The six thunderous canon blasts ringing through the ears of the Toronto Maple Leafs on a Tuesday night in Columbus should teach them something.
If you’re going to dress an AHL goalie, you’re better off not playing like an ECHL team in front of him.
“They brought their best, and we brought our worst,” an astute Mitch Marner told reporters, following a 6-2 beatdown at the hands of a Columbus Blue Jackets roster ravaged by injury and rebuild.
Was Toronto’s gigantic fourth-string goaltender Dennis Hildeby — the feel-good story of Game 2 in New Jersey — any good at holding the fort?
No. He was swimming and shaky, giving up a touchdown on 38 shots.
But the skaters tasked with protecting his net and providing some offence of their own were collectively worse.
No doubt emotionally and physically taxed from Monday’s full-60 dismantling of the rival Tampa Bay Lightning at home — one of the most complete and impressive regular-season efforts of the Core Four era — the Maple Leafs laid an egg and fell face-first into the trap game.
By the time the “game” was 20 minutes old, they’d been outshot 15-6 and outscored 3-0, each goal off the blade of a bottom-six Blue Jacket. Halfway through the second, it was 5-0.
Ka-boom.
For carbon footprint’s sake, the Leafs would’ve been better off forfeiting the game and saving their private jet a round trip to Columbus.
“Just not good from the start,” Marner said. “Not competitive enough throughout the game.”
The team that was so diligent with its checks, smart with its breakouts and relentless with its cycle game 24 hours ago was nowhere to be found.
“The neutral zone was the Autobahn for them tonight. They were just coming in flying through, and we didn’t have very good gaps, very good angles,” said captain Auston Matthews.
Every member of the Maple Leafs’ starting five — Matthews, Marner, Matthew Knies, Morgan Rielly and Chris Tanev — was a minus-3.
Credit the Jackets for pouncing on a tired opponent early and often, and coach Dean Evason for milking a 3-3 start from a group that has already lost captain Boone Jenner, D-man Erik Gudbranson, and playmaking centre Kent Johnson to injury.
“His teams play hard. They come at you hard. They’re very aggressive. They’re going to come at us,” Leafs coach Craig Berube cautioned pre-game.
He was right, yet for the first time this season, Berube’s bunch failed to start on time… or at all.
“I didn’t feel like we skated very well tonight. They skated through us all night. We didn’t win many puck battles tonight, didn’t defend very well tonight — and that’s what you get,” Berube said.
“It boils down to: They outskated us. They outworked us. And they were a harder team than we were. Bottom line.”
All true. But we gotta cut the Leafs some slack, right?
They’ve put forth six strong efforts and must’ve been fatigued traveling late night after hard-fought battles against Tampa and the Rangers.
“That’s an excuse, though, isn’t it?” Berube said. “So I’m not going there.”
Injury to insult
Through two weeks of the season, few situations in Leafland feel as tenuous as that of Max Pacioretty, the club’s oldest skater.
Not only has the veteran winger failed to reach the 50-games-played mark in each of his past four seasons and grinded through two Achilles recoveries, but Toronto has dangled a couple games-played bonuses (10 and 35) as contract incentives for the 35-year-old.
After getting healthy-scratched twice already, Pacioretty is now in danger of an unhealthy scratch.
He suffered an undisclosed lower-body injury midway through the contest and did not come out for the third period.
The severity of his injury will be assessed Wednesday back in Toronto.
Crummy luck.
A rested Pacioretty had made his case to stick in the lineup this week — sniping his second as a Leaf past Andrei Vasilevskiy Monday and throwing some hard checks, like this Plexiglas-knocker on David Jiricek.
Robertson puts one on the board
If there is anything positive to salvage from this stinker — bear with us; we’re reaching here — it might be that Nick Robertson found the net.
After tearing up preseason, Robertson entered Nationwide Arena as the only Maple Leafs forward still searching for a point despite playing every night.
To Berube’s credit, he has stuck with the undersized winger, likely knowing a scratch could harm the player’s confidence and his value.
“Nicky’s put himself in some real good spots to put the puck in the net, and it’s just kind of missed a bit. Puck bouncing on him a little bit, or just not clean enough,” Berube said before puck drop. “But he’s working and he’s getting to those areas and getting opportunities. I think it’s a little bit of luck right now not going his way. He’s working. And he’s skating and doing things to get himself in those positions to get opportunities to score.”
Well, Robertson did get it in Ohio.
Sure, it was a rebound tuck in pure garbage time, but hopefully not seeing zeros next to his name is something to build on.
Ekman-Larsson’s no good, very bad day
So effective and depended upon was Ekman-Larsson through Toronto’s first six outings, the free-agent pickup had arguably been the team’s No. 1 defenceman. He leads the blueliners in points (four), all Leafs in ice time (21:55), and won the top power-play quarterbacking gig from Morgan Rielly.
Then Tuesday happened.
OEL woke up to learn that Monday’s aggressive hit on Tampa’s Jake Guentzel would cost him $5,000 in addition to the two minutes he spent in the box. (Considering his estimated career earnings exceed $97 million, he probably won’t need to hock his Cup ring to make the payment.)
Then he served up an unpressured pizza to Zach Werenski in the neutral zone that led to a quick-strike transition rush snipe from the undrafted Justin Danforth.
Ekman-Larsson was one of six Leafs who finished a dash-3.
Reached for comment, Canucks fans said: “See?!”
One-Timers: Ryan Reaves drew back into the lineup as it was fourth-liner David Kämpf’s turn for a healthy scratch. “I got a rested guy, and I want to play him,” Berube explained…. With Berube saying Woll is “close” to game action, we wonder if Thursday against his hometown St. Louis Blues makes sense. That would keep the red-hot Anthony Stolarz fresh for Saturday’s marquee match in Boston…. Max Domi on Bobby McMann: “McMann is probably one of the nicer people in the history of the NHL. You wouldn’t know that the way he plays.”
