The Toronto Maple Leafs 5-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild can be summed up in one overused phrase. Wash, Rinse, Repeat. It was another example of a club that put some good moments together, but made costly errors that inevitably cost them the game. Auston Matthews and Zack MacEwen scored in the second period to give Toronto a 2-1 lead after Matt Boldy’s first-period goal. The Wild sniper tied the game on the power play less than three minutes later and completed the hat trick with the game-winner early in the third.
As with many of the games this season, the reason for the loss was not one thing but an accumulation of mistakes. Anthony Stolarz made 21 saves on the night and made some good stops, but was cleanly on Boldy’s game-winner and gave up a juicy rebound on Michael McCarron’s insurance goal. Defensively, Troy Stecher made an unforgivable giveaway on the opening goal, and the most egregious defensive faux pas was once again William Nylander, who gave a path wide enough for a 747 to Boldy that allowed him to fire at point-blank range on the game-winner.
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The scratching of Chris Tanev was definitely a factor in the game, as it put more of an onus on the top two pairings to play major minutes. The pairing of Stecher and Oliver Ekman-Larsson played over 21 minutes and were -2 on the night. Up front, John Tavares had another subpar night, other than winning 62.5% of his draws, as he finished -2 in just under 17 minutes, but one thing that was clearly revealed before, during, and after the loss is that Maple Leafs head coach Jim Hiller is out of his depth.
Aside from the Tanev decision, which was at the behest of the club’s medical staff for the purpose of load management, some lineup choices have been thrust upon Hiller because of the number of injuries to key players, but others have been made due to the coach’s methodology, and they are hurting the club. With the club struggling to score goals, the Leafs played Ryan Tverberg (who played well and should get more of a look) for just over 13 minutes, while playing 2026 top pick Gavin McKenna 10:38.
Clearly, the philosophy regarding McKenna is to give him limited minutes and protect him from making defensive gaffes, but this is not the way that a player learns how to do things the right way. This is from the same book as former Leafs head coach Craig Berube spoon-feeding Easton Cowan minutes last season. Playing McKenna the same amount as fourth-liners MacEwen and slightly more than Dakota Joshua.
The other head-scratching decision was to promote Nylander to the top line with Matthews late in the third period to try and jump-start him. Those are great optics: move the player up in the lineup after he has been a liability for the last couple of weeks and responsible for the error that allowed the game-winning goal. Some coaches would have had Nylander stapled to the bench after that play. Not that #88 would learn a lesson from it.
Hiller, after the game, puzzlingly said that he sees lots of hope. One wonders what the color of the sky in his world is. The Leafs will eventually get Kirill Marchenko back, they will eventually get Morgan Rielly and Colton Sissons back, and they will play more competitive hockey and win some games, but this six-game homestand has more than likely struck the death knell to their chances of making the playoffs.
What GM John Chayka should start to do is give more players from the AHL Marlies, like Tverberg, Luke Haymes, Borya Valis, Noah Chadwick, and Ben Danford (when he returns), an opportunity and begin moving out some of the aging group. Stop trying to put a band-aid on a bullet hole. This current edition of the Leafs is fatally flawed, on the ice, behind the bench, and perhaps in management as well.
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