The Toronto Maple Leafs opened their eyes on Sunday not to the light of the sun, tweeting birds or the alarm on their smartphones, but trailing by three goals, being heavily outshot and verbally pelted by head coach Randy Carlyle as he frantically scribbled on a whiteboard. That slumber was costly, as the Leafs were unable to recover from the deficit in a 4-2 loss to the Washington Capitals at Verizon Center.
“Obviously we were pretty flat the first period.” an understated Carlyle indicated after the game. “We didn’t really skate, it looked like we were still in for our afternoon nap playing an afternoon game.”
All the damage came in the opening 8:44 of the first, as the Leafs defense and penalty killing simply could not handle the Capitals forwards in front of the net. Troy Brouwer’s opening goal was as a result of the bad decision making and positioning of defensemen Dion Phaneuf and Cody Franson during a Washington power play.
“We missed assignments on our coverage.” Carlyle said. “You can’t let Troy Brouwer shoot the puck from 10 feet in front of your goaltender, there’s obviously a missed assignment and missed coverage in that situation.”
Just over three minutes later, Phaneuf was again victimized in losing a puck battle in front of the net to Joel Ward, whose shot deflected off of Jason Chimera’s skate past James Reimer. A questionable penalty to the Leafs captain, who had been a game time decision to play after being down with flu symptoms, cost Toronto once again as Ward drifted through their penalty killing box unhindered to make it 3-0.
Toronto began to show signs of life late in the first, as Troy Bodie jumped on a loose puck and snapped it high over the shoulder of Caps goalie Jaroslav Halak to narrow the lead to 3-1, but took over the game in the second, with a 20 shot barrage on the recently acquired netminder.
Phaneuf narrowed the lead to 3-2 as David Clarkson provided an effective screen in front of Halak to allow his deflected point shot to drift by, but the Leafs could not tie the game in spite of three power play opportunities late in the middle frame.
Reimer recovered from some shaky rebound control and glove work early in the game to put in his second straight fine effort, stopping 30 shots on the night. With Toronto pressing for the tying goal in the third, the Leafs goalie stopped Ward on a close in chance, made two excellent stops on Chimera and robbed Mike Green on an odd-man break to keep the game within striking distance.
Toronto was unable to generate any good scoring chances with Reimer pulled from the goal, as Brouwer registered his 20th of the season into the empty net to give the Capitals their second straight home victory.
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The loss moves Washington to within six points of Toronto in the standings and draws the Leafs closer to the mix for a wild card spot than for a top three slot in the Atlantic Division. The Montreal Canadiens moved past the Leafs into second in the Atlantic after winning 2-0 in Buffalo on Sunday
Toronto faces a very critical week in their pursuit of a second straight playoff spot, as they face three foes who directly threaten that goal. The Leafs finish their lengthy five game road trip against the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday. The Wings trail Toronto by seven points, but have two games in hand and face the Blue and White twice over the next 11 days, which will provide ample motivation for the wounded Wings.
The Leafs return to the ACC on Wednesday to face Tampa Bay, who trail by one point and also have two games in hand. The Lightning will use one of them on Monday at home against the struggling Vancouver Canucks.
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Carlyle was not able to provide any further info on the status of injured goaltender Jonathan Bernier after the game on Sunday, other than that Bernier was still with the club and that Reimer will again get the start in Detroit on Tuesday.
TSN’s Jonas Siegel reported that Bernier took a ride on the stationary bike at the Verizon Center on Sunday morning and there is no indication whether the Leafs starting goalie has undergone an MRI on the lower body injury that made him leave the game in Los Angeles after one period on Thursday.
Equally shrouded in mystery is the status of Dave Bolland. The center continues to skate with the club and rehabilitate the ankle injury suffered last November, but turned down media interview requests over the weekend and appears no closer to getting back into the lineup.
The Leafs are in need of all hands on deck for the remaining 13 games of the regular season, but the real target for Bolland may be mid-April when the real season begins.
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