{"id":947978,"date":"2026-10-27T09:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T09:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/947978\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T09:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T09:26:12","slug":"cowan-tries-taking-blame-for-maple-leafs-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/947978\/","title":{"rendered":"Cowan tries taking blame for Maple Leafs loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

CALGARY \u2014 The second-youngest Toronto Maple Leaf was the first one standing in the middle of the Saddledome visitors’ room, ready to assume all the blame.<\/p>\n

“Bad turnover and dumb penalty by me. So, those two goals are on me, and I got to be better. Cost us the game,” Easton Cowan<\/a> said Monday night, swallowing Toronto\u2019s streak-snapping loss to the Calgary Flames whole.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cowan\u2019s own-zone turnover in the first period led directly to a Mikael Backlund goal, then his overaggressive double minor for roughing at the end of the frame resulted in a Matvei Gridin power-play winner.<\/p>\n

Gridin hit the griddy, and the red-hot, house-money home team built enough of a cushion to dance its way to a 5-2 victory (with a couple empty netters).<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it was selfish of me to take that dumb penalty. Can’t have that. Got to be better. Got to control my emotions better,\u201d he said. “Just got to be better, have better character.”<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the catch: No one is hanging this one on Cowan, who kicked off Toronto\u2019s comeback attempt with their first goal and was one of the Leafs\u2019 most noticeable forwards after his mistakes.<\/p>\n

None of the Leafs looked overly interested in the first 20-plus minutes of what felt like a classic trap game on the back of Saturday\u2019s spotlight victory over Connor McDavid, Mike Babcock and the Edmonton Oilers.<\/p>\n

Starter Sergei Bobrovsky<\/a> looked particularly shaky early, getting beat thrice high and clean. The goalie gave Gridin too much short-side net on the forward\u2019s first snipe.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put ourselves in the deficit, three goals. It’s tough to recover,\u201d Bobrovsky, 38, said. \u201cI played good. I played solid game. (Gridin) made couple good shots, and I could be positioned sharper, but I thought I played a good solid game. So, we had the chance to win, and we\u2019ll move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coach Jim Hiller defended Bobrovsky\u2019s 30-save performance. But Bobrovsky has allowed three or more goals in eight of his nine starts.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe gave us a chance. Certainly wasn’t anything that he did,\u201d Hiller said. \u201cHe had plenty of good saves. Gave us a chance to come back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sure. But Calgary\u2019s beautiful mind, Devin Cooley, was better, and a hole Bobrovksy helped dig was too steep to climb out of.<\/p>\n

These diverse responses to a collective loss are indicative of Cowan\u2019s emotional investment and Bobrovsky\u2019s goldfish memory.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it says a lot about (Cowan). He\u2019s a competitor. He’s a big part of this team,\u201d Zack MacEwen told Sportsnet.ca. \u201cIt\u2019s a team game. It\u2019s not all on him. But having that presence of mind as a kid like him coming up is huge. It just shows he’s going to be a good player and a good leader in this league.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hiller, dissatisfied with his entire group\u2019s puck management, agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s other players in the lineup that need to step up as well, not just the second-youngest guy out there. So, he gets a pass,\u201d Hiller said. \u201cI mean, he’s worked hard. He came back and he redeemed himself. Least of my concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n

The top concern as the Maple Leafs fly to Seattle Tuesday should be the health of Kirill Marchenko, who left the first period with a lower-body injury suffered during a left-leg-twisting fall and did not return.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s never a good sign,\u201d Hiller said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A top-six winger void has emerged.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can’t fill it. Somebody’s going to have to fill it,\u201d Hiller continued. \u201cIf you have a bad night as a group, nobody can fill that. So, it just takes the group to play well, and then somebody can step up and fill that hole. But if you’re not going to play cohesively and turn the puck over, then it really doesn’t matter who’s going to fill that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Our humble suggestion: Time for top-six Gavin McKenna.<\/p>\n

Although, as was the case for Cowan Monday, there will be pressure to minimize costly turnovers that lead to rush offence the other way.<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly, over the last four games we had taken that out of our game. It was there in spades tonight. And you can’t win in the league if you do that. We saw that,\u201d Hiller said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s no singular person that can take the blame for this loss. That was up and down the lineup. We turned it over too much, and then we didn’t defend great once we did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Darren Raddysh<\/a> signed his Toronto ticket hot off a 22-goal season in Tampa. He\u2019s still hunting his first as a Maple Leaf.<\/p>\n

Not-so-fun fact: No NHLer has taken more shots (32) or attempts (77) this season without finding the back of the net.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019ll come,\u201d Raddysh says. \u201cAs long as the team\u2019s winning and I\u2019m trying to help out as best I can, that’s all I can do. I\u2019m just going out there when my name’s called, do my best, and try to help the team win as best as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 McKenna usually leaves his neck guard in his stall for practices and warmups but is mandated to strap it on for game action.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I wore it in the Dub and in world juniors, so I\u2019ve gotten used to it,\u201d he says. \u201cIf I had the option, I wouldn’t wear it. But I have to wear it, so it\u2019s not too bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Think Toronto\u2019s goaltending decisions are getting complicated?<\/p>\n

Calgary goaltender Dustin Wolf is one month into a seven-year, $52.5-million contract and he\u2019s lost his crease to Cooley, who performed wonderfully in his fourth consecutive start.<\/p>\n

Gaining the trust of his coach and the confidence of his teammates, Cooley has already seen more work this season than the big-money guy who intends to be the long-term answer in net.<\/p>\n

Can\u2019t blame the team for riding the hot hand, but what must Wolf be thinking of this?<\/p>\n

\u2022 Not until he walked into the Saddledome Monday did Marchenko learn this was the old barn\u2019s 44th and final season as home of the Flames.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, really? Of course I don\u2019t know anything about that. What\u2019s going on? What\u2019s going on?”<\/p>\n

A new arena is being built next door.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do we play here and not in the new one?\u201d<\/p>\n

The new rink won\u2019t be finished until 2027-28.<\/p>\n

\u201cAh, OK, OK\u2026 It\u2019s a good arena. I don\u2019t care much about arena. I care more about my game, team game and opponents. I know the Calgary Flames are a good team, have great guys there, young core. But like, arena, yeah, if I play here (for Calgary), maybe it\u2019s like big memory, but I play here four times.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 A touch more sentimental was Hiller, who recalled making his NHL debut in the Dome: Oct. 6, 1992, a 5-4 overtime win for Hiller\u2019s Kings:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was great. You’re out there, and it’s the NHL. It’s the greatest thing in the world to be part of the NHL. At that time, here and (Detroit\u2019s) Joe Louis were the two big rinks that everybody was talking about as being the nicest rinks back then. So, times have changed, and it looks like a beautiful building going up next door here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CALGARY \u2014 The second-youngest Toronto Maple Leaf was the first one standing in the middle of the Saddledome…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":947979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,82],"class_list":["post-947978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947978","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=947978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/947979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=947978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=947978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=947978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}