The Maple Leafs need to get out of town.
With some luck, maybe they’ll find their scoring touch in Western Canada and Seattle on a four-game trip that begins on Saturday in Edmonton.
For third game in a row, this time against the visiting Minnesota Wild on Wednesday at Scotiabank Arena, the Leafs scored a single goal.
It’s no coincidence that they have lost each game in regulation. Taking a wider view, it has been a tough run for the Leafs, as they’ve lost six of their past nine games.
As a result, Toronto fell out of first place in the Atlantic Division on Wednesday night when the Florida Panthers beat the Los Angeles Kings 3-0. Florida has 63 points and the Leafs have 62, though Toronto has a game in hand.
Our takeaways:
THE RIELLY FACTOR
Perhaps public acknowledgement by coach Craig Berube will help spark a turnaround in defenceman Morgan Rielly’s game.
The longest-serving current Leafs player has been feeling it, and not in a good way, for a while now on both sides of the puck.
There was some embarrassment on the Wild’s first goal of the game when fourth-line forward Jakub Lauko outmuscled Rielly behind the Leafs net to set up Marat Khusnutdinov. When the game ended, it was another pointless night for Rielly, who has just one goal and three assists in his past 18 games.
“Can Morgan play better?” Berube said afterward. “Yes, he can. We all know that. He knows that, and he’s trying to work through it right now. It’s a team game, it’s not all on Morgan. He’s a guy that we need offence from, from the back end.
“He’s a good pro. He comes to work and he keeps it pretty quiet to himself. He knows that he wants to be better, and he’s just trying to work through it. We try to help him. As coaches, that’s our job.”
Rielly is the only Leafs defenceman to play in all 51 games and he has 22 points. He’s on pace for 35 points in 82 games, a far cry from the 58 points he had in 72 games in 2023-24. And being taken off the top power play has to be a blow to his pride.
Rielly is minus-18 at even-strength, though it’s not as bad at five-on-five, as he is minus-4. Still, not great.
Part of it is getting accustomed to a system that doesn’t allow for free-wheeling by the D-men (or anyone else), but the drop-off still shouldn’t be as sharp as it is.
“Trying to keep everything in check,” Rielly said. “I feel good despite numbers and whatnot. So it’s a battle right now, just trying to compete and play the best I can.
“That’s what we’re all trying to do. That’s what we’re here to do. I think we all put a lot of pressure on ourselves to perform, and I’m no different. We’re all striving to be the best we can be, and when it’s not going your way, you do everything you can to change that. It starts with hard work and being a good teammate and committing to what’s going on and just staying focused.”
This was Berube’s thinking on the first Minnesota goal, which came at 7:07 of the first period: “We have to win that battle below our goal line. We had coverage in front, but I guess it just got through us. We have to be better there.”
Berube is right. It’s on the coaches to help Rielly get out of his funk at both ends of the ice. At the same time, it’s the responsibility of the player as well.
Rielly is a better player than he has shown.
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SCORING WOES
The Leafs were on their way to being shut out for the fourth time this season when William Nylander scored at 8:16 of the third with Minnesota up 2-0. Toronto didn’t beat goalie Filip Gustavsson again.
“It has been tough sledding right now, tough to score,” said captain Auston Matthews, who led the Leafs with six shots on goal.
Does Matthews see a common thread in the past three losses? We keep in mind that scoring regularly has been an issue for the Leafs at various times this season.
“I think we can do a better job of getting on the inside,” Matthews said. “There are opportunities there, just bearing down on it. Sometimes that’s the way it goes. Sometimes you get in these periods of segments where you’re fighting it a little bit. The puck is not bouncing your way, but for us, it’s just sticking with it. Continue to push ourselves to be better and continue to create opportunities and get more guys on the inside.”
Getting more on the inside has been the refrain for a while now. What more do the Leafs need to see to realize that words won’t cut it?
The Leafs had 74 attempts in all situations against the Wild, but those don’t count on the scoreboard.
Berube’s belief hasn’t wavered.
“You can nitpick every little thing, right?” Berube said. “Be in front of the goalie more. Do this better. Do that better. We’re always on it, and we’re looking for different ways to score, and guys can do a better job. We just have to stick with our game, and not get off-track. We’ll score, we’ll get the goals.”
With the talent the Leafs have, this shouldn’t be an issue. Whether it’s a result of Berube’s system or failure to execute, lack scoring simply has been costing the Leafs games.
PENALTY TROUBLE
A frustrating factor for the Leafs on Wednesday: The Wild has been miserable on the penalty-kill, wallowing near the bottom of the NHL. In its seven previous games, Minnesota allowed eight goals on 20 power plays.
Yet, the Leafs drew just one penalty, a minor in the second period when Ryan Hartman got his stick up on Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and they did not score on the power play.
Fact is, if the Leafs were more intensive and got to the middle more, they probably would have drawn more penalties.
“We talked about that the other day, just trying to get more net drive, more interior, getting into the interior more, which I thought we tried to do tonight,” Berube said. “I thought there were a few penalties we didn’t get called. But I’m not going to sit here and complain about referees. We have to keep grinding, keep driving, keep trying to put teams in a vulnerable position so they have to take a penalty. That’s how you draw more penalties.”
The Leafs have had 140 power plays this season, which put them at 18th in the NHL on Wednesday night. It’s another area that needs improvement.
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