The Toronto Maple Leafs are now 0-2 without Auston Matthews.
The offense turned in a better effort, but the Toronto Maple Leafs were stonewalled throughout their 2-1 loss to the Dallas Stars on Thursday night.
They had numerous chances, but either couldn’t finish them off or they were stopped by a hardworking netminder in Anton Khudobin, who stopped 31 of 32 shots in the win. Frederik Andersen had a smaller workload (19 shots faced) and allowed two goals, one on a tipped shot and the other on a nice passing play that put Andersen on his stomach.
While the offense looked better and the defense had their moments, special teams played the biggest role in the Maple Leafs fifth home loss of the season.
(Low Power) Power Play
With Matthews out, the power play has lost a key player, but that doesn’t excuse a special teams unit with Mitch Marner and John Tavares going one for five on the man advantage. Going 20% on the power play was the problem for the Leafs with four prime opportunities throughout the game either stopped by Khudobin or wasted away with passes.
Though to be fair, there were some glorious chances that probably would be goals most of the time.
The Maple Leafs have now scored a power play goal in back-to-back games, but they only have two power play goals in their last five games with 16 opportunities. Three of those games were with Matthews as a starter. Hopefully the special teams can step up over the next few games, because last night it cost the Leafs a win.
Home-Not So Sweet-Home
A surprising statistic is that the Toronto Maple Leafs are now 3-5-0 at home this season compared to their 5-0-0 record on the road. The Leafs are scoring 2.0 goals per game at home while putting up 5.4 goals per game in opposing arenas. Most likely this is just an early season anomaly, but it’s something to keep an eye on.
The likely answer is opposing teams step up their game when they come to Toronto, knowing how big of a stage it is in the NHL. The Maple Leafs need to realize that with expectations comes having a target painted on your back. Beating a Stanley Cup contender in front of their home crowd is always a nice way to build momentum and opponents will jump at the opportunity for it. Hopefully the Leafs can solve this problem before the home woes become a bigger issue.
Elsewhere in Toronto Maple Leafs Land
Patrick Marleau scored his second goal of the year (And only Leafs goal of the game) on the power play in the third period. It was his first goal since October 15th, where he also scored a power play tally against the Los Angeles Kings.
Justin Holl made his season debut last night, finishing with a hit, a blocked shot and a -6.3% relative Corsi. He also took the Leafs’ only penalty of the game on a holding call in the second period.
Travis Dermott returned to the lineup after missing several games with an illness, recording a shot and a -3.2% relative Corsi in the process.
Morgan Rielly is now tied with Matthews and Marner for the team lead in points with 16. He recorded a secondary assist on Marleau’s goal while Tavares took the primary assist.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are back on the road Saturday night in Pittsburgh to take on Sidney Crosby and the Penguins in the second meeting of the season between the two teams.