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The Toronto Maple Leafs followed up their worst loss of the young season in Columbus with another questionable effort in a 5-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues at Scotiabank Arena on Thursday, but unlike the lopsided defeat to the Blue Jackets on Tuesday, an excuse related to fatigue could not be used. The Leafs simply played a careless, lackadaisical defensive game that saw them fall behind 2-0 early in the first period and had them playing catch-up the rest of the contest.
We made mistakes, defensive mistakes, bottom line.” Leafs head coach Craig Berube said after the game. “(There was) a lack of awareness on some of (the goals). For me, we gave (the Blues) three goals (and) that shouldn’t happen.”
Toronto’s play this week has been a tale of two teams, with their core group standing out in a victory over Tampa. That same group was wanting at both ends of the ice and on special teams in the consecutive losses. The top line of Matthew Knies, Auston Matthews, and Mitch Marner were directly responsible for Philip Broberg’s opening goal and Alexandre Texier’s marker to make it 3-1, prompting Berube to call it an example of “lazy hockey”. The Leafs power play again appeared discombobulated, going 0 for 4 on the night.
“We are just losing coverage, we are not helping each other out in the coverage areas. Too much time and space on some of them instead of being physical and closing plays out.” Berube said. “We are giving up too many odd-man rushes right now, and we have to nip that in the bud.“
Joseph Woll made 22 stops in his first outing of the season, and while the Leafs goalie believed he should have stopped one or two of the goals to keep the game closer, his head coach blamed the team in front of him.
“He made some big saves on some of those plays, ”Berube said. “The first (goal) he was screened on and couldn’t see it. We let a guy stand right in front of him and we didn’t clear out f the front of the net, and the second goal, the guy is right on the doorstep all alone on the PK.”
The Leafs will finish off their busy week in Boston on Saturday against the equally struggling Bruins. It will be the first time Toronto has faced their Atlantic archrival since the overtime loss in Game 7, which may be just the thing to arouse Toronto out of their recent funk.
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
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