Losers of three of their last four games, and barely hanging on to an NHL playoff spot, you wouldn’t be wrong to say that the Toronto Maple Leafs are at a crossroads.
The Maple Leafs suffered another painful defeat Saturday night when they went down 2-1 in overtime in Montreal.
Toronto played very well at both ends of the ice right up until captain John Tavares scored his fifth goal in four games just over a minute into the third period at the Bell Centre.
Having only allowed 11 shots on goal up until that point, the Leafs suddenly employed hockey’s version of the prevent defence, which worked fairly well until Marco Scandella blistered a shot past Jack Campbell for his first goal as a Hab with 2:33 left to play to force overtime where the Canadiens won on Ilya Kovalchuk’s ninth goal of the season.
Toronto was outshot 16-1 in the third period, their only shot being Tavares’ icebreaker, and abandoned their bread and butter — playing an aggressive offensive game.
Were the Leafs confident that they could continue to keep Montreal off the scoreboard?
After a hard-fought overtime win against Anaheim the night before, was Toronto too tired to close out the game?
They may not even know the answers to those questions, but I know this, the Leafs are going to have many more tight outings over their last 26 contests on the calendar and the time for excuses is over.
Toronto blew third period leads in three of their last four games last week and came away with only three out of a possible eight points.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that that kind of production will not get the Leafs into the playoffs.
With four games on tap this week (vs. Arizona, vs. Dallas, at Ottawa, at Buffalo) and a slew of tough opponents on the horizon, it is time for the Maple Leafs to get their act together and start playing a complete game every night.