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TORONTO – You can feel it all going off the rails. The whole thing is tilting a little bit more, night after night. Ants began to lose their purchases.
It was just an adjustment period, some understandable growing pains after an offseason that came with significant changes. Then just a slow start, the pain is just a little longer than expected. Now, here it is – the losses continue to pile up, injuries take out key names from every position, and a team that has been off its game since the first night of the campaign.
The latest episode: A fourth straight loss, this one at the hands of the Los Angeles Kings, who stormed into Scotiabank Arena on Thursday night, enduring an early show of promise from the home side before finally turning it around and leaving town with an overtime victory.
“We only have to play 60 (minutes),” defender Simon Benoit said from the locker room after settling in for the Kings’ 4-3 win. “I mean, we had the lead. We’ve got to keep the lead there. We’ve just got to close them out. They’re a good team, obviously. But in my book, that’s not acceptable. We’ve got to hold on and get those two points.”
It was a problem that got him into blue and white twice.
After the all-too-familiar criticism of a slow start, the Maple Leafs came out of the gates with a little better bounce Thursday night, Bobby McMann drawing first blood eight minutes in and John Tavares adding a second to give his squad a two-goal lead.
Fifteen minutes later, it was all even, as LA’s Warren Fogel and Kevin Fiala ended the advantage. Tavares wrestled it back for the home side, scoring another late goal to give Toronto the lead. second interval
And again, the Kings responded, with seven minutes left in the third as Alex LeFriere cleared the boards courtesy of Talley. By the time the tying goal had found its way past Dennis Heldby, the comeback was starting to feel inevitable, with LA outscoring Toronto 30-13 at that point.
The Kings put them away 35 seconds into overtime, with Quinton Byfield cashing in a game-clinching, night-ending one-timer from the right circle.
“I liked our first period. I thought we did some good things, played good defense. … And then I thought they iced us three-quarters in the second. Because when we get caught in our own zone, we have to get out of it. We have to make a play to move up the ice. We didn’t do a good job of it,” head coach Sabresing-Bracing Post hurt. “We got the lead, and I thought we sat back a little bit.
“Again, it’s just, catching the ice with speed, jumping, getting to the hole. It’s confidence for me, a little bit, and sure play. The games were there, we’re just not making them, and right now they’re not looking good. We’ve got to pick up our speed. We’ve got to get more confidence in their game.
That night was a bit of a bait and switch for the housewives. This time, they started well – but faded. This time, their defense looked stronger — but the offense was muted, with Toronto giving up three opportunistic goals on just 15 shots while the Kings held Hildby to 37.
For their head coach, it’s all connected.
“We played a lot better defense tonight. But we give up a lot of those shots because when we get pucks, we don’t advance them up the ice and get to the offensive zone. … We weren’t there enough,” Berube said. “And when we were there, it was pretty much in and out.”
The cure for lack of confidence, in his view, is simple – hard work and consistency. Toronto’s former captain, and current de facto leader, tends to agree.
“I still think we can win more pucks, we can be a little faster with our speed, the way we move the ice, and how we’re just on top of the opponent,” Tavares said. “Sometimes, there’s still a little bit too much separation, and I think there’s still loose pucks, 50-50 pucks, that we can be on, and we can score. And then you try to line that line — set yourself to the right side of it, every line out to the right side of it, and defend less.”
“There was improvement everywhere. You just have to put everything together to make a perfect game,” Benoit added. “We started well, and then in the second, they really came back, and we just couldn’t stop them.”
In the here and now, there are positives that can be taken from the dumb. A solid outing from McMann, who used his speed and power to great effect early in the night before it all went sideways. There was also an impressive display from 35-year-old Towers, who answered the call in the wake of Austin Matthews’ injury, scoring two important goals for his club.
But big picture, a cloud hangs over these Maple Leafs — the inevitable reality of this club still lurking in the basement of the Eastern Conference come mid-November. The fact that almost 20 games into the campaign, they still have a lot of confidence that this season can end with the kind of progress they were talking about before it started.
For those in the room, it’s not about expectations right now, outside or inside the organization. It’s just about finding a way out of the quicksand before they sink any deeper.
“I don’t think you go out and expect anything — I think you have to go out there and earn it,” Tavares said. “You know, I think the type of team we have, an experienced team, we know we’re not at the level that we expect to be, like I said, on a consistent basis. We’ve got to work our way through it. Obviously, it’s a battle for us. We’ve got to live with it and find our way here.
“Things are just getting tougher and tougher in our own division, within the league. We just have to stay at it, and know that we’ve gotten a lot better in our game, a lot better individually. Gotta be quick.”
