Leafs<\/a> cleared it deep, Troy Stecher allowed Matvei Gridin way too much space in behind him through the neutral zone, giving Gridin room to take a stretch pass, walk in, and measure his shot off the rush. Sergei Bobrovsky, after getting beat short-side in the first, seemed to shade toward that post, leaving him off his angle and the far side open.<\/p>\nInjury was added to insult when Kirill Marchenko took an awkward fall, with his knee folding underneath him. He briefly attempted another shift before leaving the game, putting the lines into a blender and removing one of the Leafs\u2019 most dangerous players when they needed at least three goals.<\/p>\n
Bobrovsky was then called for a trip that looked like incidental contact. The Leafs produced a good kill, only to spend the ensuing five-on-five stretch getting completely tilted. They were fortunate the deficit remained at just three.<\/p>\n
When the Flames\u2019 push relented, Matthews found himself in alone during a shift with Nylander and Roslovic, but he lost the handle and didn\u2019t get a shot off.<\/p>\n
Then, a response arrived from Cowan. After deservedly sitting out a few shifts, he didn\u2019t pout and instead responded like a winner. With an all-business disposition, Cowan stopped up to create time and space, found Morgan Rielly, and worked his way to the back post, where Stecher picked him out with a great slap pass. A big Bobrovsky save at the other end just before the goal set the table, and the game was back on.<\/p>\n
A slash on Morgan Rielly sent the Leafs to the power play later in the period, where the first unit generated little beyond a few relatively harmless Raddysh shots. The second unit was much more dangerous, with Cowan twice finding Nick Paul in prime scoring positions\u2014once backdoor with an empty net and once in the slot\u2014but neither chance was converted. After a frustrating first period in which he cost his team two goals, Cowan scored and created enough chances for at least one more.<\/p>\n
In the third period, the fourth line supplied an early spark as the Leafs tried to climb back into the game. Brandon Duhaime\u2019s forecheck led to a scramble around the Calgary net, where Zack MacEwen had two opportunities. He bizarrely attempted a between-the-legs finish on the first before his one-timer was blocked on the second. Darren Raddysh\u2019s decision to pass on that second chance was debatable, but the puck needed to get across quicker once he committed to it.<\/p>\n
A sloppy Nylander high-sticking penalty interrupted the Leafs\u2019 push, but Bobrovsky delivered a big save on the kill. After a shaky start, Bobrovsky did settle in to keep the game within reach.<\/p>\n
A Matthews\u2013Nylander\u2013Roslovic line then pulled Toronto within one with plenty of time left (nearly 14 minutes). Matthews and Nylander combined to win a loose-puck battle, with Matthews emerging out of traffic with it before Roslovic smartly directed the puck toward the back post for Nylander to finish. At 3-2, the Leafs had given themselves a real chance.<\/p>\n
They struggled to build on it, in part because they kept sending themselves to the penalty box. MacEwen drew a penalty through sheer effort, only for Matthews to take a marginal delay-of-game penalty to start the power play when he fell and the puck grazed his hand off the faceoff \u2014 perhaps a technically correct call, but a frustrating one nonetheless.<\/p>\n
Matthews later took a much more avoidable high-sticking penalty as the Leafs were spending some time in the offensive zone. Between his missed breakaway in the second \u2014 where he lost the handle and didn\u2019t get a shot off \u2014 and two third-period penalties, it wasn\u2019t Matthews\u2019 best night at the office.<\/p>\n
Bobrovsky kept the Leafs alive with a good stop on Joel Farabee, as Calgary generated a stronger push after its power play than during it. It was the kind of save that might have given Toronto a platform for one final surge. Instead, the Leafs looked short on energy and execution. More turnovers and sloppy breakouts, and a Roslovic icing, ate into their remaining opportunities to generate a push. Another unsuccessful 6-on-5 followed; despite their productive power play, the Leafs have yet to score late in the game with the goalie pulled this season or look particularly threatening there. Two empty-netters rounded out the 5-2 final.<\/p>\n
Post-Game Notes It\u2019s a very long grind of a season, and at the same time, things sure can change fast in this league. After their emphatic win in Edmonton, the Leafs were arguably at their highest point since their push back into a playoff spot that culminated in a big win in Colorado last January. This was a sobering night, and not really because of the loss itself. The Kirill Marchenko injury is clearly more concerning than the lost early-season points to a Western opponent; Jim Hiller did not provide a particularly reassuring answer about Marchenko\u2019s status after the game. No team has the depth to easily cope with losing two top-six forwards (their second-best winger and second-best centerman). The Leafs may be about to ask quite a bit more of Gavin McKenna than they\u2019d like to \u2014 or, frankly, than he\u2019s fully looked up to handling to date. They\u2019re now in a spot where they have to run either Nylander-Matthews-Roslovic \/ McKenna-Paul-Cowan, or Cowan-Matthews-Roslovic \/ McKenna-Paul-Nylander. Duhaime-Blueger-MacEwen could become their de facto third line, and they\u2019d have to scramble together a line around some combination of Sissons, Groulx, Lettieri, and potentially Dakota Joshua once he\u2019s recalled. Alternatively, they could also unite Duhaime-Blueger-Sissons as L3, leaving Groulx to center MacEwen and one of Joshua or Lettieri. Whatever route they go, it\u2019s clearly thinning out quickly. Easton Cowan just hit the 80-game mark in his NHL career tonight (with a