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The Maple Leafs Showed Some Improvement Against Red Wings But Still Have Problems Closing Out Games

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DETROIT — The Toronto Maple Leafs have picked up five points out of a possible six in their last three games. Given how poor the results have been for the club this season, that should be a reason for optimism. However, a win against the top team in the Atlantic Division would have been far more satisfying. Instead, Toronto had to settle for a 3-2 overtime loss against the Detroit Red Wings, despite holding the lead twice.

After jumping out to a 1-0 lead in the second period thanks to a power-play goal from Matthew Knies, the Maple Leafs were about a minute away from entering the second intermission with the lead. That changed when an extended shift in the offensive zone by Detroit led to a Moritz Seider point shot that tied the game with 58 seconds remaining in the frame.

“I thought that in the second period we turned a couple pucks over in the neutral zone and a couple in our D-zone where we just got to make simpler plays,” Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube lamented. “And then we get extended in our zone and they ended up scoring”.

Defenseman Jake McCabe was on the ice for 1:47 before Seider’s goal, highlighting the difficulty the team faced in getting the puck out of harm's way.

In the third period, Nick Robertson reclaimed the lead for Toronto with a solid wrist shot that beat Red Wings goaltender Cam Talbot. But just 23 seconds later, Mason Appleton caught the Leafs off guard, blowing past Troy Stecher and the Toronto defense. While Leafs forward Nicolas Roy called for an offside on the play, the Leafs ultimately did not challenge the goal.

Despite the loss, there were bright spots for Toronto. A struggling power play that previously resulted in the dismissal of assistant coach Marc Savard has suddenly turned around, producing three goals in the last two games. Dennis Hildeby was also solid in net making 31 saves on 34 shots, giving the club further confidence to utilize him while managing Joseph Woll’s workload during the absence of Anthony Stolarz due to a mysterious upper-body injury.

But the Leafs were still not good enough at 5-on-5 when it mattered. They sat back when they had the lead, and it burned them.

“We obviously are going to find ourselves in a lot of these hockey games, especially within the division,” Maple Leafs forward John Tavares said. “We’ve got to stay with it and find a way to come out on the right side of it. We'll take the point and build on some of the good things, clean up our neutral zone—especially in the third period—and look toward a big week ahead”.

While the Leafs have played with a better sense of urgency coming off the break, questions remain as to whether they are currently good enough. The Red Wings demonstrated what can happen when young, promising talent comes together. For the Leafs, the path forward requires being a better team, one step at a time.

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