Andersen asks Leafs for ‘more pride’
‘Surprised’ netminder questions team’s effort after facing 38-shot barrage
If the Maple Leafs didn’t hear loudly and clearly just how upset their coach was with their performance on Thursday night, maybe they’ll listen to their goalie.
Frederik Andersen took the 6-3 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in a game where the Leafs collectively seemed to decide team defence wasn’t worth the effort.
“We’ve got to play with more pride,” said Andersen, who faced 38 shots. “We have to learn how to win 2-1 games. We have done that before, but we have to be able to do it more often.”
The Hurricanes were up two goals — scored 38 seconds apart — before the game was three minutes old.
“We got outworked for pretty much all game,” said Andersen. “I think we could have been better at getting it out of our zone. They were pressing and we weren’t quick enough.
“That’s how it goes when you play like that,” added Andersen. “I’m surprised we got out-battled like that.”
The goals are piling up on Andersen — 13 in his last three games — but the Leafs are very guilty of giving up high-quality scoring chances.
It was Toronto’s second loss in three games, at a time when the team’s vaunted offence is struggling to start games and Mitch Marner looks for a line to call home.
Auston Matthews had a goal and an assist. Dominic Moore and Zach Hyman also scored for the Leafs. Hyman has four points in the last five games.
Babcock was subdued post-game, saying he was more disappointed than frustrated by the lacklustre effort.
“Frustration is a waste of time,” said Babcock. “Disappointed it is for me. We were no good. They deserved to win. We didn’t deserve to win. We didn’t work. They worked. They were organized. We were unorga- nized.
“It’s always a concern when you don’t play good. I’m not going to do anything tonight to make it worse. I’ll deal with the team (Friday). We are 7-3 in the first10. We won our first two (five-game) segments. In my opinion though, no good.”
Midway through the second period — aided in part by the temporary departure of Matt Martin — Babcock put started to move around Marner, who has upped his game since demotion to the fourth line.
The sophomore was the best Leaf forward by far, and by the end of the night had played on just about every other pairing imaginable. He started with Moore and Martin. He moved back to Tyler Bozak and James van Riemsdyk. Then he played with Auston Matthews and Patrick Marleau. Then there was a Marleau-Connor Brown appearance and then with Marleau and Nazem Kadri.
“We didn’t play as well as we were capable of, and it’s a reflection of that,” van Riemsdyk said of the line juggling. “The way we were playing, the score, I don’t think anyone was happy.”
On it went, but the lines-in-the-blender approach didn’t work.
“It wasn’t going very good the way it was going,” said Babcock. “It didn’t go very good the way we did it, either.”
Now it’s not all doom and gloom. It was just the 10th game of the season for the Maple Leafs, and far too early to draw conclusions. But there are trends, and the big one is inconsistent effort at the start of games.
Their win over Los Angeles on Monday was bracketed by brutal first periods Saturday against Ottawa and Thursday night.
“If we start like that, we’re not going to win many games,” said Matthews. “It’s just the consistency we need for the team. We just played similar teams as far as their structure goes. They came out and were flying and we weren’t very good defensively.”