The Toronto Maple Leafs issues with consistency and goaltending once again cost them a winnable game, as they surrendered a pair of first period goals six seconds apart in a 5-3 loss to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday.
Auston Matthews scored twice and moved to within one goal of Alex Ovechkin in the race for the Rocket Richard Trophy with a pair of tallies, and John Tavares scored his 20th goal for the Leafs, and Michael Hutchinson made 30 saves in Toronto’s second straight loss.
Tavares opened the scoring at 7:36 of the first period, but the Rangers replied just over a minute later on a goal by Filip Chytil. Late in the first, Mika Zibanejad put New York in the lead after Matthews had lost a draw cleanly to Chris Kreider and off the center ice draw, Kreider blew past Justin Holl and beat Hutchinson to extend the lead to 3-1.
The Rangers seemed to have a response for every Toronto rally, whether it came in the form of a save by rookie Igor Shesterkin or another goal. Matthews narrowed the lead to one late in the middle frame, but it took New York only 34 seconds to respond to #34, as Pavel Buchnevich took advantage of a Hutchinson miscue to make it 4-2. Matthews scored again on the power play late in the third to close the gap, but former Leaf Greg McKegg scored into an empty net to clinch it for the Broadway Blueshirts.
“We did get a good start, set us up really well. There was a lot of game left to play so I don't know if it was a missed opportunity necessarily, but very disappointing we weren't able to build upon that. Instead, we gave it back and dug ourselves a hole we weren't able to get out of.” Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game. “I thought the second period we had a lot of really good things happening. Obviously, we scored the goal to make it one. The fourth goal was pretty defeating and devastating, frankly. We just didn't have anything from there.”
The loss prompted Leafs GM Kyle Dubas to spring into action and after the game the club announced that they had dealt winger Trevor Moore and a pair of draft picks to the Los Angeles Kings for veteran forward Kyle Clifford and goalie Jack Campbell.
Clifford, 29, has 129 points (60 goals, 69 assists) in 660 career NHL games, has 14 points (6 goals, 8 assists) in 53 games for Los Angeles this season, was part of the Kings Stanley Cup championships of 2012 and 2014, and is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.
Campbell, 28, is a 2010 first round pick of the Dallas Stars who posted a career-best 2.30 GAA and .928 save percentage in 31 games for the Kings last season, and this year is 8-10-2 in 20 games, with a 2.85 GAA and .900 save percentage. The Port Huron, MI native signed a two-year, $3.3 Million contract extension last September but is currently making $675,000.
The Kings will retain 50% of Clifford’s $1.6 Million salary. In addition to acquiring Moore (a southern California native), the Leafs traded a 2020 third round pick (Columbus) acquired from Ottawa in the Cody Ceci deal and a conditional 2021 pick which will at least be a third round pick but could end up as a second if the Leafs re-sign Clifford or if Campbell wins six games the rest of the season and Toronto makes the playoffs.
As Elliotte Friedman reported on Wednesday before the deal, Campbell made sense for Toronto because he was signed for multiple years and Dubas knew him from his days as GM in Sault Ste. Marie. Clifford also has a connection to the Leafs GM, who was his agent before joining the Greyhounds.
Just as he did last season, Dubas made the first move leading up to the deadline, before the market got too expensive. The only question is whether the acquisition of Campbell was prompted simply by the need to upgrade from Hutchinson or whether the Leafs are fearful that Andersen will be out longer than day-to-day with his neck injury.
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