Defensive lapses lead to Leafs loss

When opposing teams prepare to face the Maple Leafs, the coaches often stress the dangers that come in turning the puck over versus a quick Toronto club.

Against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday night, the Leafs got a harsh taste of what can happen when there’s sloppy play in the defensive zone.

Despite outshooting the Blue Jackets 34-24 at Nationwide Arena, the Leafs lost 4-2 to a Columbus crew that was able to capitalize on its chances.

And goaltender Frederik Andersen, for the first time in a long time, looked rather ordinary.

With a home game on Saturday night against the Philadelphia Flyers next, the Leafs saw their overall record drop to 15-8-0. The Leafs have lost consecutive games for the third time in 2018-19; they have not lost three in a row since dropping four consecutive games at the end of last February and the beginning of March.

The Blue Jackets took a 4-2 lead at 3:35 of the third period on what was just their 17 th shot on goal.

Artemi Panarin was able to ward off Morgan Rielly as he burst into the Toronto end, and when Rielly and Ron Hainsey were unable to gain control of the puck, Markus Hannikainen arrived at the crease to pop it past Andersen.

Columbus scored a shorthanded goal, just the second such goal allowed by the Leafs this season, at 16:14 of the second period to take a 3-2 lead into the intermission.

Cam Atkinson got inside on John Tavares, who had finished serving his second penalty of the period, and then fired a shot past Andersen on the goalie’s stick side. Atkinson has been scoring on everyone recently, as it was his sixth game in a row with at least one goal.

A pair of Toronto goals — one late in the first period and one early in the second period — tied the game.

Hainsey scored for the first time in 18 games at 16:16 of the first when his shot from the point found its way past a screened Sergei Bobrovsky.

At 2:58 of the second, Kasperi Kapanen continued his impressive ways, getting a shot through Bobrovsky from a tough angle on his off-wing.

Kapanen has been a revelation for the Leafs and has 10 goals in 21 games after scoring eight in his first 57 games in the NHL. We probably don’t need to remind that along with Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, Kapanen will be a restricted free agent next summer.

For the third game in a row, the Leafs found themselves down 2-0 in the first period.

Defensive miscues helped lead to a pair of Blue Jackets goals by Josh Anderson, first at 3:55 and then at 9:57.

A Rielly turnover in the Leafs end resulted in the 1-0 goal, and it was a two-goal deficit not long after Andersen misplayed the puck behind the net.

Rielly was on the ice for all four Columbus goals.