How the Toronto Maple Leafs Loss Could Oddly Be Ideal
By Jeff Borsuk
The Toronto Maple Leafs may have lost the game but not all is lost.
There isn’t a more devastating way to lose a game than the Toronto Maple Leafs did on Thursday night in Toronto.
They were up three goals to none before allowing the Columbus Blue Jackets to not just tie the contest, but win it in the dying minutes of overtime.
Despite the crushing blow, there is a positive perspective one can and should take from this game.
Toronto Maple Leafs and the Bright Side of Losing
If the Toronto Maple Leafs can’t get past the Jackets and enter the first round of the playoffs, it will be worth looking back on the third game of this qualifying series. That is because Toronto seemed to have the game in hand before they let up and took their collective foot off the gas.
The game can be seen as a learning experience.
The players were able to see that they have the capacity to dominate the puck when they’re locked in. Once they get complacent, they’re a completely different team. This should have Sheldon Keefe constantly reminding his players that their high skill set isn’t enough to win games. They need to play full 60-minute games.
In his Game Three postgame press conference, Keefe did admit that his squad wasn’t playing an ideal brand of hockey. “We didn’t play with any plan or purpose”, the bench boss told reporters.
John Tavares also demonstrated a recognition of the team’s failure. The captain commented, “We understand the way we’ve got to play and how desperate we’ve got to be.” Complacency cannot exist at this time of year.
The Maple Leafs have a roster capable of beating any team in the NHL but they require greater focus and more consistent play.
The team can afford to make mistakes like Travis Dermott’s unnecessary pinch that lead to Columbus’s third goal, but only when the rest of the team is working hard each and every shift. Toronto needs to show that they’re ready to play playoff hockey.
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Having a game that so perfectly illustrates both the ability to succeed and fail needs to mean something for the Leafs.
While the outcome would have ideally gone the other way if Toronto’s players really learned something, then the loss has value. If Keefe can lean over to his players and say just three words, “game three Columbus” and it changes the gameplay of his team, then the tough night at the rink was worthwhile.