TORONTO — There are only two things a contending team should take away from a game against the dead-in-the-water San Jose Sharks, and they’re both points.
Well, on a night the streaks died, the travel-weary Toronto Maple Leafs let half of those points slip from their fingers like a wet fish.
A commanding 2-0 third-period at home — built exclusively on the strength of a loaded and oft-used power-play lead — disintegrated into a 3-2 shootout loss to the worst and coldest team in the NHL.
“Well, it’s disappointing. Any loss is disappointing,” coach Craig Berube said, much more matter-of-fact than throw-the-clipboard.
“Two-nothing lead. We’re in a good spot to close it out, and we didn’t do the job. And then we got a chance in OT with (a full two minutes of 4-on-3) power play and couldn’t get one.”
If the Maple Leafs miss out on this bid for their first regular-season Atlantic Division crown by a point or two, Monday’s mishandle at Scotiabank Arena will go down as one that got away.
Toronto earned five power-plays to San Jose’s two. And the Leafs peppered 76 shot attempts toward Alexandar Georgiev’s net, yet only 27 of those attempts actually hit the intended target.
Costly giveaways, light checking, and late-game fatigue resulted in a couple quick strikes by the energetic if undisciplined Sharks.
And Mitch Marner’s stick blade snapped clean off on his shootout try.
Berube had a firm grasp of the two points’ importance, as he shortened his bench and called a timeout in overtime to maximize his stars’ ice time.
So much for placing a governor on the big dogs’ ice time.
Stud forwards Marner (27:29), Auston Matthews (25:55), Matthew Knies (23:53), and William Nylander (23:43) each saw more usage than Toronto’s most-used defenceman (Oliver Ekman-Larsson, 23:03).
And so, a series of streaks came to a crashing and surprising halt.
The Maple Leafs and starting goalie Anthony Stolarz both had win streaks snapped at five, while the 32nd-place Sharks, 0-for-February, mercifully ended an eight-game losing skid.
Prior to the blown multi-goal lead, the Maple Leafs had been a perfect 27-0 when heading into the third period with an advantage on the scoreboard, and they were the last NHL squad to get pushed to a shootout.
“You look at the standings, they’re down there,” Stolarz said. “But at the end of the day, they’re a young group who are hungry, and they’re looking to build towards the future.”
Wasting a single point to a bad team isn’t so big of a deal, especially in a season Toronto has mostly found ways to win the games it should.
But there is a catch.
The two teams hunting the first-place Leafs are on heaters. The Florida Panthers are winners of four straight and are 8-2-0 in their past 10. The Tampa Bay Lightning were winners of eight in a row before losing to the Panthers Monday night.
Point is, Toronto must continue to slam the gas here — no matter how gruelling the travel or how relentless the schedule.
“Obviously, it’s not easy. But it’s part of the game,” said John Tavares, repacking his bags after a one-game homestand. “It’s part of the grind.”
The Sharks were the easy part of the grind.
Up next: a southwest crisscross against playoff-relevant teams from Vegas (Wednesday), Colorado (Saturday), and Utah (Monday).
“Had a real good chance to win today. Did a lot of good things,” Tavares said.
“We let it slip. So that should sting and burn leaving the rink and motivate us tomorrow, as we head back out west. Some real tough challenges and big points that we need.”
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Fox’s Fast Five
• Toronto’s lonely Monday-night home game marked just the second Scotiabank Arena date surrounded by 11 away games for the Maple Leafs.
“Honestly, it feels like we’re still on the road,” Conor Timmins said. “I did some laundry, cleaned my apartment, then packed myself right back up.”
Same.
• Timothy Liljegren’s five goals with the Sharks would rank second among Leafs defencemen. His minus-18 rating would rank worst.
The right shot is used more often and in more situations since being traded to San Jose.
“Our situation is a lot different than the Leafs’, right?” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky told reporters. “He’s got a chance to really establish himself as a top-four guy that can play some meaningful minutes, can help on our power play, and move pucks. And this is a good opportunity.”
• Rookie Will Smith was excited to receive a black signed stick — stamped “PAPI 34” — from Auston Matthews during San Jose’s morning skate, and the two highly touted Americans shared a conversation.
“It was cool,” Smith, 19, told reporters. “Obviously grew up watching him a bit. I’m into sticks a lot, so I try to ask some guys.”
• Calle Järnkrok made his long-awaited season debut skating on David Kämpf’s fourth line.
He’s being eased in gently here, logging just 8:23, with no shots and a minus-1 rating.
“It’s been a long time since I played a regular-season game — pretty much a year, I think. I was a little nervous in the beginning, but I got over it pretty quick. It was nice to be back,” Järnkrok said. “Took a while to get going. Timing was a little off, but it got a little better as the game went on.”
• A happy byproduct of “The Star-Spangled Banner” getting regularly booed as a response to the U.S. President’s threatening rhetoric? “O Canada” is getting cheered.
Between Philippe’s fight and Leafs fan Mike’s Saturday Night Live appearance, it was a prideful few days for Canadians named Myers.
