Jackets prevail in battle of the backups
Leafs drop second half of back-to-back games as Korpisalo continues to dominate them
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Like weary Christmas shoppers, the Toronto Maple Leafs had little desire to chase another deal.
In their third back-to-back set of games since Dec. 9, they were missing the needed energy to beat a big and determined Blue Jackets squad. While Toronto had romped the afternoon before at home in an 8-1 centennial celebration, the Jackets had a couple of days to stew about a five-goal loss to Boston. The result was a 4-2 Columbus win in a Wednesday grind fest at Nationwide Arena.
In goal, it was the battle of two backups with unique backgrounds against the other team. Curtis McElhinney, waived by the Jackets a year ago but now winless in three tries against them, versus Joonas Korpisalo, rarely seen outside of Sergei Bobrovsky’s big shadow, but now with a 4-1 career record against Toronto.
McElhinney’s multiple pad stops on Cam Atkinson and quick glove on Alexander Wennberg — both on a second period power play with the score close — held Toronto in the game, but little meaningful offence was sustained at the other end.
This was also the second game the Leaf defence did not have the injured Nikita Zaitsev. There was more scrutiny on replacement Connor Carrick. Not the biggest of blue-liners, he was thumped into the end boards a couple of times in the first period, one of the factors leading to the first Jackets goal.
With William Nylander unable to win the battle to the loose puck, a nifty pass from Matt Calvert through Jake Gardiner’s legs to an open Lukas Sedlak gave the fourth-liner a goal. Carrick was also outmuscled when Wennberg broke away on the clinching fourth goal after Nazem Kadri lost the offensive zone draw.
Zach Hyman drew a first-period penalty on big Gabriel Carlsson, but the ensuing advantage only underlined Kadri’s recent overall offensive woes. He has gone nine games without a point after nine with at least one. As that ho-hum power-play effort came to an end, some sloppy passing was eventually picked off by defenceman Seth Jones.
The son of former Toronto Raptor Popeye Jones broke away from Gardiner and Nylander to beat McElhinney glove side. After scoring their first short-handed goal of the year the day before, the Leafs barely avoided giving up their fourth. Nylander was a minus-2 in the period and lost all four draws.
Carlsson was called up to replace Jones’s regular workhorse partner Zach Werenski, out with a day-to-day injury that left a gaping hole in coach John Tortorella’s blue-line as well.
Mitch Marner, following up Tuesday’s career-best four-point game, had a late goal on a wonderful rush, but earlier missed a couple of chances in close with no room. He did weave his way to getting a chance in the blue paint for Tyler Bozak in the second period, but the latter couldn’t elevate the puck.
His best chance earlier in the game went wide after some good second-period digging by linemates Bozak and James van Riemsdyk with the latter penalized on the play. That led to a rare Columbus power-play goal after Toronto killed a Kadri minor that threatened to dip the Jackets’ special team to below 10 per cent in efficiency. A Jones shot went wide and Pierre-Luc Dubois beat Roman Polak as Columbus worked it back out at the side.
Toronto had put one past Korpisalo at 4:26 of the second, Nylander pulling the Jackets to him before dishing to Gardiner for his 40th career goal. Korpisalo carried a .935 save percentage versus Toronto into the game.
The Leafs have one game remaining before the Christmas break Saturday in New York with one more practice Friday that will determine whether Auston Matthews plays or takes the added time to recover from an upper-body injury.