Craig Berube didn’t see his new Maple Leafs’ names on the score sheet, but their fingerprints were all over a solid 50-minute effort at Denver in Toronto’s first post-trade deadline game.
Saturday night didn’t end well — the 7-4 loss to the Colorado Avalanche dropped the Leafs further behind the Atlantic Division-leading Florida Panthers.
Despite the Leafs giving up a late power-play goal to Nathan MacKinnon and two empty-netters, Brandon Carlo made a fine impression on defence and third-line centre Scott Laughton did a lot of little things to perfection.
But a 4-2 lead unraveled in a hurry, with Toronto beaten behind and in front of its own net on Jonathan Drouin’s tying goal and MacKinnon’s winner coming with Mitch Marner in the box after his own two-goal game.
It was Toronto’s first regulation loss in Denver since 2009, the Leafs third straight defeat and second on this road trip.
The Leafs old and new were seemingly unhindered by the altitude that often factors for visitors to the Mike High City.
The traded players on both clubs featured early in the match, but Carlo’s unfamiliarity with his new team, and partner Morgan Rielly in particular, worked against the Leafs as the pair was burned twice. After Brock Nelson hit the post on his first chance for the Avs, Valeri Nichushkin scored twice against the pair. Nelson and Ryan Lindgren, once Islanders-Rangers rivals, each had assists for the Avs.
Yet, Carlo and Rielly were even on the plus-minus scale by the end of the period, which featured Marner’s two and one by John Tavares.
Carlo was then tried on the penalty-kill, with Colorado owning one of the NHL’s best power plays this month and, as part of his team-best six shot blocks, helped bust two short-handed situations in a row.
Carlo wound up leading all Leafs skaters in ice time at 22:04.
Toronto was briefly up 4-2 in the middle frame on Auston Matthews’ third assist of the night, a perfect pass between a defender’s legs to Tavares with the man advantage. Matthews extended his points streak to 12 games and has 15 assists in his past 12 outings.
But that snapped the Avs back to life, getting the jump on Jake McCabe and Oliver Ekman-Larsson for a 4-3 Joel Kiviranta goal.
Berube’s new lineup saw Max Domi shifted from centre to right wing on Laughton’s line, with Nicholas Robertson bumped to the fourth. Laughton won four of seven draws.
The Leafs conclude the three-game road trip Monday night in their first ever visit to the Utah Hockey Club and its Delta Center home in Salt Lake City. After that, Toronto’s remaining 19 games are highlighted by three against the Panthers starting Thursday at Scotiabank Arena, now trailing the Cats by four points.
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