Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Jake Gardiner was booed on home ice Monday night after losing a puck battle to Colorado Avalanche forward Carl Soderberg which resulted in the Avalanche taking a 3-2 lead. 

“That hasn’t happened before, that’s for sure,” Gardiner said after the loss. “It’s not something you want to hear, but plays happen in a game, fans are passionate and they want to win.”

Gardiner was outworked for the puck in front of the Maple Leafs net while on the power play in the second period and Soderberg shot it over the right pad of Frederik Andersen for the Avalanche to take their first lead of the night. The Avalanche would go in to win the game 6-3 with the help of two empty-net goals.

“I just tried to get body position,” Gardiner said of the play. “Then when I did that I whiffed on the puck, so then he regained body positions and scored.”

Gardiner said that both and he defence partner Nikita Zaitsev need to be better, though teammates and head coach Mike Babcock came to the defence of the 28-year-old.

“Jake’s a great player and been a great player on this team for eight years now, maybe more. He comes to work every day here like a pro," fellow defenceman Morgan Rielly said. "His teammates love him, he’s the most popular guy in this room. Guys make mistakes out there all night. It’s played on ice, so things happen that can be unpredictable and it just happens that ends up in the back of the net. If it doesn’t, it’s probably a nothing play.

“We’ll move on, we have a road trip to worry about.”

Gardiner sits second on the Leafs in average ice time this season at 21:36 per game and Babcock stressed his importance to the team.

“What I would say is that (Gardiner) is a really, really good player, a really important piece," Babcock said. "He didn’t play good. The good thing about our fans is they’re passionate. They want us to win. They want us to play way harder than that. We want to play harder than that for them. I think we’ve done a good job over time here to be a real good team to watch. We weren’t good enough to watch (against Colorado). They paid their money. They’re allowed to say what they want. The bottom line is he’s an important player for us. We need him to be good.”

Gardiner, who is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent in July, finished with no points and an even rating against the Avalanche in 18:07 of ice time. Through 45 games this season, he has two goals and 24 points with a plus-18 rating.