Leafs Rope-A-Dope Fails In Loss To Sharks

The Toronto Maple Leafs were – in a sense – fortunate to earn a point in a 3-2 overtime loss to the San Jose Sharks on Thursday. The Leafs built a 2-0 lead in the middle frame on goals from Dakota Joshua and Auston Matthews, but the club was not able to convert on other chances, and allowed the Sharks to creep back into the game when Dmtri Orlov scored late in the second. 

Toronto played a hockey version of rope-a-dope in the second-half of the game, trying to limit San Jose’s scoring chances by playing purely a defensive game in front of Dennis Hildeby, but that allowed the Sharks to take over, outshoot the Leafs 13-5 in the final frame and extra time, nearly tie the game on a goal was ruled offsides, and finally even the score with 1:25 left in regulation, and win the game on Alexander Wennberg’s goal at 2:49 of overtime.

Every lost point is important based on how close the Eastern Conference standings are, but just as important to Toronto is the status of their blueline, and that picture became more cloudy with the injury to defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson. The veteran suffered a lower-body injury in the second period and did not return, forcing the Leafs to play with five D. 

After the game, head coach Craig Berube provided no update, but on Friday, TSN’s Darren Dreger provided an update that the news was better than expected and that after testing out the injury at the morning skate, it is possible that he plays against the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday. If Ekman-Larsson is unavailable, then the Leafs will be without three veteran blueliners. The club revealed on Friday that Brandon Carlo underwent foot surgery on December 3rd, and Berube, in his typical cryptic fashion, said that the recovery time is about a month.  

As for veteran Chris Tanev, the expected answer on his non-specific upper-body injury has been pushed off until next week. 

“He’s getting a second opinion, which we’ll get here soon, hopefully, and then we’ll go from there,” Berube said on Friday. 

The uncertain timeline when it comes to Ekman-Larsson and especially Tanev puts Leafs GM Brad Treliving in a difficult spot. Currently, if all three veterans are out for the bulk of December, Toronto would have to field a blueline of Morgan Rielly, Jake McCabe, Simon Benoit, Philippe Myers, Troy Stecher, and Henry Thrun. Thrun played well in his Leafs debut on Thursday and may be forced into a larger role on Saturday, but with Dakota Mermis out long-term, Toronto has very few options in the American Hockey League to bring up and play. 

Potentially, the next call-up could be William Villeneuve, who leads the Marlies in defensive scoring with 12 points, but if not, the next possibility is Cade Webber, the 6’6” defensive defenseman with no points in 21 games. What Treliving may have to is swap one of his extra forwards for a stop gap on defense. 

Matias Maccelli has become a spare part and has not played since November 28. His $3.425 million salary might be difficult to move, but Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman indicated on his 32 Thoughts podcast that teams like the Boston Bruins were interested in the 25-year-old winger over the summer.  

The Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Matt Dumba was placed on waivers on Friday. The 31-year-old has played only 11 games this season, but his $3.75 million AAV would be problematic for Toronto to fit under the cap, unless they put some of their injured players on LTIR.