The Toronto Maple Leafs dropped a third straight game and fell to 1-5 in their past six with a 4-0 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Sunday.
Coming off a 4-2 defeat to the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday, Toronto held even with the Devils in the first period, with both teams putting up seven shots. New Jersey, however, tilted the ice in the second period, taking a 2-0 lead while outshooting Toronto 13-6.
Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews said the falloff after 20 minutes was indictive of a problem that has plagued the team this season.
“It’s kind of the same story,” Matthews said. “I thought we had a good first period. It’s just been tough for us to string together momentum and consistency through 60 minutes of play, and that’s really just been our Achilles’ heel all season long.”
“Not a good game for us,” head coach Jim Hiller added. “First period, I thought, was all right. Obviously, that was our best period, and not much going on, which I think probably benefited us tonight. And once a couple of their top players broke loose, we had a hard time with them.”
The Maple Leafs fell to 8-9-2 with Sunday’s loss and are tied for the league lead with 19 games played. The first month-plus of the season has been filled with injuries for Toronto, who were already without Morgan Rielly, Chris Tanev and Jack Roslovic before forward Colton Sissons exited with a lower-body injury against the Devils.
Toronto got former captain John Tavares back on Saturday, but remain without star addition Kirill Marchenko due to a lower-body injury suffered on Oct. 26.
“We have a lot of guys that are out right now, which is tough,” Matthews said. “But it’s that next-man-up mentality. Everybody’s just got to ask a little bit more of themselves and go from there and just be better.”
The Maple Leafs will continue their six-game homestand on Tuesday against the Colorado Avalanche, with the Minnesota Wild and Edmonton Oilers also coming to town this week.
Toronto currently sits 12th in the Eastern Conference in points percentage, a concerning mark as the team hopes to return to the playoffs this season after finishing fifth-last in the league last season.