Hey, the Maple Leafs held Connor McDavid to a single assist on Wednesday night.
After the Leafs lost 3-1 to the Edmonton Oilers at Scotiabank Arena, however, Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe shrugged.
“I didn’t like our game at all,” Keefe said. “We were really slow, disjointed, didn’t play with enough pace to generate any sustained pressure.
“You’re aware of who you are out there against, that’s a big factor, but there’s no excuse why that would affect us offensively.”
And while there might have been questionable calls, especially on Jake Muzzin in the third period, Keefe wasn’t going there. With Muzzin off for tripping, Leon Draisaitl scored the winner with just under 11 minutes remaining.
“We had a hold, a high stick, a trip, these are careless penalties that the other team is not taking,” Keefe said. “That stalled our game. A power play like (the Oilers’) is going to break through eventually.”
McDavid had four shots on goal and five attempts in total, but was not a threat and was held in check by Auston Matthews and his linemates. McDavid was not on the scoresheet until assisting on an empty-net goal by Josh Archibald with 66 seconds to play.
“We weren’t pressuring too hard on the offence — we were worried about staying above them all night,” Mitch Marner said. “We did a good job, but we have to play more down low in their zone.”
The Leafs will get that opportunity on Friday night, when the clubs meet again at Scotiabank to end the two-game set.
OH HI, MIKE
We stand behind our reporting of Nov. 25, 2019, in which we wrote, regarding Mike Babcock, who had been fired by the Leafs five days earlier: “Babcock was alleged to have asked one of the Leafs’ rookies to list the players on the team from hardest-working to those who, in the eyes of the rookie, didn’t have a strong work ethic. The rookie did so, not wanting to upset his coach, but was taken aback when Babcock told the players who had been listed at the bottom.”
We care to comment because Babcock on Tuesday poked his head out of his pandemic hole to tell the Athletic the story “wasn’t right” and gave a somewhat convoluted explanation, saying he was talking to Marner about “work ethic” and where Marner “ranked on the scale,” and acknowledged he showed Tyler Bozak the ranking. Bozak and Nazem Kadri, we’ve been told, were at the bottom of the list. Once Bozak “saw the list,” in Babcock’s words, the coach knew he “had made a major mistake.”
Whatever. At the time, Babcock indicated to some of his other contacts in the media that the story in the Sun was true.
Wednesday marked 14 months since Babcock was fired, 4 1/2 years into an eight-year contract with the Leafs. That’s the bigger story and always will be: Babcock’s failure in Toronto and the rather quick realization by club management that it was not going to work under Babcock, despite the presence of a promising young core.
GAME ON
Strange first period, which was more of a 20-minute feeling-out process. The Leafs outshot the Oilers 8-3, with the lone goal by Edmonton coming after Jimmy Vesey banked the puck into his own net off the skate of Muzzin, with credit going to the Oilers’ Kailer Yamamoto. Between Matthews and McDavid, there was one shot attempt … Matthews had a pair of great chances late in the second period during a McDavid minor, but he fanned on one and was thwarted by a Mikko Koskinen glove save on the other … The NHL has shelved its micro-chipped tracking pucks, much to the delight of Matthews. “We noticed a bit (of a difference),” Matthews said, referring to Jason Spezza. “Spezz was the first one to bring it up to me. I told him that’s why I couldn’t capitalize on some of the chances I’ve had in the first four games because these pucks are all messed up. We held one of the regular pucks and one of the new ones and there was a little bit of a difference in the weight, and seemed like sometimes the puck wasn’t sliding as well as it usually would … no more excuses now. Have to bury it.” As it turned out, Matthews scored the Leafs’ only goal, briefly tying the game 1-1 early in the third period.
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2021
