Maple Leafs report cards: A lifeless effort leads to an ugly performance

By / / Sports / 5 minutes of reading


When Toronto Maple Leafs fans booed their team off the ice at Scotiabank Arena after a 3-0 loss on Saturday night, it was a rational response to an ugly performance.

Toronto was facing a Vancouver Canucks squad on the second leg of a back-to-back that had its travel to Toronto disrupted by weather. The Canucks had also lost four in a row, six of their last seven, and nine of their last 12 — and stepped onto the ice dealing with more uncertainty about the core of its team than any franchise in the NHL.

While those circumstances were never going to guarantee a Maple Leafs win, it’s understandable that Toronto’s fans expected significantly more than they got.

A lifeless effort from the Maple Leafs that combined sluggish five-on-five offence, an embarrassing power-play effort, and suspect goaltending get the team a ‘D’.

Unit grades

L1 (Matthew Knies — Auston Matthews — Mitch Marner): C

In the first two periods of the game, the first line was fine in that it narrowly outshot (3-2) and out-attempted (10-7) the Canucks with a solid 64.70 percent expected goal rate.

At the same, they didn’t score or generate any particularly close calls and finished minus-1, thanks to Vancouver’s first goal. In the third, Matthews ended up centring McMann and Nylander — a counterintuitive line of three high-volume shooters that had a little bit of jump off the rush at times but didn’t do much to shake things up.

L2 (Max Pacioretty— John Tavares — William Nylander): C-

To this group’s credit, its best opportunity was better than anything the first line produced.

Outside of that chance, it wasn’t a good night for the Tavares line. Its original iteration was out-attempted 13-7 and outshot 7-3 on the way to a 43.61 percent expected goal rate. The group was also victimized on Vancouver’s second goal at five-on-six.

In the third, Tavares centred Knies and Marner, which improved on the low bar set by the previous group but had little to show for its offensive zone time.

L3 (Bobby McMann— Max Domi — Nick Robertson): B-

For the vast majority of the game, the third line was Toronto’s best.

This trio created off the rush and managed to sustain offensive pressure that led to genuine scoring opportunities — like this Nick Robertson shot that gave Kevin Lankinen as much as he could manage.

Nothing came of the chances this group created, but they looked dangerous, which is more than can be said for some of the other groups. At the beginning of the third period, Pacioretty joined this group, and the new unit’s first group was scored upon on its first shift.

L4 (Steven Lorentz — David Kämpf — Connor Dewar): C-

The fourth line’s night started well when Lorentz made a nifty play to bank the puck to himself in the offensive zone and try to set up Kämpf, who went down to draw a penalty.

From there the trio were basically non-factors. With the Maple Leafs chasing all night, none of the three exceeded 9:26 in ice time.

D1 (Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Chris Tanev): C+

Toronto’s shutdown pair (in Jake McCabe’s absence) generally accomplished its goal of taking difficult matchups and approximately stalemating the opposition.

That said, on a night where outplaying the road-weary Canucks was a fair expectation, this pair did little to distinguish itself. Ekman-Larsson failed to provide a notable offensive spark, and Tanev wasn’t a difference-maker on either end.

D2 (Morgan Rielly – Philippe Myers): B+

Rielly and Myers were on the ice for the Canucks’ first goal, but neither can be faulted too much for a tough bounce off Brock Boeser’s leg.

Outside of that, it’s tough to complain about this pair’s work. Rielly logged significantly more ice time (23:33) than his season average (21:21) looked energetic on offence, and rung one off the iron in the first period that might’ve changed the complexion of the game. Myers was quieter, but he was steady, allowing Rielly to freelance.

During the pair’s 14:58 at five-on-five, the Maple Leafs out-attempted the Canucks 22-8.

D3 (Simon Benoit – Conor Timmins): D

It’s tough to get a fantastic grade as a pair when you are on the ice for two of your teams’ three goals against — including an own goal.

To be fair, Benoit banking in Vancouver’s second was more of a technicality than a blunder. If anything, he made a valiant effort to keep the puck out.

Unfortunately for Benoit — and Timmins — the overall body of work was not strong. The pair combined for a respectable five blocks, but that’s because they were constantly under siege. In their 10:27 at five-on-five, Toronto was out-attempted 13-7 and put just two shots on goal.

Power play: F

With five-on-five offence hard to come by at both ends in the first two periods, the Maple Leafs’ best chance to break came from getting three power-play opportunities.

They did absolutely nothing with them.

Six minutes of power-play minutes yielded just two shots on target — arguably the most dangerous of which was a Marner backhand that clanged off Lankinen’s helmet.

The Canucks matched that shot total down a man and got better chances. Zone entries were a disaster, and even when the Maple Leafs got past the line and controlled the puck, they passed it around lackadaisically, failing to generate open shooting lanes.

Goaltender (Dennis Hildeby): D+

It seems unfair to grade Hildeby’s night too harshly when two of the three goals he allowed came on deflections, but it’s hard to see where he made a positive impact.

His bottom line was poor (15 stops on 18 shots), he didn’t compensate for the goals he allowed with remarkable saves, and the one non-deflection goal he conceded was a gettable mid-range shot from Kiefer Sherwood.

The difference between the games Joseph Woll plays and the ones he sits is significant right now.

Game score

Editor’s Note: At the time of publication, the Game Scorecard was not available. This story will be updated to include it once it’s available.

What’s next?

The Maple Leafs remain home, hosting the Dallas Stars on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

(Photo: John E. Sokolowski / Imagn Images)





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About The Author

Avatar of Christi Melton
Christi Melton is a writer from The Newspring. She writes about lifestyle, books, sports, education and technology. Her hobbies include reading and playing tennis.

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