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The Toronto Maple Leafs started the second half of their season the way they started the first – they blew the game in the dying minutes.
As always with the Leafs, there is a but – 56 of them, as a matter of fact. They fired 56 shots at Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Antero Niittymaki on Saturday and all they could manage was a 3-2 loss after Flyers centre Mike Richards scored a power-play goal with 2 minutes 51 seconds left in the third period.
This does not bode well for the Leafs' trip to California this week, in which they'll play the Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks. Naturally, since the Leafs are involved, California is in the midst of its coldest, wettest weather in decades, with floods the order of the day.
There was the usual talk after the game about how Niittymaki stood on his head. But, as usual, far too many of those shots came from long range. The Leafs are specialists in the 25-foot slap shot, probably because opposing defenders find them so easy to keep to the outside.
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- Anaheim Ducks
- Los Angeles Kings
- Philadelphia Flyers
- San Jose Sharks
- Toronto Maple Leafs
- Jason Blake
- Carlo Colaiacovo
- Jim Dowd
- Steve Downie
- Antero Niittymaki
- Mike Richards
- Mats Sundin
And there was the power play. It was feeble once again, except for captain Mats Sundin, who did put one of those long slap shots behind Niittymaki. But 1-for-6 doesn't cut it, not when you produce only 13 shots on those six chances.
Finally, there was the sight of defenceman Carlo Colaiacovo suffering his latest bizarre injury in one of the unluckiest careers on record. In five years, Colaiacovo has played a mere total of 78 NHL games because of a long run of serious injuries suffered in odd ways.
Saturday's game was Colaiacovo's fifth of the season after a long recovery from arthroscopic surgery on his right knee last May. Late in the first period, he locked legs with Flyers forward Jim Dowd. Both went down. But only one got up right away.
After several minutes on the ice, Colaiacovo was helped to the dressing room. Yes, it was his right knee again. He appeared on crutches at the Leafs' practice Sunday and said it was just a contusion that will keep him out of the lineup for seven to 10 days. Head coach Paul Maurice said, “We'll see.”
Also on Saturday, Flyers bad boy Steve Downie raised a large welt under the eye of Leafs forward Jason Blake during a third-period scrum. Blake was able to keep playing, but on Sunday, his right eye was almost swollen shut. But, as Maurice said, “fortunately, God gave him two.” Blake is expected to play in the first game of the trip on Wednesday against the Ducks.
Two of the three teams the Leafs will play this week, the Ducks and Sharks, are light years ahead of them in the NHL standings. Only the Kings, last overall, represent a potential easy mark.
But given the way the Leafs are playing, and the lingering uncertainty of goaltender Vesa Toskala's return from a groin injury, even the Kings represent a challenge. Toskala may play on Wednesday, although the Leafs would not say as much.
The Leafs remain a team with fragile confidence, even on nights when they are working relatively hard. They always find ways to lose the tight ones.
This did not seem lost on Sundin, who may have to rethink his position that he does not want to be traded to a contender come the NHL trade deadline on Feb. 26. Generally, Sundin tries to find the silver lining in the perpetually dark clouds around his team, but even he did not have the heart for it after the Leafs' fifth loss in their past six games.
“I think it's more than the power play,” he said when someone offered that excuse. “When you look at our first half of the season, we just keep having these breakdowns.
“There's a fine line between teams, and the good ones know how to finish games and get to overtime or shootouts. We keep shooting ourselves in the foot.
“We have to be smarter as a group.”
Along with brains, the Leafs also lack a certain prickliness. They may take a lot of penalties, but most of them are dumb rather than combative. It wasn't that long ago that the Leafs were a hard-nosed group that other teams did not care to play.
Now, they are a welcome respite, friendly to backup goaltenders such as Niittymaki and to slumping goal scorers.
