The Maple Leafs have hit a pothole at home.
And it’s taking a toll on their record at Scotiabank Arena, as the Leafs have now lost three in a row in their own building, dropping them to 14-7-0 in Toronto.
Our takeaways from the Leafs’ 5-2 loss against the Washington Capitals on Saturday night:
CONSISTENCY CONUNDRUM
If you’re going to give goaltender Logan Thompson much of the credit for the Caps win, as he made 35 saves, keep in mind what Leafs forward John Tavares said during his post-game availability.
“We create offence, we have to find ways to break them down and beat their goaltender,” Tavares said. “Goalies are going to play well, have a hot hand, you tip your cap to that, but we need to find a way to break through.
“We certainly had chances, we had looks, we were on the wrong side of it on special teams. It’s small margins, it’s execution.”
In 53 minutes 20 seconds of five-on-five play, the Leafs had 13 high-danger scoring chances, per . The Capitals had seven.
The Leafs’ execution in all areas of the ice was lacking, and it has been an issue for a few games, though Toronto was able to win in Detroit on Friday night.
“I think there were probably three mistakes in the game that we made and they went in our net,” Leafs coach Craig Berube said. “I thought that we played a pretty hard game, had a lot of opportunities, but we didn’t finish.
“We made a few mistakes, they capitalized on them and we didn’t execute on our chances good enough.”
The Leafs have been out of rhythm to a degree, and when captain and No. 1 centre Auston Matthews is out, properly filling that hole in the middle isn’t possible. First it was David Kampf, and now it’s Pontus Holmberg in the top six. Neither belongs there.
Still, it’s the responsibly of the rest of the Leafs to bear down more when Matthews is out, and as a group, that has not been happening.
“Looking at the bigger picture, I think we have a little bit more,” Tavares said. “We have to be more consistent. That’s maybe why we’re on the wrong side of it here over the last four or five games. We have to be a little more consistent throughout the 60 minutes, especially against good hockey teams, to be able to build our game.
“Our execution can be a little bit better and our pace can be a little bit better consistently. It’s a long year, it’s a grind and we have to work through it.”
MURRAY MISFIRING
We’ll give goaltender Matt Murray a little bit of an out considering the hockey he has missed at the NHL level in the past 15 months or so, but he had to be better on Saturday night.
A pad save on Tom Wilson in the early going, following a Leafs turnover in the defensive zone, made a good first impression.
Murray couldn’t sustain that, though, and after Tavares put the Leafs up 1-0, the Capitals scored twice in just over four minutes.
A goal by Andrew Mangiapane was especially weak, as the puck found its way through Murray and over the line, and Murray was slow to react on Jakob Chychrun’s one-timer.
“Well, I’m sure he wants a couple back,” Berube said about Murray’s performance. “But he hasn’t played a ton of hockey. He battled. He fought. That’s about it.”
The start was Murray’s second in the NHL since he underwent bilateral hip surgery in September 2023. Eight days ago, he made 24 saves in a Leafs win in Buffalo.
The adjustment process continues for Murray.
“A little bit,” Murray said. “I definitely had a long time off. There are maybe one or two times a game where I feel like I’m just a little bit late picking up pucks through traffic, that type of thing. That happened a couple of times out there (on Saturday). I have to clean that up.”
At the other end, Thompson was brilliant.
“You want to try to match him save for save, but he played a hell of a game,” Murray said. “He made a couple of crazy saves, a couple that we thought were sure goals and he was able to pull them off the line.
“Kudos to him and kudos to that team. They played hard, made it hard on me and got to the paint and lots of traffic, lots of chances off the rush. They played a really tough game.”
The Leafs’ schedule eases up in the coming weeks, if only to a small extent.
The expectation should be that Joseph Woll gets three of the next four starts, with Murray or Dennis Hildeby getting the call next weekend in one game as the Leafs play another back-to-back set at home against Boston and Philadelphia.
The Leafs have no desire to over-tax Woll, though, as Anthony Stolarz continues to recover from a knee injury. Stolarz won’t be back for a while, possibly another month.
With that in mind, whether it’s Murray or Hildeby, or, going off-board, Artur Akhtyamov, the backup has to be more efficient than Murray was on Saturday.
LOOKING IN THE MIRROR
Good on William Nylander for pointing the finger at himself afterward, not that he had much choice.
Nylander, the Leafs’ goal-scoring leader with 23 in 37 games, had four shots on goal and none of them went in.
He had a couple of beautiful chances in the first period, but Thompson wasn’t having it. An open net was gone when Thompson snared Nylander’s shot, and minutes later, Thompson turned Nylander aside on a breakaway. Each chance came with the Capitals leading 2-1.
What did Nylander see as the difference in the Caps’ favour by the time the final buzzer sounded?
“I had some great scoring chances and didn’t capitalize,” Nylander said. “That’s probably one of the reasons. They played well, too. Chances I had early on would have given us a little bit of a lead if I had scored.”
After scoring five goals in a three-game stretch, Nylander has not scored in his past three.
X: @koshtorontosun