The Toronto Maple Leafs blew a fantastic opportunity last night to move five points up in the Atlantic Division, with a game in hand no less.
It was, however, not to be for the Toronto Maple Leafs who, despite a solid effort, were practically blown out by the overdue Panthers.
The score was 5-1 but that doesn't do the Leafs justice. They are missing their best player and half their lineup, going up one of the NHL's best teams, on the road, and it's a team that has lost six out of their last seven games, and is overdue for a victory.
So, the Leafs lost and were unable to open up a huge lead, but there were some positives and honestly, they have no business being 7-2 without Matthews, so there ain't much use in complaining. (stats naturalstattrick.com).
Toronto Maple Leafs lose important game but give commendable effort
The Leafs problem, and the reason why they probably shouldn't get too excited about their current record, is that they can't score at 5v5. This isn't like having a problem on the power-play because the power-play was always going to work itself out, and power-plays don't correlate to winning at anywhere close to what 5v5 scoring does.
They are 25th in the NHL in total 5v5 goals, and have scored just 1 or 0 5v5 goals in 11 of their 22 games (50%). If this was just missing Matthews, it wouldn't be an issue, but the Leafs have been eliminated from the playoffs on multiple occaisions because they couldn't get any scoring when Matthews, Marner and Nylander weren't doing it.
The Leafs have 26 goals since Matthews was injured, and Marner has points on 15 of those goals. That isn't a lot of offense from the team's other players, and despite the record the team has during those games, it is concerning.
As for last night's game, Marner scored an amazing goal, but overall he didn't have much success going up against the Panthers top line. The Leafs did get really good games out of Nick Robertson who looked very good paired with William Nylander and Pontus Holmberg on the Leafs best line of the night.
I also think Steeves-Dewar-Lorentz should give Craig Berube some serious pause about inserting Ryan Reaves into the lineup when he's eligible, while the Grebenkin-Minten-A.Nylander line was impressive as well.
The Leafs pairing of OEL and Riely was once again problematic. The numbers weren't terrible but OEL was responsible for at least one goal, and didn't look good on the power-play. Rielly is Rielly and he excels when he's playing with better players.
Overall, the Leafs effort was good and they deserved a closer outcome, if not the victory. Also, this probably goes without saying at this point, but tonight's injury was Bobby McMann, who has a "body injury" that will keep him out for an unknown amount of time.
The Toronto Maple Leafs light schedule continues and they don't play against until Saturday against Tampa.