The Good, Bad, & Ugly In Maple Leafs 4-3 OT Loss to Bruins

By Stan Smith

The Toronto Maple Leafs battled back twice against the Boston Bruins to send this game into overtime before ultimately falling 4-3. It is the fifth time in the last six games and the tenth time this season that a Maple Leafs’ game has gone into extra time.

The Ugly

I’m going to start with the “Ugly” because the ugliness was a good thing in this game. The Maple Leafs have been known for scoring pretty highlight-reel goals. And Auston Matthews scores a lot of those pretty goals. Matthews scored twice in this game. The first goal got the Maple Leafs on the board after going down 2-0, and the second goal with 5.9 seconds left in regulation sent the game into overtime. Neither of the goals were very pretty goals. They were the type of hard work grind-it-down ugly goals the Maple Leafs rarely score.

On the first goal, Matthews Knies does a great job creating havoc in front of Bruins’ goalie Linus Ullmark and gets a good down low scoring chance which Ullmark stopped. After failing to score, Knies drifts back into the slot while Matthews knocks down a Boston clearing attempt. From the right point, Matthews passes the puck over to Simon Benoit at the left point. Benoit takes a few strides into the zone and finds Knies in the slot. Ullmark comes out of the crease and cuts down the angle of Knies’ shot but the rebound goes to William Nylander to Ullmark’s right. Charlie McAvoy gets behind Ullmark and stops Nylander’s shot but the rebound goes right to Matthews, who doesn’t miss.

On the second goal, with Joseph Woll pulled Nylander has the puck at his blue line with 17 seconds left. Nylander ups the puck to Calle Jarnkrok along the right boards. Jarnkrok steps into the Boston zone and dishes off to John Tavares. Tavares breaks towards Ullmark from the deep left side of the Bruins’ zone and carries it right into Ullmark. With help from Boston defenseman Hampus Lindholm, Tavares runs into Ullmark knocking him over. The puck squirts loose to Mitch Marner who calmly dishes it over the Matthews. Matthews, in the identical position he scored his first goal from, fired it home again to tie the game.

The Bad

Despite carrying the play for most of the first half of the game, the Maple Leafs found themselves down 2-0 at the 7:31 mark of the first period.

The first Boston goal was a laserbeam wrist shot from David Pastrnak that Morgan Rielly might or might not have gotten a piece of. Even with a slo-mo replay, it is hard to tell if Rielly gets his stick on it or not. Regardless, the shot beat Woll over his right shoulder. They stated on the broadcast that Woll may have been too far back in his net, but the replay shows he was at the top of his crease. To me, the shot just beat him. Rielly’s stick may have altered the path of the puck or at least made it difficult for Woll to get a read on the shot.

On the second goal, after Woll guides a Jake DeBrusk shot into the righthand corner of the Maple Leafs zone, Pastrnak picks it up and skates with it toward the point to the right of Woll. Kevin Shattenkirk sneaks down from the opposite point undetected by any of the Maple Leafs’ skaters, especially Knies, whose responsibility is to cover him. Just before Pastrnak passes the puck to Shattenkirk, you can see all five skaters for the Maple Leafs have their eyes on Pastrnak. It is not until the puck is on its way to Shattenkirk that anyone notices him. Shattenkirk goes forehand, backhand, and shovels the puck over Woll’s left shoulder into the net.

Woll has been the better of the two goalies this season. In his 13 appearances, he has allowed more than three goals only four times previous to this game. Of the 35 goals Woll has given up going into this game, I can honestly say I cannot recall any goals where I have thought to myself “That was a stinker” or “He has to make that save.”

Boston’s third goal may have been the worst goal Woll has given up this season. A point shot from Derek Forbort without a lot of velocity on it found the pocket of Woll’s glove. Woll failed to hold onto it though. The puck bounced out of Woll’s glove and dropped to his feet in the crease. By the time Woll realized he didn’t have it, Trent Frederic had shovelled it into the net. The lack of speed on the shot might have played a factor in Woll losing it out of the glove. That is a goal, I am sure Woll would like to have back.

The winning goal in overtime was as much bad luck as anything else. Nylander fell on the play to turn the puck over. Woll made the original save on a breakaway by Pastrnak and tried to prevent the pass from Pastrnak to Brad Marchand from getting through, but he failed.

