The Toronto Maple Leafs faced off against the Montreal Canadiens last night in one of the most loved hockey rivalries in history. This original six matchup was one of the most interesting games to watch, considering they were only separated by two points in the standings heading into the game.
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Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned for the Maple Leafs. Over the last three games, they have played some of their best games. It has taken them quite some time for this team to play a full 60 minutes and it was all thrown out the window last night against the Canadiens. For almost the entire second period, they looked lost, which led to them falling behind 4-0 and while they managed to score two goals, they still lost 5-2.
McCabe Leaves Game with Upper-Body Injury
Things went from bad to worse last night for the Maple Leafs when they not only lost the game but also lost Jake McCabe from the game. His injury happened during the second period when he got a puck off the face. It looked like it deflected up his stick and made contact with his face. As he was skating to the bench to get off the ice, blood was pouring from his face, which forced the ice crew to clean up the ice.
Unfortunately for the Maple Leafs, if he is out for time, it adds yet another NHL regular to their injury list. He now joins Brandon Carlo and Chris Tanev as the defensemen that are out of the lineup. Which are three of the most reliable blue liners on the team. Which is a huge loss to the team’s back end.
Woll Was Pulled But Kept the Maple Leafs in it
In hockey, there is such thing as a mercy pull for a goalie. And that is what we saw last night for Joseph Woll. He was under fire for the majority of the second period and by the time he got pulled for Dennis Hildeby, he looked visibly exhausted. He allowed four goals on 25 shots, which isn’t actually that bad. But because the Maple Leafs weren’t generating anything offensively, Craig Berube elected to change goalies.
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This was a move that was designed to give Woll some time to rest. He has played in four straight games since returning from his leave of absence. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. Toronto wasn’t able to generate much offense after he was taken out of the game. Nevertheless, it is important to point out that Woll was playing fairly well. Yes, in the second period they surrendered two goals, but he kept the Maple Leafs in a game that they had no business being in.
Maple Leafs Missing Injured Players
There were a few times in this game that the Maple Leafs looked like they are really missing the injured players. But the most noticeable time was during the man advantage when they pulled the goalie. The first grouping that they sent out had Max Domi and Matias Maccelli on it, who typically would be on the second grouping when the stars need a rest. However, the first grouping needed a rest, they sent out Scott Laughton and Dakota Joshua among others and it led to an empty net goal. It is times like that, that you can really see just how bad the Maple Leafs are hurting without some of their top players.
They are missing Auston Matthews, Matthew Knies and Nicolas Roy, who would be a part of the empty net attackers. With Matthews and Knies being a huge part of the first group who would be on the ice for the bulk of the time alongside John Tavares and William Nylander. That would then push Domi and Maccelli to the second group along with Roy. It is part of hockey to have injuries, but when they build up like this and it makes a drastic impact on the lineup, it is hard to win games. Which is what we saw last night against the Canadiens. The only thing Leafs Nation can hope for is the injured players to recover fast and return to the lineup and when they do, the Maple Leafs turn around what has been a very disappointing season.
