The Toronto Maple Leafs had a bad road trip, but got some pretty sweet results that they didn’t deserve.
Instead of regrouping and playing better now that they were back home, the Toronto Maple Leafs laid an egg against the visiting LA Kings.
The former Cup Winning Kings who rebuilt their team and now seem to have passed the Leafs.
It wasn’t pretty, and it wasn’t fun to watch.
They were listless, lifeless and boring. They didn’t look like they had a chance to win the game at any point. Their power-play was garbage.
The final was 4-1 LA, and even that was complimentary to the Leafs, who didn’t deserve any better.
Toronto Maple Leafs Get Passed By Another Recently Rebuilt Team
Just over 10% into the new season, the Montreal Canadiens have a better record than the Leafs. That’s all you really need to know about how the season is going so far.
Other than the fact that the Leafs record is actually lucky, and they probably deserve to have a much worse one.
At 5v5, the Leafs managed just seven dangerous scoring chances. In total, LA had 24 chances to the Leafs 16.
Not good enough.
The Leafs are now ranked 23rd with just 14 5v5 goals on the season. When it comes to dangerous chances per minute, the Leafs rank 18th.
Considering they have one of the worst blue-lines in the NHL, the offense has to be better.
The Matthews/Jarnkrok combo is so bad, and so obviously bad, and was such a bad idea in the first place you have to wonder if Keefe is just trolling his boss at this point.
— Editor in Leaf (@EditorinLeaf) November 1, 2023
Despite getting some of the worst results of Auston Matthews’ career over the last three games, Sheldon Keefe went back to Calle Jarnkrok on the fist line last night.
Why?
Bertuzzi had his worst game as a Leaf last night, with his team being completely crushed every time he stepped on the ice.
The Leafs have no depth on D and have to play William Lagesson, but he stinks. This means that even though John Klingberg belongs in the AHL, he had to play a ton last night and, to no one’s surprise, the results were terrible.
The Toronto Maple Leafs didn’t look like they had a chance to win this game at any point. I haven’t seen a game this bad – in terms of the team just looking completely lifeless – since right before Ron Wilson was fired.
Pontus Holmberg, Ryan Reaves and Noah Gregor all need to be replaced. None of these guys is getting it done, and you can’t just blame Reaves (although he is truly horrible).
The only good players last night were William Nylander and Morgan Rielly. John Tavares, Brodie and Liljegren were also effective. Every single other player was bad, or in the case of Mitch and Auston, just disappointingly ineffective.
Joseph Woll had his worst game, but he gets a pass.
The coach, the GM, the President, and the players are all to blame, but something has to give. This team doesn’t look right, and it doesn’t look like it can get right.
Last night’s game was one of the worst I’ve seen in the Auston Matthews Era.
They weren’t ready to play when the puck dropped.
They didn’t appear to have good offense, good defense, good penalty killing or a good power-play. They were beat for pucks, they appeared to lose every race and every battle.
LA looked bigger, stronger, faster, and better at pretty much every facet of the game. The Leafs did not look like a team with four elite players. Nylander and Reilly showed up. Everyone else pretty much embarrassed themselves. (stats naturalstattrick.com).
Do that twice in a row and you get a new coach. That’s the rule.