The Maple Leafs lost 5-1 to the Florida Panthers on Thursday night at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Fla. Friday is a day off for the team.
—
The Leafs have fallen eight points out of a playoff spot with one week left until the NHL trade deadline next Friday.
“It’s not a fun time of year for anybody,” defenceman Brandon Carlo said prior to Thursday’s game. “There’s situations when you know your team’s going really well and you’re looking to add and there’s situations when it’s not … It’s a hard reality to face. It adds a little bit of extra angst during this time.”
The angst is only growing after the Leafs lost 5-1 on Thursday, dropping a second straight game coming out of the Olympic break.
The Leafs have done a lot of buying since Auston Matthews and William Nylander entered the league, but the feeling is much different heading into this year’s deadline.
“There’s always going to be a lot of noise,” said Matthews. “For us, it’s focusing on the guys in the room right now, focusing on what’s in front of us, directly in front of us, which is the next game on Saturday.”
Any concern that management is entering sell mode?
“I don’t know what to say,” Nylander responded. “That’s their decision and whatever they do I’m still going to be trying my best every night.”
‘Probably in the back of people’s minds’: Leafs trying to tune out trade talk With every loss for the Maple Leafs, the reach for the playoffs gets further away and inevitably, the trade talk ramps up. Auston Matthews admitted there is a lot of noise but the players are trying to stay focused on what they can control on the ice, despite all the swirling speculation.
There are five Leafs, who are in the top 50 on TSN’s latest trade bait list, including winger Bobby McMann (No. 7), centre Scott Laughton (No. 21), defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson (No. 25), defenceman Simon Benoit (No. 39) and Carlo (No. 42).
“I don’t think that’s something worth focusing on for myself,” said goalie Joseph Woll. “It’s probably in the back of people’s minds and whatnot, but for me I haven’t really thought about it. I’m trying to focus on what’s important now and take it a day at a time, and stay in the moment.”
It’s probably harder to maintain focus when you’re a pending unrestricted free agent like Laughton, who is a local kid living out a childhood dream by playing for the Leafs.
“You try not to think about it, but it’s your life at the end of the day,” the veteran centre from Oakville, Ont. said prior to Thursday’s game. “It’s where you live. It’s where you work. I love my time here. I love spending time with the guys here and being in the fight and I want to continue to be in it with these guys. But we have to start doing some things a little bit better and put some wins together.”
The Leafs acquired Laughton from the Philadelphia Flyers and Carlo from the Boston Bruins at last year’s deadline and now both could be on the move again.
“Leaning off of the experience from last year, I definitely would feel not as caught off guard I guess you could say,” Carlo acknowledged. “I have a hope to be here, but with the situation anything can happen. It’s scary. It’s intimidating. It’s anxious, anxiety ridden, but overall you just control what you can.”
The Talking Point: How many untouchables should the Leafs have? With TradeCentre fast approaching, Craig Button joins this edition of the Talking Point to discuss if the Maple Leafs should have any untouchables on their roster prior to next Friday’s trade deadline.
—
Players are not exactly making this a tough decision for management with their performances this week.
After losing 4-2 in Tampa on Wednesday, there was a lot of talk about coming out more desperate and hungry on Thursday. But it was actually the Panthers who came out hot and built a 3-0 lead while outshooting the Leafs 16-7 in the first period.
Where was the desperation?
“It’s a good question,” admitted centre John Tavares, who has scored in both games out of the break.
“I don’t know,” said Matthews. “We should have the energy and the desperation that we need to start the game, that we had in the second and third period. Yeah, I don’t know.”
Nylander offered a theory. Sort of.
“I mean, back-to-back [situation], haven’t played one in a while maybe, I don’t know,” he said. “But it shouldn’t be an excuse.”
The Panthers, who were playing for the first time since the Olympics, passed the Leafs in the standings with Thursday’s win. The Leafs are now in the basement of the Atlantic Division.
‘It’s a good question’: Tavares, Leafs can’t explain lack of desperation The Maple Leafs dropped another critical game against an Atlantic division opponent who they are battling with for a playoff spot. The energy wasn’t there to start the game as Toronto fell behind by three goals after the first period and could not recover. John Tavares spoke about what was missing at puck drop.
—
During a power play in the first period, Nylander committed a neutral-zone turnover that gifted Evan Rodrigues a breakaway goal. Nylander’s pass was blocked by the Panthers forward.
“He did a pretty good job stepping up on me,” Nylander said. “I should’ve maybe held onto it, but he did a good play, made a good play.”
Craig Berube did not like the way the Leafs started the rush with Matthews sending a backhand pass to Nylander.
“I just thought it was a tough play all around,” the coach said. “We have to make a better read and maybe not make that play. The guy stood up on us. It is a tough play. It is a tough play for Willy with the puck there. He had no time, and he tried to make a play, but it got picked off, and they were gone. We have to execute better there.”
