Leafs fall to Senators 4-3
TORONTO — Mike Babcock was taking his usual round of questions from media in the morning on Wednesday when the topic of the Maple Leafs’ bye week was raised.
“I think you always think you need a mental break,” the Leafs coach said.
“I don’t know how many mental breaks you need in a year, but to each their own. I don’t know what the right answer is, to tell you the truth.
“You expect your guys to go have fun (on their bye week). That’s what I’d be doing. Actually, that’s what I’m going to do. And come back ready to go.”
We can bet Babcock’s brain needs to get some rest after the Leafs hit the bye in the manner they had feared — with a loss.
Craig Anderson mostly has been good in his National Hockey League career against the Leafs, and it was no different before 19,117 at the Air Canada Centre on Wednesday night.
Anderson made 44 saves as the Ottawa Senators beat the Leafs 4-3, sending Toronto into its break with its second loss in as many games.
The Leafs will return from their vacations to practise on Monday and will play at home the following night against the St. Louis Blues.
Ottawa got the game-winning goal at 16:55 of the third on an odd-man rush. The Sens outnumbered the Leafs after a Morgan Rielly pinch, and Tom Pyatt beat Frederik Andersen when he broke in alone.
Andersen made 28 saves for Toronto.
The Leafs had erased an earlier 2-0 Senators lead and were down by one goal in third when Rielly scored on a shot from the point after taking a pass from William Nylander.
Ex-Leafs’ captain Dion Phaneuf and Zach Hyman jostled in front of Anderson, screening the netminder as the puck got past him at 12:28 to tie the game 3-3.
To say it was not a great night for Leafs defenceman Roman Polak would be selling it short.
When the Senators took a 3-2 lead at 2:15 of the third period, it was partially because Polak was too slow to react after the puck came off the end boards.
Gabriel Dumont — not a big man and not a goal-scorer — managed to get between Polak and Frederik Gauthier and knock the puck past Andersen.
It was the first goal of the season for the 5-foot-10, 190-pound Dumont, coming in his 23rd game.
Earlier in the game, the Sens got a goal when the puck hit Polak and went in.
Certainly, Travis Dermott could have made the argument, and won it, that he should have been in the lineup after playing well in his first two NHL games.
The Dumont goal killed a brief flash of momentum for the Leafs. That came when van Riemsdyk, around the Ottawa net all night, made a deke in his feet and beat Anderson at 54 seconds of the third.
It was the ninth shot on goal for van Riemsdyk, tying a career high he set in a game in October 2011 while he was playing for the Philadelphia Flyers.
There had been a fairly strong feeling among observers that the Leafs simply weren’t going to score, given their failure to convert on myriad chances they had.
The Leafs got through late in the second period, but they needed a deflection off Sens forward Matt Duchene to get the puck past
Anderson.
A shot by defenceman Andreas Borgman hit Duchene and the puck carried past Anderson’s glove at 18:10, getting the Leafs within one.
The visitors had gone up 2-0 at 1:52 of the second after Duchene made short work of Jake Gardiner in the corner to Andersen’s left, leaving the Toronto defenceman grasping at air. Duchene centred to Mike Hoffman, who put the puck past Andersen just as van Riemsdyk arrived to check him.
After the Hoffman goal and before Borgman’s third of the season, among the Leafs who had terrific chances but could not finish were van Riemsdyk and Mitch Marner. Bozak tipped a Rielly shot, only to see the puck hit the crossbar and bounce away.
The Leafs owned the first period, registering 35 shot attempts to the Senators’ 17. Shots on goal were 16-12 Toronto.
What the Leafs were able to confirm through 20 minutes, however, was that Anderson has a great glove hand. The Leafs hit it square at least three times, with Patrick Marleau and van Riemsdyk among those getting stopped at pointblank range.
Marner couldn’t score on a breakaway, while Auston Matthews was looking at an open net and missed, shooting high.
The Marner breakaway came on the shift following the Sens’ goal by Thomas Chabot at 11:26. The Ottawa defenceman tried to hit Ryan Dzingel with a pass, but wound up with this third goal of the season when the puck deflected off Polak and got past Andersen.