The Good, Bad & the Ugly In Maple Leafs 5-3 Loss to the Senators

by Stan Smith

The Bad

The worst thing about this game is the Toronto Maple Leafs lost to the Ottawa Senators for the third time in four meetings this season. As someone who lives an hour away from Ottawa and has been to many Maple Leafs games in what is now known as the Canadian Tire Centre, I love to see Toronto humble the Senators when they win. I also hate to see them lose to Ottawa.

Maple Leafs Mistakes

After Toronto carried the play for most of the first period, a terrible giveaway by Mitch Marner with everybody but Simon Benoit up the ice created a 3-on-1 for the Senators. Martin Jones made a great pad save on Mathieu Joseph but then lost sight of the puck. Claude Giroux found it, pulled it back and fired a backhand over a sprawling Jones to tie the game with just over two minutes left in the period.

That turnover and goal gave Ottawa momentum. The last two minutes of the period were spent in the Toronto end. The Senator’s momentum carried over into the second period and they took a 2-1 lead just over two minutes into the frame.

Lagesson Makes a Giveaway

This time William Lagesson turned the puck over when he attempted a bank pass off the boards to Noah Gregor that ended up on the stick of Jacob Chychrun. Chychrun chipped the puck up to Shane Pinto at the Toronto blue line. Benoit stepped up to prevent Pinto from moving the puck at the blue line, but Pinto was able to find Vladimir Taresenko entering the zone with speed. Lagesson was caught up ice on the play, giving Tarasenko a clear path to the Toronto net. Tarasenko beat Jones on his blocker side.

After Knies tied the game at two, the Senators scored two goals in four minutes to go up 4-2. After Jake McCabe and John Tavares lost a battle for the puck behind the Toronto, net the puck ended up back at the point where Pinto deflected a shot by Parker Kelly past Jones. Note: McCabe complained that he was high-sticked behind the Toronto net. When I slowed the replay down, it appeared the stick that hit McCabe was from Tavares. Right after the play happened, McCabe complained to the ref about the high stick. The referee pointed at Tavares appearing to say it was his stick.

Benoit Makes a Giveaway

On the 4-1 goal, Josh Norris picked off an attempted pass by Benoit in the neutral zone. He then carried the puck into the Toronto end of the ice and fired a wrist shot from the faceoff dot to the right of Jones. The shot went over Jones’ left shoulder into the top corner of the net. While it was a good shot by Norris, to me that is one that Jones should have had.

One of the bright spots for the Maple Leafs this season has been the play of Simon Benoit. He has played sound defensive hockey and has been a physical force for Toronto. This was a game to forget for Benoit as he was on the ice for all but the empty net goal for the Senators. The four goals he was on for were not all his fault. However, it was still not a good night for him. He finished the night at -3. Joining him at -3 were John Tavares and William Nylander. Tavares had three glorious scoring chances in the first period but failed to cash in on any of them. If he had succeeded, this game could have had a different look.

Also in the first period, the Maple Leafs thought they had taken a 2-0 lead when Morgan Rielly hit Max Domi with a backhand pass backdoor that surprised everyone. That included Domi. Domi managed to turn his skate to redirect the puck past Korpisalo into the net. Ottawa Head Coach Jacques Martin challenged the goal and it was ruled Gregor entered the Senators’ zone inches ahead of the puck negating the goal.

The Good

The Maple Leafs came out flying in this game. They took a 1-0 lead at 3:45 of the first period. Then Marner found Auston Matthews through a crowd in front of the Ottawa goal. Matthews one-timed the puck past Korpisalo on his short side to record his 42nd goal of the season.

Marner would pick up a second assist when Matthews Knies tipped his chest-high shot from the point down and past Korpisalo to tie the game at 2-2 midway through the second period.

Domi scored a goal that counted when he banged in a feed from Rielly from the back of the Ottawa net out front to Domi. He gave Korpisalo no chance to react to the play.

The Knies goal was his first in 17 games. Domi’s was his first in ten games and his second in 20.

The Ugly

The 21-year-old rookie Ridly Greig made a rookie mistake in the dying seconds of the game. With the Toronto net empty he took a pass from Pinto that sent him alone in on the empty goal. Rather than just deposit the puck into the open net, Greig let his enthusiasm get the better of him. He fired a hard slapshot into the net from about six feet out.

Showboating like that might be acceptable in Juniors but it is frowned upon in the NHL. Rielly let him know that with a crosscheck to the head immediately after the goal. Unfortunately for Rielly, he found out that crosschecks to the head are also frowned upon in the NHL. He received a five-minute major penalty and will probably face a disciplinary hearing for his actions. I would be surprised if he doesn’t get a game or two. I remember back when Matthews got two games for a similar check to the head on Rasmus Dahlin.

On the topic of discipline, I was surprised to see that Mason Marchment was fined $5,000 for his hit on Jake McCabe in the Dallas game. I said at the time I figured the hit was borderline. I guess the NHL figured it went over the line.

What’s Next?

The Maple Leafs have two days to prepare for a busy stint to come. They then play six games in ten days starting with three home games in five days. The first is Tuesday when the St. Louis Blues come to visit. They host the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday and then take on the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday.

After the loss to the Sens on Saturday combined with wins by both Tampa Bay and Detroit, the Maple Leafs find themselves tied with Detroit. These two teams occupy the two Wildcard spots in the East. Both have 60 points, one point behind the Lightning who are third in the Atlantic Division.

Joseph Woll Continues to Rehab

Joseph Woll continues to skate and rehab his high ankle sprain. However, the Maple Leafs placed him on LTIR this past week as a move to give them space to call up Max Lajoie. Head Coach Sheldon Keefe keeps saying that, despite Woll being on the ice he is still a ways from returning to action. The move to LTIR has no bearing on when Woll will be eligible to return though. He was hurt back on December 7th. The Maple Leafs would have placed him on LTIR retroactively back to that date. Woll is well past the 29 days and 10 games a player must remain on LTIR once they are placed there. If the Maple Leafs wanted they could reactivate him today.

With that in mind, it was interesting to see that Keefe gave Jones the start against the Senators. With two days after the Dallas game previous to the Ottawa game and two days before Toronto faces St. Louis on Tuesday, Ilya Samsonov could have easily handled the start in Ottawa. The fact that Jones did start might indicate that Woll will not be ready to go anytime over the six games in these ten days.

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