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It is surprising that Sheldon Keefe has hair still left on his head, based on how many times the Toronto Maple Leafs have lost to the dregs of the NHL over his tenure as head coach. This is not to say that it is solely on him, since the Leafs have been displaying this general lack of motivation during the Mike Babcock, Randy Carlyle, and Ron Wilson eras.
This latest display of an all-too-frequent trend was a 4-3 overtime loss to the Chicago Blackhawks at the United Center on Friday. It was indeed a “Black” Friday for the Leafs, coming off their triumphant trip to Sweden, but it did not appear that way early on, as Nick Robertson, Calle Jarnkrok, and (yes, folks) Ryan Reaves had Toronto up 3-1 less than four minutes into the second period.
But as the Leafs often do, they played down to their opposition and could not put a Chicago club without veterans Taylor Hall, Andreas Athanasiou, and Leaf killer Corey Perry away. Toronto could not corral noted goal scorer Jason Dickinson, who registered his first career hat trick to tie the game in the third, and after William Nylander hit not all three poles on an overtime breakaway, Hawks defenseman Kevin Korchinski buried the puck past an unaware Ilya Samsonov for the win.
“We didn’t score enough early on our chances. We could’ve had two or three in the first three minutes of the game.” Keefe said. “(Chicago) scored three goals where we had the puck on our sticks in our end and it ended up in our net. That made it easier for them.”
Toronto provided a team that is only being kept out of last place in the NHL by San Jose with two of their six victories this season.
The positives in the game were the play of the third line of Calle Jarnkrok, Max Domi, and Nick Robertson, who were responsible for two goals, but there were far too many negatives. The top two lines went scoreless against a young and inferior club, and the top unit of Matthew Knies, Auston Matthews, and Mitch Marner were on the ice for two goals. Goaltender Ilya Samsonov was weak on Dickinson’s first-period goal that leaked through the short side, and unaware of his second backdoor goal and Korchinski’s odd overtime winner. To top it off, the club was given their seventh too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty (the most in the NHL).
blooper goal:
the puck hit the boards and fell on top of the net and landed right beside Samsonov and in front of Korchinski pic.twitter.com/cWBOAbzEQI
Another head-scratcher was the insertion of Reaves into the lineup after the club had won four games in a row with Bobby McMann on the fourth line. The veteran enforcer did score his first of the season after being on the ice for 11 straight goals against, but after snapping that streak, Reaves started a new one by not covering Dickinson going to the net.
The Leafs play their second of back-to-back games on Saturday in Pittsburgh against the struggling Penguins, who blew a two-goal third-period lead in a 3-2 loss to Buffalo on Friday. Tristan Jarry will be in goal for Pittsburgh, and Joseph Woll will start for Toronto.
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
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