The Toronto Maple Leafs took on the Philadelphia Flyers for the second time in less than a week, and it didn’t go the same as it did last Thursday (March 14). The Flyers came out and scored less than 30 seconds into the game, and after that, it felt that the Maple Leafs just didn’t have it. Even after Ryan Reaves and Nic Deslauriers stood at center ice and chucked knuckles, which led to Reaves leaving the game with an eye injury, the team just didn’t have energy early. Additionally, John Tortorella scratched a handful of his players, including his captain Sean Couturier, which came as a shock to many and should have caught the attention of the Maple Leafs’ players.
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This game should have had all the makings of a Maple Leafs win due to some of the Flyers’ best players being scratched. However, Leafs Nation is all too familiar with the outcomes of these types of games. We’ve seen this time and time again: games that should be easy wins turn into games that they have to scratch and claw themselves back into the game. As mentioned above, the Flyers jumped out to an early 1-0 lead, which eventually led to a 3-0 lead heading into the third. This is when Toronto turned it around and started to fight back. They scored their first goal less than two minutes in and followed that up with another goal just before the halfway point of the period. The Maple Leafs were blessed with a power play (PP) to tie the game; unfortunately, that didn’t happen, and at the end of the PP, Max Domi flipped the puck over Nick Robertson’s stick, and it went right to Scott Laughton, who eventually put it in the back of the net for a 4-2 lead.
The Maple Leafs pulled their goalie with three minutes left and scored with 2:10 left in the final frame. Sadly, that was all Toronto could muster, and the Flyers held on to the lead to win 4-3. Which snapped an eight-game losing streak against the Maple Leafs.
Maple Leafs Miss Marner
The Maple Leafs miss Mitch Marner badly. It shows every time the top line, the top PP unit, or penalty kill (PK) goes over the boards, he has proven to be a very valuable member of the team, and without him, they look off. When the top line is out, it lacks the passing vision he provides; even Auston Matthews seems a bit off. This could be partly due to being worn down, but I have no doubt it’s tough to be without your running mate. The PP has struggled throughout the season; they were first in the NHL in February with a PP percentage of just over 50%. What are they doing in March? They are hovering around the five percent mark. Yes, you read that right, five percent. It has been terrible, and things need to change. One of those changes may be Marner coming back a bit more rested after recovering from his high-ankle sprain. However, a few more things will need to be worked on to ramp up their PP units in time for the playoffs.
Lastly, their PK has also struggled this season. They brought in a few new additions to help with that, like Joel Edmundson, Ilya Lyubushkin, and Connor Dewar, which has seemed to help, but again getting a healthy, rested Marner will bring a huge boost to the team overall. This could be the spark that the team needs to get them back on track ahead of the playoffs.
Keefe Needs to Take Some Blame
Regardless of your opinion of Sheldon Keefe as a person, his coaching record speaks for itself. He has been a very good regular-season coach since taking over as the head coach of the Maple Leafs in 2019. Unfortunately, being a good regular-season coach doesn’t win you the Stanley Cup. There have been times in his career when he just seems to be lost behind the bench and falls back to his old ways. Before this season, it would have been using Alex Kerfoot in just about any situation and keeping Justin Holl in the lineup. Well, this season, he seems to be doing that again, except with different names. This season it appears to be Calle Jarnkrok as the new Kerfoot and T.J. Brodie as the Holl replacement. Last night, the team was without Jarnkrok due to a hand injury, but we did see a steady diet of Brodie when we shouldn’t have.
Brodie had a terrible game, yet Keefe kept rolling him out there every third shift. Eventually, he did make the change to split him and Morgan Rielly up, and it seemed to have a good effect on Rielly when he was later paired with Timothy Liljegren. There were also times when he didn’t seem to have any continuity within their lineups. For example, on the top line, he had Matthews, Tyler Bertuzzi, and Pontus Holmberg, who were then replaced by Bobby McMann, and Domi was given a long run with the line and would stay there for the remainder of the game.
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At this point in the season, it’s important to maintain consistency within the team. This allows players to get to know each other’s tendencies better and build chemistry. This seems to be an annual thing that Keefe does, and then at the start of the playoffs, he goes back to what he thinks works best. So why not do that now and build chemistry? He needs to take a portion of the blame for last night’s game because he didn’t truly put his team in the best position to win early on in the game.
Overall, the Maple Leafs turned it on late, and unfortunately, a small mistake in the third cost them a comeback. However, had they played the way they did in the third the entire game, it would have been a blowout like it was last Thursday when they played the Flyers.
The Maple Leafs can’t dwell on this game for long; they are back in action on Wednesday, March 20, against the Washington Capitals at 7:30 p.m.
