The positive vibes for the Toronto Maple Leafs (3-1-0) took a pause on Saturday, as the blue and white lost to the New York Rangers 4-1 on Hockey Night in Canada. They can make that pause brief as they host the Tampa Bay Lightning (3-1-0) on Monday night, which happens to be the only Monday game in the NHL. The Lightning lost on Saturday as well and both teams look to bounce back. The puck drops at 7:30 pm EST at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. Will the Toronto Maple Leafs be able to prevail?
Key Improvements Needed For the Toronto Maple Leafs
After starting the season 3-1-0 heading into Saturday, many looked at the Toronto Maple Leafs’ contest against the New York Rangers as a litmus test of sorts. Aside from the Devils, their competition hasn’t been too strong to start, and the Rangers came to town as one of the biggest Eastern Conference threats to win the Stanley Cup.
The 23-24 President’s Trophy winners left Toronto with a 4-1 win, a score inflated with two empty-net goals in the final minutes, and once again, Toronto’s powerplay and offence could not break through in key situations. “We had opportunities,” Toronto Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube said when asked about the offensive struggles. “We had a lot of looks. We have to execute better on that third-period powerplay and the 6-on-5(that gave up two empty-netters).”
Other Areas Of Improvement
The goal-scoring will come around, and Igor Shesterkin, the Rangers netminder, is a world-class goaltender. The real concern continues to be the Toronto Maple Leafs powerplay, which is 3-for-37 dating back to Game 1 of the seven-game series against the Bruins last spring. Despite not scoring, the Toronto Maple Leafs’ PP looked sharp early in the game. “It didn’t look like they were over-thinking it early on. They did some good things, got some good looks.” Berube said.
It was at the end of the night with the game on the line that was the most disappointing. “The one that disappointed me in the third, we didn’t execute very well, our entries. We turned it over a couple times. When the game is on the line right there and you have the opportunity to tie it up, we have to have more,” Berube said.
Tampa Bay Lightning Are Still Contenders
The Tampa Bay Lightning started the season with everyone asking the same question as last year. Is this team that went to three straight finals, and won two of them, still contenders? Through four games, this team looks strong, despite a wild 5-4 loss to Ottawa on Saturday.
Kucherov has seven goals to start the year, scoring in every game to start the season. Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy is in midseason form with a record of 3-1-0, a 2.52 goals against average, and has started every game for the Lightning so far. Jake Guentzel looks good in his first few games with the Lightning, with one goal, five points, and a +5.
Tampa Bay has not made it out of the first round since losing in the Cup Finals in 21-22 and made it to the playoffs last year as a wild card team. The Lightning continue to retool on the fly, hoping to keep their championship window open for as long as possible.
Final Thoughts
Based on practice lines, Anthony Stolarz is set to make his fourth straight start for the Toronto Maple Leafs between the pipes. Max Pacioretty is projected to be back in the lineup after being a healthy scratch the last two games, leaving Ryan Reeves as the odd man out on Monday.
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