What are the odds of the Toronto Maple Leafs winning a hockey game when Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner both finish minus-six?
About the same as Barney Gumble successfully completing Dry January.
The hottest line on the Eastern Conference’s hottest team got served a cold slice of humble pie Thursday, as the Carolina Hurricanes outskated, out-checked, and outshone the Maple Leafs 6-3 in Raleigh.
Toronto had its season-high five-game win streak snuffed out by a five-game losing streak to a speedy and relentless Hurricanes squad that matches up well against the Leafs, particularly when coach Rod Brind’mour holds the trump card of last change.
That means pitting 36-year-old shutdown centre Jordan Staal head-to-head in a captain’s duel against the Matthews group. And, on this night, watching Staal’s line cave in the visitors’ superstars something fierce.
Though Matthews did tally a beautiful diving backhand power-play marker, he and his wingers also surrendered a shorthanded goal and got bottled in their own zone at even strength.
Staal, meanwhile, went off for a hat trick in the Lenovo Center three nights before big brother Eric will have his No. 12 sweater lifted to the rafters on Sunday.
Brind’Amour — who spreads his depth and rolls his lines in crashing waves — is loath to call the unit led by the six-foot-four, 220-pound Staal a “third line.”
And when Staal & Co. execute like this, you understand why.
“Very reliable, strong guy. Plays his position very well and doesn’t cheat for offence,” Marner told reporters. “You know you gotta go 200 feet every time. You gotta work for your offence.”
The thing is, the Maple Leafs did punch the clock on time.
The visitors jumped to an early 2-0 lead on the strength of snipes from the recently scratched Nick Robertson and recently slumping William Nylander. A bright omen for a team that flew into Raleigh holding the NHL’s best record when scoring first.
But the undaunted Hurricanes roared back with three unanswered, including Staal’s shorthanded marker against Toronto’s debatable five-forward power-play.
The Leafs broke down and coughed up because they were forced into mistakes by a meaner forecheck, tighter gaps and faster feet.
“They got pressure, pressure all over the ice,” Matthews said. “Obviously didn’t do a very good job keeping the puck out of our net at key times in the game.”
“They play with a high pace and not giving you much offensively,” Nylander added. “Just getting pucks out of the D-zone and countering on your mistakes.”
Leafs coach Craig Berube figured the busy Joseph Woll might want back a couple of the five goals he allowed on 33 shots but emphasized the greater issue.
His bunch — which is missing Jake McCabe and scrambling for some blueline balance — spent too much time in its own zone and got outmanned in its own slot.
“Too loose,” Berube said. “We just had too many breakdowns tonight that we gotta clean up.”
The Leafs will get a chance to do just that Saturday at home against the banged-up soap opera that is the Vancouver Canucks, who won’t have the benefit of last change.
The Canucks are less likely to hit the Leafs with the dogged spirit and four-line consistency of the Hurricanes, who have Toronto’s number lately.
“They’ve been a really good team for a while now,” said Morgan Rielly, a dash-three on the night. “It’s always a handful when you come into this building,”
True. But usually, you don’t need a second hand to count all the minuses.
Fox’s Fast Five
• The best way to snap out of an eight-game goal drought? How about three clean breaks in the first seven and half minutes of play?
Nylander pinged a post and got stoned on a backhand attempt by goalie Pyotr Kochetkov before ripping his long-awaited 24th of the season.
“Just ripped it,” Nylander said, “I knew it’d happen eventually, so it wasn’t really no worries.”
Sensing his top goal scorer was affected by his absence from the scoresheet, Berube had a long chat with Nylander Thursday morning. He pushed the player to work for his goals via tenacious puck battles and quit hoping the breaks would come his way.
“That’s what I see with Willy: a little bit of lack of confidence,” Berube said pre-game. “He’s not playing with the same pace right now.”
• Martin Necas flew out the gates as one of the league’s hottest players. He’s now mired in a one-goal-in-16-games drought.
His chosen solution? Peroxide.
Necas has gone full-blown blond in an attempt to change his fortunes:
•As 2024 wrapped, Brind’Amour became the fastest coach to 300 wins (488 games), knocking Bruce Boudreau down the ladder.
“How he played as a player, he’s brought to his team,” Berube says. The coach then rhymes off those attributes: strong work ethic, elite in the faceoff circle, excellent at both special teams. “His teams, they’re about pressure and work. They don’t give you a lot of space.”
• Back in November, Hurricane-turned-Leaf Steven Lorentz dropped a reference to Leaf-turned-Hurricane Tim Brent when discussing his gutsy four-block performance in a win over the Golden Knights.
“I was channelling my inner Timmy Brent,” said a smiling Lorentz, name-dropping a bottom-six deep cut for Leafs Nation.
Well, Brent joined Nick Alberga and Jay Rosehill on Leafs Morning Take Thursday. And, yes, the retired checking centre was aware of Lorentz’s shoutout.
“My phone blew up when that happened. Which was hilarious. It was flattering. And the first thing I thought was: Gosh, this kid must have been a serious Leaf fan to remember me,” Brent said. “I love it. I love it for him…. I feel like Toronto’s fans do such a great job of appreciating third- and fourth-line players and what they bring.
“You just don’t get that in a lot of other cities that you play in. I hope that he gets a lot of recognition for it, and I hope the fans love him for it.”
• The Hurricanes have used four backup goalies in the first half of their season, none of them nearly as good as No. 1 Frederik Andersen.
The ex-Leaf practised with Carolina Wednesday for the first time since undergoing knee surgery on Nov. 22.
A great sign for a team that has been a little leaky since Andersen got sidelined.
