Eight minutes into the Toronto Maple Leafs’ first game back on North American soil, the kings of Sweden seemed to have stuffed into their suitcases and brought back with them the high-flying performances they’d unleashed during the NHL’s Global Series.
William Nylander, riding a 17-game, 12-goal, 27-point streak, danced and weaved through the Chicago Blackhawks’ zone, setting up a handful of promising chances on his first shift of the night. Max Domi, seven minutes in, cut down the left wing and floated a saucer pass through a maze of sticks to linemate Nicholas Robertson, who contorted to one-time it into the cage, drawing first blood.
Less than a minute later, though, it all began to come undone, starting with a Mitch Marner miscue at the Maple Leafs’ blue line that gifted Chicago’s Jason Dickinson a chance to wire one in himself, quickly nullifying the early lead.
“We didn’t score enough early on our chances. We probably could’ve had two or three in the first few minutes of the game, and didn’t capitalize there,” head coach Sheldon Keefe told the gathered media post-game, sorting through the eventual overtime loss.
Instead, Dickinson evaporated that early momentum with what wound up the first goal of his first career hat trick, his trio of tallies a buffet of Maple Leafs mishaps.
“We didn’t give up a lot here today — it’s among the least scoring chances we’ve given up on the season — but they scored three goals basically where we have the puck on our sticks in our end, and then it’s in our net,” Keefe continued. “So, that just made it easier for them.”
The home side’s second of the night was perhaps the most egregious of Toronto’s defensive breakdowns. Throwing the puck deep into the Maple Leafs’ zone, Chicago’s forecheckers gave chase as Connor Timmins — returning to the lineup after an early injury sent him to LTIR — battled for it behind the net. A moment later, there was his D-partner, William Lagesson, flying in and poking the puck away from Timmins and out to a waiting Dickinson at the net front. The 28-year-old forward made no mistake, burying his second to cut what was a brief 3-1 Toronto lead down to a single goal.
Dickinson brought out the hats 15 seconds into the third period, the centreman gifted the puck in the slot by a Jake McCabe-Auston Matthews miscue, his goal pulling the two teams level.
“I thought we came out pretty good. … And then I feel like we just started turning the puck over too much,” said Calle Jarnkrok of what went wrong. “We knew, coming in, they’re a good transition team. We kind of fed into their game. I thought we could’ve closed the game pretty much in the first, by sticking to our game and our gameplan.”
“We didn’t really take care of the puck well,” Nick Robertson agreed. “I think when we take care of pucks, we shouldn’t even be in the position we’re in [late in that game]. Sometimes games are like that though, and we just had to manage it. Unfortunately, we didn’t come out with the win.”
They got little help from netminder Ilya Samsonov, who’d allowed three goals on 16 shots by the time Dickinson had completed his hat trick. The 26-year-old finished with 30 saves on the night when all was said and done.
“It’s a hard situation for a goalie,” he said post-game, asked about navigating nights like this one, where the shots are few and far between for much of the game, “when you stay and you don’t have work, you don’t feel it in a game. … Still, I’m just a goalie, I need to stop the puck, as many as I can, and get some chance to win for the team.”
The loss takes Samsonov’s 2023-24 record to 3-1-2, his save percentage sitting at .878 on the year after a breakout .919 last season. Adding to his woes Friday night was the weight of the club’s recent travel, his Maple Leafs having returned earlier this week from their mid-season trip overseas.
“It’s hard. We still feel the jetlag,” Samsonov said. “It’s not about sleep, how you sleep in the night, it’s more about your body. Your body feels more tired than normal. But we understand this. We’re not kids, we’re professional players — we just tried to prepare as hard as we can. We have a staff who’s helping us with this.
“I don’t want to say this is why we lost today — we lost because we didn’t do everything [needed]for a win.”
His coach agreed.
“I don’t think [that was a factor],” Keefe said of his club potentially lacking energy after the trip back from Sweden. “We had maybe two of our best practices all season in terms of pace and tempo and competitiveness. That showed me that the guys are past that. So, let’s not go there here tonight. That’s not it.”
