TORONTO – All that stood between the Toronto Maple Leafs and a textbook finish was an unfortunate bounce.
“Bad ice,” said James van Riemsdyk.
The only reason Martin Marincin found himself sitting in the penalty box when Ottawa Senators forward Mike Hoffman tied the game late is because the puck skipped as the Leafs defenceman calmly tried to clear it from his zone.
“You know, it happens,” said Marincin. “That’s hockey.”
“It’s unfortunate the puck went out,” added head coach Mike Babcock.
In the blink of an eye, a patiently executed game became a 3-2 shootout loss at Air Canada Centre on Saturday. However, this looked nothing like the blown leads of weeks past – where the Leafs’ defensive zone coverage often turned into a fire drill at the first sign of heat.
There were exactly 13 minutes to play in regulation when Matt Martin tipped home a Nazem Kadri shot to put Toronto ahead 2-1.
Plenty of time for the Sens to make a push. Yet it didn’t really come.
They struggled to generate dangerous chances as Frederik Andersen’s teammates began to lock things down. In fact, Ottawa managed all of three shots on goal in the 10-plus minutes before Marincin sent the bouncing puck over the glass and gave the Senators new life with an automatic delay of game penalty.
“I thought we were doing a real good job,” said Babcock. “It’s a tough break for Marty it went over.”
The sequence helps explain why there wasn’t any deep sense of disappointment about the outcome.
Sure, the Leafs aren’t exactly thrilled with the shootout format in general – “I think they just need to skew the points a little more,” said van Riemsdyk. “It seems interesting that you can win a shootout and get as many points as beating a team in 60 minutes” – but after falling to 1-6 on the season, what do you expect them to say?
Of far more importance to this team right now is playing the right way in tight games. There will be plenty of those ahead after the all-star break.
Should the Leafs manage to consistently close out opponents as the stakes go up, they won’t have to worry about the points they’ve frittered away in the skills competition this season.
Of particular note from Saturday’s game was how heavily Babcock leaned on rookie centre Auston Matthews in crunch time – playing him for nearly half of the final 6:08 of regulation even though he didn’t have any penalty killing responsibilities when Marincin was in the box.
It was Matthews that came to Andersen’s aid in the dying seconds by sweeping a dribbling puck to safety, guaranteeing the Leafs at least one loser point.
The level of defensive trust placed in the 19-year-old has gone to another level in the last three weeks. He and linemates Connor Brown and Zach Hyman were out in the final minute of the Jan. 1 Centennial Classic against Detroit – unable to clear the puck before the Red Wings tied it. (Matthews more than made it up for it by scoring the overtime winner in that outdoor game.)
At its core, this is still a learning season for the NHL’s youngest team and Babcock has continued to press his No. 1 centre into high-leverage situations.
He saw late shifts against both Jean-Gabriel Pageau – whose line was stout defensively against the Matthews trio in Ottawa last Saturday – and Kyle Turris, tilting the ice in Toronto’s direction. He was playing a big role in squeezing the life out of the Sens.
It proved to be that kind of night overall.
“There was not much room out there for either team,” said Babcock. “So it was more of a grind or work game. If you want to be fancy or that, it’s a different game you’re playing.”
“Sometimes not much happens but that’s when you’ve got to be patient,” added Kadri. “We found a way to get a couple goals but unfortunately it wasn’t good enough.”
This was a reminder that we are inching closer to the real grind.
The Leafs are currently clinging to one of the Eastern Conference wild card spots and have three games left before the all-star break. Then comes the sprint to the finish.
They have led in games against more than all but four NHL teams this season, consistently putting themselves in position for positive results. They were there once again on Saturday and fell victim to the kind of uncontrollable bounce that’s going to even itself out over a long schedule.
“I’ve got no problem with today’s game,” said Babcock. “I would have liked to get the extra point, they got the extra point. We’ve got a day off tomorrow, let’s have a breather and get ready to go.”
On to the next one.
