The Toronto Maple Leafs have used offensive hockey to outscore their defensive flaws and pile up victories, but they met their match against Connor McDavid, who scored a highlight reel goal and three assists in a 6-4 Edmonton Oilers victory at Scotiabank Arena on Monday.
The loss that ended Toronto’s consecutive points streak at 10 was mostly due to the Leafs core group not clicking against a subpar Oilers defense and their defense not having an answer to shut down Edmonton’s dynamic duo of McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, who combined for six points.
The Leafs dug themselves a big hole, falling behind 3-0 two minutes into the second period and allowing 19 shots on Frederik Andersen, forcing head coach Sheldon Keefe to pull his starter in favor of backup Michael Hutchinson.
“I just told our team I'm not going to let Freddie play behind that. That's not fair to him.” Keefe said after the game. “To that point I felt like he already had almost a full game worth of work. We made the change, sometimes you make those changes and it gets your team's attention. We didn't get their attention in the first intermission like we would have liked to, like we thought that we would have or thought that we did. It didn't transfer to the ice, so I had to do something such as that to get our team's attention and to save Freddie from what was happening.”
Jason Spezza, Frederik Gauthier, and Pierre Engvall scored in the middle frame to draw the Leafs to within 4-3, but Edmonton pulled away in the third on Draisaitl’s 25th of the season just inside the far post and McDavid’s undressing of Morgan Rielly to put the game away.
“We just gave (McDavid) way too much space.” Auston Matthews said after the game. “He's the most dangerous player in the world for a reason, so if you just let him fly through the neutral zone with the speed and skill that he has, he's going to make us pay. That's what he did tonight.”
The Leafs practiced in two groups at the Ford Performance Centre on Tuesday, with skating coach Barb Underhill working with the blueliners and goaltenders. Toronto continues their three-game homestand on Wednesday with their second meeting with the Winnipeg Jets. Toronto won 6-3 at the Bell MTS Place on January 2.
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Toronto lost a lot of experience and leadership with the departures of Ron Hainsey, Patrick Marleau and Tyler Ennis last season and may be looking to add some before the NHL Trade Deadline.
The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun reported on Tuesday that while Carolina continues to negotiate with former team captain Justin Williams, other clubs have expressed interest in the 38-year-old winger.
Other reports mentioned the Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning, but LeBrun indicated that the Leafs made a pitch to the Cobourg, ON native this week.
Williams scored 53 points (23 goals, 30 assists) in 82 games for the Hurricanes last season and led them to the Eastern Conference Final before losing to the Bruins.
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