Leafs sink lower on special teams
Never mind the inflight movie when the Maple Leafs fly from here to Denver on the next stage of their long road trip.
How about another video review of the power play, which has gone from statistical anomaly to an area of concern? It’s latest 1-for-18 skid kept the Leafs on the bottom half of the NHL special teams chart sinking near 20 per cent. A chance to put away the scuffling Rangers, who have one of the league’s poorest penalty kills, saw four chances missed in a 4-1 loss Sunday at Madison Square Garden. It denied the Leafs a fifth straight win.
From a crazy seven-shot sequence on their first swing with the man advantage to pucks that bounced off posts and stayed out, it was a heroic game by Bulgarian-born netminder Alexandar Georgiev.
Starting in favour of Henrik Lundqvist, who has been unable to keep his save percentage against Toronto under .900, Georgiev was outstanding on his 23rd birthday.
Through two periods, Toronto’s shots with the extra man were tallied at 23 of their 39 on the way to a season high 55. Nazem Kadri and John Tavares came closest.
Playing on Saturday in Montreal, the Leafs had little left in the third period when a Jake Muzzin clear was stopped at the blue line by Adam McQuaid, who beat Garret Sparks using Auston Matthews as a screen. Kevin Hayes had an empty netter.
Head coach Mike Babcock sounded flummoxed before the game when the power play and its measly four goals since Christmas was brought up.
The main unit features Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares, Morgan Rielly and Nazem Kadri.
“We have five really good players and Jim (assistant coach Hiller) does a really good job with the scheme, but right now we’re pressing,” Babcock said. “We’re not executing, not on faceoffs, not on breakouts, not in the zones.
“We talked about that today. I thought Jim did a good job. If you think about our group you’d be excited to play on it. Get out there and get excited. We might need it tonight.”
That was an understatement.
It took the Rangers just 28 seconds to score, after a Rielly giveaway. No. 2 goalie Garret Sparks made two good saves before a clearing attempt also failed and the hot Mika Zibanejad put the puck in.
Kasperi Kapanen, blanked on seven shots in Montreal, picked off a soft cross ice pass from Tony DeAngelo and bagged his 16th goal of the year.
In the midst of the Leafs’ power-play palooza, Chris Kreider hopped out of the box and into the rush to assist on Jimmy Vesey’s goal. Zach Hyman, who has shown his rougher side at times this season, went after Ranger Neal Pionk in the second period after he felt the Rangers’ seventh defenceman on the lineup put a cheap shot low hit on Marner.
ENNIS STILL ON HOLD
Babcock is waiting at least another game before getting Tyler Ennis in a game, after he was cleared to play on the weekend.
“He’s trained hard and got ready to go (from a broken ankle in late December),” Babcock said. “I thought our lineup was real good (in Montreal), in particular our fourth line (where Ennis should start) and maybe it was our best line.”
Speaking of which, Andreas Johnsson went into Sunday’s game with six points in his past three games, taking advantage of road clearance by Frederik Gauthier and Par Lindholm.
“We talk a lot to get the puck deep and forecheck,” Johnsson said.
“We have the Goat in front to lead the way and try to make him hit as many guys as possible because he’s the biggest guy on the ice. He will put some damage to the other guys and then me and Lindy try to take the puck and do something with it. The last four games we’ve been able to find our game, get it deep and score.”
Johnsson, rocked by some hits as a newcomer in the AHL and NHL, appreciates the 6-foot-5, 235-pound Gauthier.
“You have to have a couple of guys who are bigger and able to make big hits, Johnsson said, “so that the other guys can’t hit you because they know they will get hit harder. That’s the key on any team. You have to have some skill and some bigger guys that are more physical, even back in Sweden.”
HEAD’S UP FRED
Frederik Andersen could conceivably start every game on the coming West Coast portion of the road trip that starts Tuesday in Colorado and winds through Las Vegas, Arizona and St. Louis with days off in between.
But he had a week’s worth of adventure on Saturday in Montreal playing in front of a live wire crowd, a couple of unwanted guests in red in his crease and what could have been the worst long range goal he allowed this year off Tomas Tartar’s stick.