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The Toronto Maple Leafs looked discombobulated and flat in their first outing since a series of trades, as Connor McDavid scored twice in a 5-2 victory over the Leafs in Edmonton. The leading candidate for the Hart, Art Ross, and Rocket Richard Trophies notched his 51st and 52nd goals of the season in the first period, along with former Leaf Zach Hyman’s 29th of the season contributing to a 3-1 Oilers lead after 20 minutes, from which Toronto was unable to respond.
“We just didn’t play with any purpose or intelligence.” A disappointed Sheldon Keefe said after the game.
David Kampf and Mitch Marner scored for the Leafs and Ilya Samsonov had a rough outing, allowing five goals on 32 shots in his eighth loss of the season. Jake McCabe and Sam Lafferty made their Toronto debut, wearing #22 and #28. McCabe played almost 21 minutes partnered with TJ Brodie, while Lafferty played 11:56, starting on the fourth line with Zach Aston-Reese and Noel Acciari, but moved up to a third line with Alex Kerfoot and Ryan O’Reilly when Keefe scrambled his lines in the third.
“Our opponent tonight was very focused and very committed to playing together to win a game. Our guys started fine, but just the way we started the penalty kill against the number-one power play in the history of NHL. We get our first exit and give it right back to them. We are not serious about winning when that is the case.” Keefe said. “Those are our regular penalty killers. Those are our top people. That is how we started the game. It didn’t get much better from there.”
The Leafs hope to rebound in the second of back-to-back Alberta games against the Flames in Calgary. Toronto will start rookie Joseph Woll with Matt Murray not available but close to being ready. Keefe could make some lineup changes with acquisitions Luke Schenn and Erik Gustafsson available. Timothy Liljegren was absent for most of the third period after stumbling awkwardly in the boards and reportedly entering concussion protocol before returning to the bench late in the game, and Justin Holl had his bell rung by noted pugilist Ryan Nugent-Hopkins after the Leafs defenseman checked Kailer Yamamoto.
GM Kyle Dubas and the Leafs hierarchy headed to Vancouver in advance of the club’s Saturday game to set up for the final hours of the NHL Trade Deadline, and based on the moves made by the club’s Atlantic Division foes, Toronto may be making another move or two before 3 pm Friday.
Boston responded to the injury news on forwards Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno with the acquisition of Tyler Bertuzzi from the Detroit Red Wings for a 2024 first-round pick and 2025 fourth-rounder. Tampa made a move to open up cap space, sending journeyman forward Vladislav Namestnikov to San Jose for Michael Eyssimont. The Lightning are retaining 50% of Namestnikov’s $2.5 million salary, but they may use the savings to bolster their blueline.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that Tampa is making inquiries on Montreal blueliner Joel Edmundson, who has a salary of $3.5 million for this and next season.
Toronto currently has nine defensemen on the roster and veteran Jordie Benn assigned to the AHL Toronto Marlies. They may be in a position to shop Gustafsson with a low salary ($800,000) for draft picks that could be flipped to make another addition to the roster.
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