A loss isn’t just a loss.
Not when it comes against the worst team in the National Hockey League.
In their last home game before the NHL trade deadline hits on Friday, the Maple Leafs laid an egg on Monday night, losing 3-2 in a shootout against the San Jose Sharks.
This after the Leafs carried a 2-0 lead in the third period and held the Sharks to 10 shots on goal through 40 minutes.
Our takeaways from what went down at Scotiabank Arena:
UGLY, SIMPLY PUT
Until Monday, the Leafs had been perfect when holding a lead after two periods, going 27-0-0.
Yes, the Sharks scored twice in the third, but that’s not necessarily where the game got away from Toronto.
Kudos to the Leafs for scoring both of their goals on the power play, but let’s not ignore the fact they didn’t exactly dominate the Sharks at five-on-five.
Shots on goal when each team had five skaters on the ice were 17-17. The Leafs have 79 points, the Sharks 41 and last in the 32-team NHL.
“Well, it’s disappointing,” coach Craig Berube said. “Any loss is disappointing. 2-0 lead, we’re in a good spot to close it out. And we didn’t do the job. We had a chance in OT with a power play and couldn’t get one.
“It’s not nitpicking … we missed the net too much. We had a lot of opportunities and we missed the net.”
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To an extent. The Leafs fired high or wide 16 times. The Sharks did the same 23 times.
When it was time to bear down defensively in the third, the Leafs couldn’t do it. They were outshot 9-2 and on both Sharks goals, defensive-zone coverage was off and goalie Anthony Stolarz was out of position.
“We have to check better than we did in the third,” John Tavares said. “That’s what it came down to.”
Look, we get that it’s one game in early March, that it came following a four-game trip and before a three-game trek to the western U.S.
It’s the San Jose Sharks, though. They had not won since Jan. 27 and had won just four games since Christmas.
The schedule has been doing the Leafs no favours, but that’s no excuse. The players weren’t looking for a way out late Monday night.
“It’s not ideal, but we’re not going to make excuses for that kind of stuff,” Matthew Knies said. “We just have to be better and play a full 60 minutes. We just didn’t do a good job.”
STOLARZ STUMBLES
We had Stolarz written up for his second shutout with the Leafs.
Then, the third period started.
Stolarz couldn’t get across the crease to stop Jack Thompson on a shot that came on a rebound off the end boards, and on the tying goal by Tyler Toffoli, Stolarz overplayed a rush by Alexander Wennberg and was out of position, leaving Toffoli with an open net.
It’s not necessarily alarming, to be honest, but it was a reminder that even Stolarz, the man many expect to be the Leafs’ starting goalie when the Stanley Cup playoffs start, can have an off night.
In the shootout — the first time this season the Leafs have had to resort to a skills competition to try to win a game — two of the Sharks’ four shooters, Toffoli and Fabian Zetterlund, scored.
Had Stolarz made a save on Toffoli, the Leafs would have won, as William Nylander had just beaten Sharks goalie Alexandar Georgiev.
Tavares was stopped by Georgiev, and Zetterlund then fired the puck past Stolarz for the deciding goal.
Stolarz will have a chance to rebound soon, whether it’s in Vegas on Wednesday against the Golden Knights or on Saturday in Colorado against the Avalanche.
For that matter, Joseph Woll, when he gets back in, will look to be a lot sharper than he was in the Leafs’ 6-5 overtime win in Pittsburgh on Sunday.
ANOTHER KNIES NIGHT
One positive for the Leafs: Knies continues to make an impact on the power play, parking his 6-foot-3, 227-pound body in front of the net and making it nearly impossible to move him.
Knies screened Georgiev when Tavares deflected a Mitch Marner shot not quite midway through the second, and in the final seconds of the second period, fought off veteran defenceman Marc-Edouard Vlasic to jam an Auston Matthews puck into the net.
“He’s really good at it, and good at screening the goalie, tipping pucks, finding rebounds, things like that,” Berube said. “He has been really good there for us.”
Four of Knies’ 24 goals have come on the power play. He’s going to be a presence with a man advantage for the Leafs for years to come.
When you get concerned about the Leafs possibly giving up their first-round pick in 2026 in a trade in the coming days — and they don’t have their first-round pick this year — remember where Knies was chosen. The Leafs took him in the second round in 2021, 57th overall. A player doesn’t have to have a first-round selection on his resume to make a definitive impact.
And the 22-year-old Knies is just scratching the surface.
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