I do have one question, however. Rielly came onto the ice as the turnover happened and tried his best to get back into the play. He also tried to prevent Pastrnak’s pass from getting through. The one question I have is where was Tavares? He was the other player on the ice. From the time Nylander turned the puck over until it entered the Maple Leafs net, ten seconds past. It was not until the goal was scored that Tavares appeared on camera. Where was he all that time?

Morgan Rielly has the toughest assignment of any Maple Leafs player. It was his job to cover Pastrnak. Pastrnak was in on three of Boston’s four goals, and Rielly was on the ice for all four of Boston’s goals. If there was one major factor in the Maple Leafs losing this game, it would be their inability to stop Pastrnak. Rielly has to take some of that blame.

The TJ Brodie/Rielly pairing was the only defensive pairing for the Maple Leafs to post negative statistics across the board. They posted 30% of Expected Goals and had 32% of the High-Danger Scoring Chances at five-on-five.

The Good

The Maple Leafs’ core four players were the team’s best players in this game. Matthews scored the two goals we discussed earlier. Nylander, Marner, and Tavares all played key roles in each goal.

Matthews has 16 goals in 22 games this season and is second in the NHL scoring, one goal behind Brock Boeser. Despite only scoring one goal in his previous nine games Matthews is on pace to score 60 goals this season. One unusual stat is that 13 of Matthews’ 16 goals have been scored in five games. He has three hattricks and two two-goal games. Matthews has as many games with three goals as he does with one goal scored. He has scored goals in eight games and is goalless in 14 games.

Max Domi finally scored his first goal as a Maple Leaf. With his dad being Tie Domi and his growing up a Maple Leafs fan, Domi had to fantasize about scoring a goal for the Maple Leafs. It took him 22 games to do it, but he finally did. You could tell by his celebration he was excited. Domi has been playing well since the third line of him Jarnkrok and Nick Robertson have been united. He has 11 points in his first 21 games, seven in his last 11 games. But, every player likes to score. This has to be a heavy load off of his shoulders.

With all the injuries the Maple Leafs have had on the backend, the top three remaining defensemen have had to carry a heavy load. Rielly has averaged close to 27 minutes per game in the last five games. Both Brodie and Jake McCabe have logged over 22 minutes per game in that same period.

Conor Timmins, William Lagesson, and Simon Benoit all played key roles in this game. According to Naturalstattrick.com, five-on-five Timmins was on the ice for nine High-Danger Scoring-Chances For and only one High-Danger Scoring Chance Against. When he was on the ice, the Maple Leafs had $83.5% of the Expected Goals. Benoit was also on the ice for nine High-Danger Scoring Chances For, one Against, and 67% of the Expected Goals. Lagesson was on the ice for five High-Danger Chances For, one against, and 56% of the Expected Goals.

If those three players can keep playing like they did in this game, it could take a lot of pressure off of management to make any kind of panic move to improve the defence.

What’s Next?

Although the Maple Leafs have played fewer games than every team in the Atlantic Division except for the Ottawa Senators, they have the next four days off. Keefe stated after the game that they would have a practice day Sunday before having a day off Monday. They would then use Tuesday and Wednesday to prepare for a visit to Ottawa to play the Senators on Thursday. They will then play three games in the next four days and six games in the next ten days. Three of the games are on the road and three are at home.

Despite all the angst in Leafs Nation and the criticism over their play, the Maple Leafs have only lost once in regulation in their past nine games. They are 6-1-2 in those games and have won 14 of a possible 18 points in that period.

Another Question: Why McCabe?

I think Sheldon Keefe is a good NHL coach and his record shows it. That does not mean I agree with all of his decisions. In this stretch of games where five of their last six have gone into overtime or shootouts, Keefe has been giving McCabe a regular shift in the three-on-three overtime.

McCabe’s strengths are his physical play and his defensive acumen. He has never scored more than four goals in a season and has only had more than 20 points in a season twice in his eight-year career.

I realize that Keefe is doing this due to injuries and a lack of options. The only other experienced option he has is Brodie. Brodie is playing big minutes in regulation and at 33 years old Keefe must be wary of overusing him.

Keefe does have another option. While much less experienced and coming off of an injury, Timmins’ strengths are his skating and puck-handling ability. Last season Timmins scored two goals and 14 points in 25 games for the Maple Leafs and then had six points in two preseason games before being injured.

I think Timmins would be a much more effective choice if Keefe wants to use a defenseman in the overtime. There is also the option of going with three forwards.

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