TORONTO — If sympathy was going to come from anywhere you would expect it to be from a familiar face. But as Carl Gunnarsson walked to the bus at Air Canada Centre following a 6-1 St. Louis victory over Toronto there wasn’t even an ounce of remorse.
“It was nice to be on the other side when the booing started there,” he told me Saturday night.
This was ugly even by the painfully low standards of a season that can’t end soon enough in Toronto. The Blues are legitimate Stanley Cup contenders and the Leafs … well, the Leafs are floating downstream without a life raft.
What might have been most notable about the proceedings was how little booing there actually was. A mixture of apathy and acceptance has sunk in here — undeniably for those in the stands and arguably for those in the dressing room.
So it is in a game like this one where you’re reminded that the care has to come from somewhere or else it’ll quickly turn into a long night.
The Blues picked the Leafs apart with little regard on Saturday, keeping their foot on the gas while out-attempting them 65-41 in shots.
“You feel for the guys with everything that’s going on, but I mean what can you do?” said Gunnarsson, who was traded to St. Louis last summer. “We’re trying to play well and it’s not going their way. It’s not like we kicked them out of the playoff spot or anything, they’re down there (in the standings).
“It’s not nice to see it 6-1, but we’re trying. There’s two teams out there.”
Charitably, it was more like one and a half.
Interim Leafs coach Peter Horachek has done well to keep his cool throughout a trying period, but couldn’t find anything redeeming about this game. There was no attempt on his part to sugarcoat his team’s 28th loss in 35 games.
“I think there was no effort,” said Horachek. “We didn’t play to win any of the 50/50 battles, we weren’t competing hard enough, we didn’t forecheck, we didn’t keep the puck in the offensive zone.”
The first period from St. Louis was a masterclass in defeating a deflated bunch. Toronto didn’t even manage a shot for 10 minutes while the Blues essentially played keep-away with the puck.
That eventually paid off with three goals over a five-minute span — each of which could find its way to a highlight reel: Jaden Schwartz carved through the Leafs defence like a knife through butter before picking the top corner; T.J. Oshie made it 2-0 with a ridiculous backhand deke; and Vladimir Tarasenko flashed his all-world shot just seconds before the intermission.
“You don’t want to give them those chances from in that close,” said Blues coach Ken Hitchcock.
We might as well have turned out the lights at that point and gone home. The Leafs had absolutely no fight in them, even after captain Dion Phaneuf levelled Oshie with a massive — and clean — open-ice hit during the second period.
Evidence of that came during a Toronto power play where St. Louis basically controlled the play. That eventually led to a Chris Butler short-handed goal.
“I think it’s pretty deflating when we’re a man down and doing a good job of getting the puck down and getting new fresh legs on the ice,” said Backes.
Added Phaneuf: “It’s not even close to acceptable.”
It had seemed for a while that the Leafs would inevitably go on a winning run late in this season, especially because there’s been improved defensive play since Horachek replaced Randy Carlyle in January.
Now it appears much less certain.
Even though they won’t face many opponents as tough as this one over the remaining 16 games, they aren’t a tough bunch to discourage. All you have to do is signal to them early that it’s going to be a difficult night.
And while this season might ultimately end up being a blessing in disguise for fans in Toronto — depending on how the lottery balls fall in April and the coming rebuild takes shape — the next month won’t likely be pretty.
After all, no opponent is going to look at the Leafs plight with much empathy.
“I can’t say that feeling’s completely foreign to me,” said Backes. “We had a few thin years in St. Louis when I first got there. You know the feeling when a team comes in and plays hard right away and gets you on your heels that getting that momentum is a tough thing to get back.
“We were using that to our advantage.”
It’s not very often a win comes with so little resistance.
