Rebounding at home in Leaf DNA
The Maple Leafs flew through an ice storm to get home late Saturday night.
“A little bumpy,” reported Morgan Rielly on Sunday afternoon.
Not half as bad as the (fecal matter) storm they landed in.
Still yammering away on sports radio and social media about all that has jim-jammed the Leafs over Games 1 and 2 of their lopsided first-round encounter with Boston — Lord knows that was a lot of ground to cover — after the players had tucked into bed.
Oh the wailing. Oh the damnation of Mike Babcock. Oh the condemnation hurled at Toronto’s discombobulated defence and clanging power play and bungling PK.
Coach’s advice when the players convened at the Air Canada Centre Sunday: “Stay off social media. Right now it’s probably not a good idea for you.”
Fifty mil Babcock gets for such sage counsel.
But he’s a brilliant bench boss and maybe he can figure this sucker out before the opening faceoff Monday.
All the criticism is well deserved.
A mere four out of five the Leafs must win to set aside the Bruins after laying an egg in Beantown. But let’s not try to scale that steep rock face in one Game 3 bounding ascent.
“It’s a seven-game series for a reason,” says Tyler Bozak. “There’s no reason to get down and frustrated this early. It’s only going to hurt you. So we’ve got to stay positive, get back to what we do and try to get back in this series.” Er, what positives, exactly? “Not much, obviously.” It would be unconscionable if the Leafs got hoisted in a sweep although the likelihood of getting past the formidable Bruins — channeling championship hockey of yore — was never a solid bet. Except nobody expected this craps. The clubs were just about evenly matched in the regular season and Toronto had a 3-1 head-tohead edge. Which clearly doesn’t count for a hill of Boston beans.
It’s not just the losing, it’s the horrific way of losing: the Bruins’ utter domination, the freewheeling of their top line (a mind-boggling 20 points racked up by Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak), the stupidity of needless penalties (twice too many men on the ice), the exposure of back-end frailty, a speedy transition game that’s gone AWOL and some suddenly suspect goaltending.
So much to address in a narrow window of adjustment after the Leafs were made to study the goals they gave up Saturday on the bleary-eyed morning after.
But there’s this: The Leafs have been a quick study all season, a good bounceback team, and a fearsome opponent at the Air Canada Centre. They’re not psychologically fragile. Last Thursday was the first time we’ve seen anything remotely resembling quit in them. Even down 4-0 in what felt like a heartbeat Saturday, they found — unlike in Game 1 — a measure of pushback, albeit slam-bang smothered by the relentless Bruins attack.
The head-spinning downward spiral has been difficult to comprehend. On top of the world a week ago, basking in a 105-point season, with confident proclamations about a deep post-season run. Staring down the barrel of a humiliating early exit now. But they have to look toward each other for sustenance in what remains of the series and whatever alchemy Babcock can tease out of personnel decisions with Nazem Kadri still in suspension custody and Leo Komarov iffy with a lame knee. (Underwent tests Sunday, no verdict yet.) Uncle Leo’s forced injury absence, of course, would force the chronically stubborn Babcock to unhitch his wagon from the Finn.
Certainly the Leafs could use the arm-around presence of a Matt Martin. And would not Connor Carrick be a stop-gap improvement over the tangle-footed, bewildered Nikita Zaitsev?
Although only a handful of Leafs were made available to the media on Sunday, those up against the scrum wall did not appear crushed or panicked. Dismayed, sure. Disappointed in themselves, definitely. Stunned, likely. But not stricken. And cleaving to the strengths they know they possess and which were exhibited all year. A lead Monday, a commanding shift, a noisy power play, anything to alter the dynamics of the series in just one game.
“An early save on their first goal would have been huge,” said Freddie Andersen, looking backwards to the first of three he surrendered Saturday before being replaced by Curtis McElhinney, a mercy yank. “You make that save and we build off that. I know we’re capable of playing better, myself included.
“One big save can change the series.”
Too many pucks from in tight on the Leaf net, poor execution on boxing out the Bruins, open shooting lanes, confused coverage. Basic X’s and O’s hockey that can be rectified.
The Leafs need to remember who they are, what they’ve been over the past seven months and especially down the stretch, rather than allowing Boston to define them. Confidence previously displayed in spades has to be reignited somehow.
“We learned that all year,” says Rielly, of the self-assurance that had distinguished this club. “You work hard to put yourself into the playoffs and to win games, to have a good record. And you’ve got to earn that. Moving forward, we have to find it … You’ve got to chip away. It starts from the first shift and from there you build off of it.”
Babcock, who hasn’t been a hockey genius in this series, tried hard to squeeze out some positives from Saturday’s effort and it wasn’t all hoo-hah. “I thought actually we started out pretty good. We came out, we were on top. But when they shot it, it went into the net. We’ve got to do a better job in front of our goalie. Their one line is having too much fun, so we’ve got to look after that. The second thing has been, the play in front of our net hasn’t been good enough to have success. We’ve got to clean that up.’’
Adding: “When the puck goes in your net as many times as it did, in a hurry, you’re left scratching your head.’’
Or it could be dandruff.