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Sheldon Keefe didn’t want to hear talk of a slump in his first three-game regulation losing streak behind the Maple Leafs bench.
But the scrunching skates of the Winnipeg Jets are getting louder in the North Division after his team’s mid-game breakdowns led to a 4-3 defeat Tuesday at Scotiabank Arena.
The Leafs brought home some of their “losing habits” from Vancouver as the Jets opened this three-game series by moving to within five points of first-place Toronto with two games in hand.
Given what has been a great first half of the schedule, Keefe wasn’t going to over-react, though it has put a different spin on the rest of this week.
“All three (losses), we could’ve easily got points in each, and that’s a good sign,” Keefe said. “But this division is close. What comes out of this for me is that you either have winning habits or losing habits. After three fantastic games (sweeping Edmonton), we’ve followed that with not bad games, but just not doing enough of the little things well that end up getting you to find ways to win games.”
On Tuesday, leading 2-1 in the third period, that included Jake Muzzin getting pushed off the puck on the tying goal as the whole team should have been moving into lockdown mode, and then a bad line change on Kyle Connor’s go-ahead marker.
“You need to get a change there. (There was) no structure for us coming back,” Keefe said by way of another example of problems popping up. “Or when nothing is happening, you (mistakenly) force something, instead of just moving the puck forward. It’s lessons we need to learn.”
Keefe pulled Frederik Andersen early and the second of Auston Matthews’ two goals, his 20th of the year, made it a tight finish. The Leafs did tip their helmets to Connor Hellebuyck, who made 36 saves.
The Jets did not need Pierre-Luc Dubois on this night to repeat his mastery of the Leafs from the playoffs with Columbus, as they spread out the scoring and finished the game with only five defenceman after Nathan Beaulieu was hurt. Andrew Copp, Josh Morrissey and Mason Appleton also beat Andersen.
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“We’re in a good spot, all teams go through adversity.” insisted winger Zach Hyman, who had an unusually picturesque goal on a bold rush and high backhand with no one touching him.
The Leafs held Winnipeg to two shots during an early Zach Bogosian penalty, the trigger for a fast-paced period with lots of best-on-best play between two dangerous offences. Toronto was seven seconds away from killing a Muzzin minor when Copp tipped a Neal Pionk shot, one of the latter’s three assists.
Matthews out-did that with a backhand deflection of Morgan Rielly’s drive, breaking a season high five-game goal slump as Keefe went back with a loaded first power-play unit. Matthews’ first strike passed Gary Leeman for 19th in franchise history at 177 with Rielly getting the helper on his 27th birthday.
With only one previous meeting this season, Toronto’s 3-1 win on Jan. 18, the Jets are somewhat a mystery opponent.
“This is a huge week for us to close out the (season’s first half),” said ex-Jet Bogosian before the game. “They’re a good team, but there’s not a bad team to play right now. Losing two (in Vancouver) doesn’t sit well with us.”
The Leafs found the change in style from dominating Edmonton to more physical hockey against the Canucks a difficult switch and now it’s back to handling an active offence. Hyman had said the Leafs have been doing their homework the past couple of days to catch up on the Jets.
“It’s a strange schedule,” he said. “We’ll play them nine times the rest of the way, seeing a ton of them and they’re right behind us in the standings. We’ve been aware of their success of late. Up front, they’re one of the most dynamic teams in the league and they added Dubois.”
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The Leafs have previously lost three straight under Keefe with overtime defeats thrown in. But three or more defeats in 60 minutes hasn’t happened since Mike Babcock was fired in November of 2019. The Jets and Florida Panthers were the only NHL teams not to have not lost back-to-back in regulation before Tuesday, Winnipeg now with a mark of 7-0-1 after a defeat.
Keefe didn’t make any lineup changes in a show of faith, especially with a power play that struggled late on the trip. He’s been experimenting, at different times of late having been without Wayne Simmonds, Joe Thornton and a limited Matthews with his wrist injury. But lack of a steady penalty-kills the past few games has riled the coach.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiUmh0dHBzOi8vdG9yb250b3N1bi5jb20vc3BvcnRzL2hvY2tleS9qZXRzLXN0cmV0Y2gtbWFwbGUtbGVhZnMtc2x1bXAtdG8tdGhyZWUtZ2FtZXPSAYABaHR0cHM6Ly90b3JvbnRvc3VuLmNvbS9zcG9ydHMvaG9ja2V5L2pldHMtc3RyZXRjaC1tYXBsZS1sZWFmcy1zbHVtcC10by10aHJlZS1nYW1lcy93Y20vODYxNmNkZjktZTJiMC00MTk5LWExZDItYzQ4ZjAwYzRjMGQ5L2FtcC8?oc=5
2021-03-10 13:54:50Z
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