Columnist image

TSN Toronto Maple Leafs Reporter

| Archive

TORONTO – In the final four games of their regular season, the Maple Leafs had earned the right to control their playoff fate. They used their positioning to clinch a postseason berth in dramatic fashion on Saturday night, but squandered a chance to dictate their first-round matchup with a 3-2 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday. 

Toronto needed a point to avoid the Washington Capitals in the first round of the playoffs and draw the Ottawa Senators instead. Columbus was resting several of its major players, including Seth Jones, Alexander Wennberg and Zach Werenski is still out with an injury, so the opportunity for Toronto to take advantage of a depleted lineup was right there.

But they didn’t, blowing a two-goal lead in the second period and finishing in the Eastern Conference’s second wild card spot, pitted against the President’s Trophy-winning Capitals in a series set to open in Washington on Thursday.

“You have to beat the best at some point,” said Jake Gardiner. “Might as well do it in the first round.”

Toronto has been a confident group all season, but there was still a twinge of disappointment over not being able to move as high as possible in the standings. Both teams were playing on the second night of a back-to-back, and the Blue Jackets were in the midst of a six-game losing skid that left them vulnerable.

“I thought [clinching on Saturday] was emotional for us. I thought we were going to have enough juice today to dig in and I didn’t think we had much juice,” said Mike Babcock. “[Now] we’re playing a real good team. We have lots of kids and we have lots of inexperienced older players as well. If you want to dip your toe into the water, you’re going to find out it’s boiling. Might as well just jump in.”

In many ways, Toronto has been an underdog all season, and their first-round series will be no different. By then they should have starting goaltender Frederik Andersen back in the crease, which will provide a huge boost. Andersen missed Sunday’s game with an injury he suffered the night before, and it was on the rest of the team to try and make backup Curtis McElhinney’s job as easy as possible.

Toronto leads the league in first period goals (85), but for the second time in a week they were scoreless after 20 minutes. Squandering an early four-minute power play ended up hurting them as their energy dwindled in the final 25 minutes, and they couldn’t find an equalizer. But dwelling on what might have been for Toronto stopped the second the final buzzer hit zero.

“I think we have to move forward. We’re looking forward to playing in the playoffs and we have a good challenge ahead of us,” said James van Riemsdyk, who scored both of Toronto’s goals. “Once you get in, anything can happen. You just have to play right and we’re excited for the challenge. Everyone sees the year [Washington] has had. It makes it fun in these types of games in hostile atmospheres. It should be fun.”

Having played five games in the final seven days of the season, a day off Monday will give the Maple Leafs a chance to collect themselves before the real work begins.

“It was a lot of hockey, a lot of important games,” Connor Carrick said. “You’re wired up for everyone, but you want to play games that are high-energy and that mean something. We just want to go out now and try to assert our game early in the series. Playoffs aren’t going to be easy no matter how you skin the cat, so let’s go into someone’s building and try and give them hell.”

Takeaways

This again: Holding onto leads is something the Maple Leafs haven’t done with nearly enough consistency this season. Over their recent 14-5-1 stretch that propelled them into the playoffs, that particular propensity hadn’t been much of an issue, but it was against Columbus. After van Riemsdyk gave Toronto a two-goal lead nearly seven minutes into the second frame, the Blue Jackets had a response ready to go. They countered with three unanswered goals in 6:48 to hold a 3-2 lead by the time the frame ended. Matt Calvert backhanded the first goal past McElhinney, Josh Anderson tied the game with a rapid wrist shot aided by Jake Gardiner tripping at the blue line, and Cam Atkinson’s shorthanded goal in the final minute was the second Toronto has allowed in the last five games. It was a deflating stretch for Toronto that they couldn’t recover from in the final 20 minutes, sealing their fate and their playoff opponent in one fell swoop.

Cause for concern? Part of the Maple Leafs problem on Sunday stemmed from the fact they were down to four defencemen for much of the second and third period. Nikita Zaitsev took a hit from Nick Foligno late in the first period and looked wobbly right away, but came back for one shift in the second before leaving again. Roman Polak also left in the second period after suffering what appeared to be a leg injury. Zaitsev was ruled out with an upper-body injury but Polak did return after missing the first six minutes of the third, and only played one shift. Toronto’s weakest position all season has been defence, and losing Zaitsev for even one playoff game would be devastating, but Babcock said he was “not” concerned the rookie wouldn’t be ready for Game 1. Martin Marincin and Alexey Marchenko are waiting in the wings, but Zaitsev is Toronto’s leader in ice time (22:12) and had been taking on top matchups all season with Morgan Rielly and Gardiner.

Over the top: van Riemsdyk played some of his strongest hockey of the season over the Leafs final two games, and looked motivated from the start of Sunday’s matchup to help his team avoid a showdown with the Capitals. He got Toronto on the board with a shortside strike from the left circle, his second goal in as many games. van Riemsdyk came calling again 4:33 later, scoring his 29th of the season and establishing a new career-high of 62 points. It was the third multi-goal game of the season for van Riemsdyk, who last scored two against Boston on Feb. 4. The veterans and his line mates have all had career years, with Tyler Bozak having already set a career-high in points when he hit 50 (he finished with 55) and Mitch Marner setting a new franchise rookie records in assists at 42. Their possession numbers were superb against the Blue Jackets as well, registering nearly 60 per cent and above each. Beyond just producing, that trio will need to be tighter defensively in the postseason – they give up the most goals of any regular line combination for Toronto (2.88 goals-against per 60 minutes). Van Riemsdyk finished with six shots on goal for the second straight game.

About face: Babcock puts a lot of emphasis and importance on his team winning face-offs. It’s part of why they added Brian Boyle at the trade deadline, and what makes Bozak such a big piece of their offensive success. On Sunday, Toronto won 59 percent of its draws mostly because of how strong the two veterans were. Bozak won 78 per cent of his face-offs, his third-highest total of the season, and was on the ice for every major draw in the final ten minutes of the game. Boyle also showed well at 75 percent, his third-highest total since joining the Maple Leafs. Toronto handily won the possession battle with Columbus (at nearly 55 per cent) and it’s because of those crucial wins by Bozak they were able to sustain pressure at the end and preserve any hope of tallying a tying goal.

Next game: Toronto will travel to Washington for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal matchup on Thursday.​