One night after their most impressive win in years, the Toronto Maple Leafs were thumped by the Columbus Blue Jackets 6-2 in Ohio, in what was easily their worst performance of the year. Former Maple Leaf James van Riemsdyk opened the scoring for Columbus, Mathieu Olivier had his first two-goal game in the NHL, and Daniil Tarasov had 26 saves in the win. For Toronto, Matthew Knies extended his point streak to three games with a goal and Nic Robertson finally scored his first goal of the season.
Familiar Habits Pop Up For Toronto Maple Leafs
At the end of the day, it’s one game and there are many more to come. The Toronto Maple Leafs have had an excellent start to the season, and the fanbase has been buzzing about how different these Maple Leafs seem to be. On Tuesday night, though, the old Maple Leafs reared their ugly head, showing there is still more to improve on.
This game did not “get away” from the Toronto Maple Leafs. They were never in it to begin with. Columbus was up 2-0 within seven minutes, 3-0 at the end of 20, and 5-1 at the end of 40. “I didn’t feel like we skated very well tonight,” Coach Berube said. “They skated through us all night. We didn’t win many puck battles tonight, didn’t defend very well tonight and that’s what you get.”
What makes this game frustrating for Toronto Maple Leafs fans is this team’s ability, historically, to play down to the level of the competition. They did enough to win against the reigning President’s Trophy winners on Saturday, they dominated a very good Tampa Bay team on Monday, and on Tuesday, they looked slow and uninterested for most of the night. “They brought their best, we brought our worst,” Toronto Maple Leafs star Mitch Marner said of loss. “No one is happy about that game. No one is sitting there with a smile on their face”
“Neutral zone was the Autobahn for them tonight,” captain Auston Matthews said of his team’s performance. “They were just coming in, flying through. — We just got our butts handed to us a little bit. It’s a busy week for us so there’s no time to sulk over this.”
Response Is Key On Thursday
Through the first six games, the Toronto Maple Leafs have been excellent defensively and have made very quick and promising improvements in almost every area of their game. So what’s the message after being embarrassed by a team you should beat? These things happen, so move on to the next one.
“We’ve been playing good hockey, we’ve been doing good things,” Matthews said of the team’s response. “These things happen some times. It’s tough, it’s frustrating. You hope it’s a one-off. You take what you can from it, the good and the bad, and you move on.” Matthews’ line-mate, Mitch Marner, had a similar message. “Flush it down the toilet. Game is over with, can’t do anything about it now. Get ready for Thursday.” The Toronto Maple Leafs are back home on Thursday against Berube’s former team the St. Louis Blues, the team he won the Stanley Cup with back in 2019.
Tough Night For the Rookie
Rookie netminder, Dennis Hildeby, made his second start of the season, giving Anthony Stolarz a much needed, and much deserved, rest. He made 32 saves on 38 shots in what was a rough night for the 23-year-old goaltender. Hildeby is destined for the AHL when Joseph Woll comes back from injury, which is reported to be sometime this week, so it’s hard to put much on the rookie in a loss like this.
On the one hand, when your team performs like this, the goalie needs to make big, key saves to give his team some life, and keep them in the game. As bad as the defense was last night, the majority of those goals were weak at best and needed to be stopped. On the other hand, the amount of high-danger chances and point-blank opportunities for Columbus was unacceptable, especially in front of a young goaltender.
Final Thoughts
As Marner said, flush it and move on. The Toronto Maple Leafs have two games in the next four nights with plenty of opportunity to redeem themselves. However, the negative reactions by the media and the fanbase are not overreactions. Unfair? Maybe. But for the city of Toronto, it is all about the playoffs, and being shown by the team why this year is different. As hopeful as their start has been, this game last night was all too familiar.
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