BOTTOM-SIX BREAKOUT, TOP-SIX TURMOIL
While the film room won’t be short on correctable mistakes to clean up, if and when the club sifts through the wreckage of this one, the one positive on the night was the play of the third line, with Domi and Robertson in particular continuing to gel.
“I think both of us have played off each other pretty well,” Domi said of his linemate post-game. “He’s a pure goal-scorer and pure shooter — he knows where to go to get open. And obviously I like to set guys like that up. So, he’s going to the right areas and we’re connecting. There are some things our line can definitely clean up and be better at, but there was some good stuff tonight that we’ll definitely build on.”
After more than a few brief shots to stick with the big club since he was tabbed with the 53rd-overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft — all of which ended with Robertson back in a Marlies uniform — the 22-year-old has looked the part this time around, Friday’s performance giving him three goals and five points through this seven-game run.
“I think I’ve got chemistry with my linemates. I think I’m just being smarter out there,” Robertson said of what’s worked this time around. “Obviously I’m not perfect, I’ve got things to work on. But I think just working with my line, and being consistent with that line, helps a lot.”
“I thought Domi and Robertson gave us a lot here today,” Keefe said of the duo post-game. “That line was good, Jarnkrok was good. Most of the night, they were chasing them around with (Connor) Bedard, and I thought they did a good job with that matchup, scored early for us. … It didn’t work out for us, but those guys had a good game.”
Also chipping in from the depths of the lineup was the oft-maligned Ryan Reaves, who potted his first in a Maple Leafs sweater after a season that’s thus far seen him end up on the ice for far more mistakes than positive sequences. Fittingly, the bench was all cheers as the heavy hitter celebrated the tally.
“He’s the man,” Domi said of No. 75. “You know what, he’s obviously been through some stuff here, and he’s handled it like a true professional. Unbelievable teammate, 10 out of 10, on and off the ice. And that’s what happens. Great goal, a huge goal for our group — the team was super pumped. So, really happy for him.
“He’s a big part of this team. We’re going to need him — for the rest of the year and going to the playoffs, he’s going to be a big piece for us.”
Still, there’s no question who the true Big Pieces are on this team. And on yet another night, they had little impact.
Don’t count No. 88 among that group. While Nylander saw his franchise-record streak halted, the smooth-skating Swede showed glimpses of the all-world form that’s propelled his club forward this season, culminating in an overtime breakaway attempt that seemed to end it all — seemed to bail out his team’s night of defensive mishaps — before the puck clanged off both posts, and the crossbar, and out.
As for Matthews and Marner, despite a few moments of brilliance, Friday’s tilt was one to forget.
“It just wasn’t their night tonight,” a terse Keefe said of his top line’s performance against Chicago. “Didn’t have it.”
OLD GHOSTS, NEW SEASON
Boil it down to an off night for the club’s best, or a shaky performance from Samsonov, or the drain of a mid-season trip overseas, or bad luck putting a post in the way of an overtime game-ender — no matter how you draw it up, it’s tough to shake the feeling that these Leafs have been here so many times before.
A match-up with a team they should easily handle, early opportunities to do just that, and a night that ends with them lamenting correctable mistakes and missed opportunities.
After six years of finishing among the top three in their division, these Maple Leafs currently find themselves right there again at No. 3, looking much the same as they have for the past few seasons. It’s too early to say whether new GM Brad Treliving’s off-season experiments have panned out, and there’s more than enough time for it all to trend upwards, for these Leafs to build something different, for this season to become what the Maple Leafs faithful hope it will be. But beyond Matthews and Marner’s temporary scoring lull, or Samsonov’s form, or the defensive issues, it’s nights like these that seem most at risk of holding this club back. It’s the repeated return of that familiar formula — the easy mistakes against beatable teams.
Add haphazard line changes to that list, as the Maple Leafs were tagged Friday for their seventh too-many-men penalty on the season after a bad change to close out the first period. No other team in the league has been penalized more for that particular infraction.
Asked post-game if he’s losing patience with his squad on the too-many-men front, or if there’s more to the issue, Keefe was clear.
“No, I’ve lost patience,” he said. How do you address it moving forward? “I’ve already addressed it.”
His club will have another chance to get it right Saturday night, as the Maple Leafs get a stiffer test against the Pittsburgh Penguins to wrap up their back-to-back trip.
