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Defense at the cost of offense in loss to Preds; Leafs vs. Sabres

March 20, 2019, 9:50 AM ET [1419 Comments]
Mike Augello
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The Toronto Maple Leafs were more attentive to detail and did a better job defensively against the Nashville Predators, but it came at the cost of their offense, as the Leafs could not overcome Brian Boyle’s first period goal in a 3-0 loss at Bridgestone Arena on Tuesday.

Toronto only managed 22 shots on Pekka Rinne, who posted his fourth shutout of the season and second against the Leafs. After averaging nearly six goals against per game last week, Toronto held Nashville to 20 shots on Frederik Andersen, but the Leafs goalie was caught out of position on Boyle’s opening goal after a give-and-go with linemate Craig Smith and had no chance on Wayne Simmonds insurance tally midway through the third.

“We worked hard, I thought we played well defensively,” Leafs head coach Mike Babcock said after the game. “Rinne was really good, I didn't think we gave up much. It would be a game you'd like to win because you thought the team put in the effort and did things right and stayed patient. To me, it's just the process. If you do good things, good things happen. This was a real good step for us, especially after the week we just had.”



The Leafs got Kasperi Kapanen back in the lineup after missing four games with concussion issues, and the speedy winger had one of the better scoring chances in the game at even strength. Toronto’s power play was largely ineffective, generating only four shots on three opportunities on the evening, but Babcock once again referenced his club’s lack of depth in comparison to the Predators lineup.

“I thought we had some good looks and I thought Rinne made some real good saves.” Babcock said. “(Nashville is) a good team, they're a deep team and they're deep enough that they don't have to overplay their players and I thought they played solid tonight, but I thought we did as well. I was pleased with our effort, I would have liked to have seen us score.”

The Leafs loaded ice time on their top three blueliners, as Morgan Rielly, Ron Hainsey and Jake Muzzin all played over 22 minutes, and managed the minutes of Nikita Zaitsev(16:58), Justin Holl (13:34) and Igor Ozhiganov (13:07), who was a late replacement for an ill Martin Marincin.

With the loss, Toronto fell six points in back of Boston in the race for home-ice advantage in their first-round matchup next month. With it unlikely that the Leafs will make up that deficit in the next two-and-a-half weeks, the club should consider lightening the workload of Andersen and play him every other game to get him some rest before taking on the Bruins.



With the current state of the Leafs defense, a well rested and sharp Andersen will be imperative for Toronto to have any chance of beating Boston.

The club traveled to Buffalo and will not practice prior to Wednesday night’s match with the Sabres. Garret Sparks will get the start for Toronto, who is 1-6-0 in his last seven games.


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