very promising 42 points in those 80 games). Basically, he\u2019s just now approaching the completion of one full NHL season. It feels longer because it\u2019s split across two years, he went on the Calder Cup run, and he\u2019s progressed so quickly this season, but that\u2019s important to keep in mind. He\u2019s still learning time\/place and when he needs to simply bail on a play by getting it out\/to safety, as we saw multiple times in the first period, including the second Calgary goal. That\u2019s natural, given his experience in the league. He then fought out of frustration, didn\u2019t find a willing combatant, and the Leafs gave one up on that kill. But the response afterward shows his character and why he\u2019s part of the solution here. He usually carries a chipper demeanour and almost always looks like he\u2019s having a great time; his face turned deadly serious\/pissed, and he scored right after he was deservedly sat down for a few shifts in the second. Hiller\u2019s response after the game was the correct one, as he basically made the point, in a bit of an exasperated fashion: We obviously can\u2019t be reliant on Cowan always being at his best and helping lead us where we need to go. Not fair to expect from him every single night at his age\/experience. Sergei Bobrovsky clearly dialed it in when he knew he couldn\u2019t give up a fourth goal, showing the benefit of his experience in those situations, where he doesn\u2019t lose confidence or focus in the net after a few stoppable goals. He has done a good job of stemming the bleeding when he\u2019s given one or two up he\u2019d like back, but at some point, he has to end the bleeding altogether and give up fewer than three. That\u2019s now seven of eight starts with three or more goals against. It\u2019s not been a catastrophe, and John Chayka\u2019s recent point about his history as a slow starter \u2014 and this actually being one of his better starts in recent memory \u2014 is well-taken (and means he generally needs some time to ramp up). There is clearly a schedule in place they\u2019re sticking to through a busy end to October. However, the schedule is about to lighten up, and if Anthony Stolarz is as dialed on Thursday as he has been the last two starts, it will be hard to deny the argument for rolling with him for a few in a row. The goalie clearly isn\u2019t the make-or-break factor in whether the breakouts click or not, but Stolarz\u2019s puck-handling only helps in that regard. Two sloppy high-sticking penalties from Nylander and Matthews greatly hurt the team\u2019s cause in the third period. The Leafs, in general, have to clean up their discipline (five times shorthanded tonight). The officiating is frustrating on many nights, sure, but they\u2019re sixth-worst in the league in shorthanded time per game (5:48). It\u2019s asking too much of the PK, even if the PK has largely handled it with aplomb so far, and it\u2019s killing their momentum at key times in games. The Leafs\u2019 tendency, particularly prevalent earlier in October, to hand over easy goals also reared its head a bit in this one. The 1-0 goal was on the goalie, but Cowan gifted the 2-0. The 3-0 PP goal was stoppable but also too easy a look to give up off a simple stretch pass. Darren Raddysh deserves plenty of credit for the sheer workload he\u2019s handling and his overall defensive play \u2014 especially important in Chris Tanev\u2019s absence. At the other end, he\u2019s still trying to find his groove offensively (in search of his first goal through 14 games now). His pass-shot selection at the offensive blue line is where he needs to sharpen up and find his confidence again. At times, he\u2019ll have screens\/traffic in place with a reasonably promising shooting opportunity, only to defer. Other times, he\u2019ll crest the goalie with no traffic in the vicinity. There is also a lot to like about Nick Paul\u2019s overall game, but he really has to bear down more, especially knowing the Leafs are probably about to lose another top-six forward. He has scored an empty-netter and one that deflected into the net off his body so far; meaning, he hasn\u2019t shot one by a goalie yet. Tonight, he missed an empty net on a backdoor pass from Cowan and missed the net on a point-blank look from the slot (also set up by Cowan). If you\u2019re playing PP2 and L2 with Nylander\/Marchenko, some level of finish is required. We know it\u2019s in him, as he has 17-, 22- and 24-goal seasons to his name, but he\u2019s coming off a seven-goal season (in 51 games) and is now on pace for 11, so he\u2019s got to earn some confidence back in this respect. The Leafs will need it with Tavares and now (likely) Marchenko sidelined. Game Flow: 5v5 Shot Attempts <\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB2aWV3Qm94PSIwIDAgNzUxIDM1MCIgd2lkdGg9Ijc1MSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIzNTAiIHhtbG5zPSJodHRwOi8vd3d3LnczLm9yZy8yMDAwL3N2ZyI+PC9zdmc+\"\/)
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Heat Map: 5v5 Shot Attempts <\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB2aWV3Qm94PSIwIDAgODAzIDQyMiIgd2lkdGg9IjgwMyIgaGVpZ2h0PSI0MjIiIHhtbG5zPSJodHRwOi8vd3d3LnczLm9yZy8yMDAwL3N2ZyI+PC9zdmc+\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Game Highlights: Flames 5 vs. Maple Leafs 2 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"See more MLHS in Google Add MLHS as a preferred source + Add You are forgiven if you…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":947909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":["post-947908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=947908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/947909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=947908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=947908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=947908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}