point.
The Leafs were struggling in similar ways before the injuries, though. And every team is dealing with injuries: The Habs were without Patrik Laine, Alex Newhook, Kaiden Guhle, and Kirby Dach on Saturday.
Toronto should be more competitive than it’s been.
As they attempt to turn this thing around, the Leafs have no margin of error. Their soft, home-heavy schedule is done and they failed to take advantage. They’re currently the worst road team in the league at 1-6-0, outscored 32-21 in those games.
The next five are all on the road: opposite Columbus, Washington, Pittsburgh, Florida, and Carolina.
This isn’t getting easier. Perhaps McCabe will be fine to play against the Blue Jackets and maybe Knies is OK to join him. Matthews has been skating with the team, but doesn’t look like he’s close just yet.
Tanev will be out a while longer and so might Roy and Stolarz. The injured goaltender hasn’t skated with the team once since he was injured last week in Boston.
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Carlo is supposed to rejoin the team at practice on Monday.
The Leafs are in the unusual position of staring up at a lot of teams, not far from being at the very bottom of the Eastern Conference. This is foreign ground for this bunch. It’s not a good place to be. They can’t afford to be there much longer.
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Jonas Siegel is a staff writer on the Maple Leafs for The Athletic. Jonas previously covered the Leafs for TSN and AM 640. He was also the national hockey writer for the Canadian Press. Follow Jonas on Twitter @jonassiegel
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