Craig Berube will remember his 200th regulation loss as an NHL coach as one of his most frustrating.
Certainly, Saturday’s 4-2 fail to the low-scoring Detroit Red Wings was among his hardest to swallow in a short time behind the Maple Leafs bench. His team was lax in coverage and tracking rebounds to open a back-to-back against two teams near the bottom of their Atlantic Division. Toronto had a chance to move ahead of the Florida Panthers for at least a few hours for top spot in the division.
Joseph Woll, getting the start in net after Anthony Stolarz had what the team terms a minor lower-body injury in Thursday’s win over Anaheim, made 22 saves. But despite the Leafs residing atop many league defensive categories, Detroit scored on a turnover in the final seconds of the second period to break a 1-1 tie, then 44 seconds after Matthew Knies tied the game in the third with a nifty tip of a Mitch Marner shot.
Defenceman Jeff Petry scored his first two goals of the season for Detroit, while Marner had a crack at a three-point night with a final frame short-handed breakaway. However, he was stopped by Ville Husso, then took a momentum-killing tripping penalty on the same shift.
With a pro-Toronto crowd at Little Caesars Arena, the Wings hung tough when Berube pulled Woll and Lucas Raymond drained an empty-netter. Husso collected his first win of the season in seven decisions.
A mismanaged breakout put the Leafs behind 2-1 in the final minute of the second. A neutral zone pass off Auston Matthews’ skate ended up in the Leafs net when they were slow on the back check, then failed to pick up Moritz Seider coming off Detroit’s bench.
A potential Leafs tying goal by Marner, to answer Petry’s opening marker from long range, was scrubbed when Detroit challenged for a replay that showed Matthews clearly entering the zone offside.
But the Leafs duo tied it on the power play in the second period. The five-forward unit Berube had resurrected the past few games with little success was dumped again in favour of bringing Morgan Rielly back as defenceman/quarterback. It did cash its second chance of the night against the NHL’s second-worst penalty kill. Marner hung on to the puck to break the Wings’ box before dishing back to Matthews for a tight angle one-timer, his 10th of the campaign.
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It was winger Bobby McMann’s first appearance since a lower body injury seven games ago, as fourth-liner Ryan Reaves was scratched. McMann led the Leafs in shots on goal with five, while his linemate, Max Domi, had none as his goalless slump extended to 22 games.
The Leafs could make some changes for Sunday’s late afternoon home game against Buffalo. It’s expected Dennis Hildeby gets the call in net.
Leafs winger Max Pacioretty, who has turned back the clock with some big-time hits in his return from a leg injury, caught Alex Debrincat with a knee early in the game and was jumped by Ben Chiarot, but only Pacioretty was penalized.
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