Leafs Letdown At The Lake

The Toronto Maple Leafs reached the pinnacle of their season with an overtime victory over the Colorado Avalanche in the front-end of a difficult back-to-back to start their four-game road swing, but the Leafs appeared to use up all of their energy in the win on Monday night, as they were lethargic against the Utah Mammoth on Tuesday, falling behind early and never able to catch up in a 6-1 loss at the Delta Center.  

The Mammoth pelted Leafs goalie Dennis Hildeby with 41 shots, and took control of the game with three second-period goals, including a pair by Dylan Guenther. Calle Jarnkrok scored the lone goal for Toronto, who are now 7-11-2 on the road, with games in Vegas on Thursday and Winnipeg on Saturday before returning home for a five-game homestand. 

“(Utah) had a lot of energy, and a lot of jump out there. They were quicker than us tonight, and it showed.” Leafs head coach Craig Berube said after the game. “They pounced early, we got out of the first, we were down 1-0, I thought we were in good shape. We came out in the second, (John Tavares) had a breakaway right away, didn’t put it in, and we had some opportunities early on. I thought we got our legs under us, and the second (goal) goes in and the third one dug us in a hole.” 

While it was a rough night for some of the core group (Tavares -3, William Nylander, and Morgan Rielly -4), the effort was forgivable with Toronto’s current workload coupled with challenging travel, but it is something that they cannot afford more of after their subpar performance in the first half of the season.

The chatter regarding New Jersey defenseman Dougie Hamilton in connection with the Leafs has intensified. Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos pondered the possibility of Toronto being into the trade talks for Hamilton earlier in the week, and on Wednesday, TSN insider Pierre LeBrun linked the Leafs in connection to the 32-year-old Toronto native. 

LeBrun indicated that the Leafs may have interest, but not at his full $9 million cap hit. The Devils would have to retain salary, and that would entail not only for this year, but for the next two seasons.

There are indications that the Devils would like to get their business regarding trading Hamilton before the Olympic break in early February. From a Toronto perspective, a deal for Hamilton would entail putting one or both winger Dakota Joshua, and defenseman Chris Tanev on season-ending LTIR to clear cap space, but that does not factor in what the Devils are expecting to get in return for the former 20-goal scoring blueliner. After being healthy scratched, Hamilton returned to the Devils lineup on Monday and had a pair of assists in a 5-2 win over Minnesota.