In general, Nylander likes how his body has responded coming off the Olympics.
“I felt like my legs have felt pretty good,” he said.
Nylander picked up two assists in Tampa but was held off the scoresheet in Sunrise, Fla.
Nylander on giveaway on shorthanded goal: ‘Should’ve maybe held onto it’ William Nylander gave up the puck which led to Evan Rodrigues’ shorthanded goal near the end of the first period. Nylander broke down what happened on that play and shared an update on how he has been feeling physically.
—
Berube blamed a flat start to the second period for the loss in Tampa Bay. The coach admits seeing a similar lapse to start Thursday’s game is troubling.
“You need it for 60 minutes, especially now,” he stressed. “We can’t take any shifts off. It is my job to make sure they have [urgency].”
Berube made a quick exit from the bench after the first period on Thursday. What was his message in the intermission?
“We have a lot of hockey left,” he said. “I get it is not the start we wanted coming out of the break, but we have to understand that if you play [like we did in] the second and third for 60 minutes, you give yourself a better chance to win. That is it. I mean, we’re capable of doing it. We have to do it for 60 minutes. We have no time to take shifts off and periods off. We are not in that mode.”
The Leafs have 23 games left and just four more until the deadline. The odds of making the playoffs are long, but Berube is vowing to do his best to keep spirits up.
“It’s always hard,” he said. “It is my job to instill that confidence in our guys. For myself, I stay confident. I am confident. I know what these guys are capable of doing. I have to get it out of them.”
‘It’s always hard’: Berube doing his best to keep Leafs confidence up Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube said his team didn’t do a good job of weathering the storm early after the Panthers jumped out to a three-goal lead. Asked about how difficult it is to keep the belief in the room as the Leafs fall down the standings, Berube said it’s his job to instill that confidence.
—
How did Matthews, who finished minus-4 on Thursday, feel in his first games back after helping Team USA win gold in Milan?
“I felt fine,” he said. “I felt better [Thursday] than I did [Wednesday] night. It’s just tough. It’s two tough games to produce offensively. We didn’t do enough. We didn’t execute enough and that’s something we need to do more of. I mean, I don’t think we scored a 5-on-5 goal in these two games so that’s a big part of it.”
Matthews produced two assists in the two games and landed four shots on net.
The Leafs appreciated that their captain jumped right back into action after a whirlwind few days after arriving back in North America.
“It’s awesome,” Carlo said before Thursday’s game. “You get to see some of the USA gear rocking around, some hats floating around and things like that. We’re so proud of him and what he accomplished and super happy to have him back in our lineup. He’s our captain so he’s a huge part of our team and we look forward to going out there and competing and trying to get ourselves back in the playoffs.”
‘I felt fine’: Matthews searching for scoring touch since return from Olympics Auston Matthews said he felt better against the Panthers than he did Wednesday against the Lightning and spoke about the need for the Leafs to do more to produce offence. Scott Laughton and Brandon Carlo are excited to have their captain back after he found success at The Winter Olympic Games.
—
Easton Cowan sat out as a healthy scratch again on Thursday. The 20-year-old rookie was not eligible to be sent to American Hockey League during the Olympic break and has not played since Jan. 29.
“He understands and he wants to play,” Berube said. “He’s not happy about not playing and rightly so. He’s got to stay patient and working like he is. I thought he had a great week of practice.”
Cowan was benched for the final three games leading into the Olympic break with the Leafs winning all three, which is why Berube decided to stick with the status quo on Wednesday in Tampa.
“At the time I took him out of the lineup, I felt he hit a bit of a wall,” Berube explained. “We won three in a row, so I kept the same lineup going into the game against Tampa.”
With Dakota Joshua ready to return from a lacerated kidney on Thursday, Berube preferred getting the big winger’s size into the lineup to face the physical Panthers.
So, Cowan continues to wait.
“I don’t believe his development is being hurt,” Berube stressed. “I believe he has improved this year as the year has gone along. He still has the swagger that is needed. He is a confident kid. In saying that, he has to get in there and play. That is our job: to get him in there at some point.”
‘He hit a wall’: Berube insists Leafs rookie Cowan continues to develop despite not playing Easton Cowan hasn’t played a game for the Maple Leafs since late January but head coach Craig Berube doesn’t believe that his development is getting hurt.
—
Leafs lines to start Thursday’s game:
Knies – Matthews – Domi
Maccelli – Tavares – Nylander
Joshua – Roy – McMann
Lorentz – Laughton – Robertson
Rielly – Carlo
McCabe – Ekman-Larsson
Benoit – Stecher
Woll
Stolarz
Scratches: Jarnkrok, Cowan, Myers