Maple Leafs flirt with catastrophe, however discover late perception in comeback win

TORONTO — Craig Berube referred to as for management. For a response. For an announcement.

Standing within the bowels of Scotiabank Arena three nights in the past, processing the 60-minute drubbing his Toronto Maple Leafs had simply endured by the hands of the high-flying Edmonton Oilers, the Toronto bench boss laid out the stakes.

“Our leaders have got to take control of it, a lot more than they are right now,” Berube had mentioned that evening, after a heavy, exasperated sigh. “To me, it’s all a mindset. Whether you’re down a goal or you’re up, you’ve just got to have more urgency. Be more direct in how we want to play. We didn’t do it in the third period, two games in a row.”

The schedule supplied up a present of a rebound alternative: a showdown with the Chicago Blackhawks, residents of the league’s basement for the previous half-decade, coming to the Maple Leafs’ barn with out their talisman, Connor Bedard.

It was all there for the blue-and-white to seize maintain of. For captain Auston Matthews, particularly. Start sturdy, tilt the ice, reply the decision.

But for 50 minutes Tuesday evening, the house aspect regarded miles off it. Bobbling passes, stumbling across the sheet, wanting disjointed and disconnected, like they’ve too many occasions this season.

It took solely 10 minutes for Chicago to wobble the hosts, a degree shot by means of visitors deflecting off Wyatt Kaiser and previous Joseph Woll, who returned to the Maple Leafs’ cage for the primary time in a week-and-a-half. Five minutes later, the Hawks bagged one other, pouncing on a lacklustre power-play zone-entry try from William Nylander, taking the puck right down to the opposite finish of the sheet on a 2-on-1, and sniping a short-handed tally previous Woll.

“I thought we were a little bit stubborn in the first,” veteran defender Oliver Ekman-Larsson mentioned of the early going. “Trying to go through five guys, turning a lot of pucks over.”

“We weren’t on our toes, and you could see that,” added winger Dakota Joshua. “They took it to us there and got the lead. … Just self-inflicted wounds. Like, we were doing it to ourselves. Too many turnovers. That can’t happen. We’ve just got to be better.”

In between the 2 early tallies, the guests put one other puck within the internet — outbattling the Maple Leafs in their very own crease and stuffing a aim previous Woll, just for it to be referred to as off after a goalie interference problem.

As the officers reviewed the play, Berube tore into his squad on the bench. Asked about his message to the group throughout that disappointing first interval, the coach didn’t mince phrases.

“It could have been a number of things,” Berube mentioned post-game. “Giving up a short-handed aim, then giving up a face-off aim. They shouldn’t occur. They shouldn’t occur. I imply, we get outmuscled round our internet. 

“It’s just simple things. That’s why I was pissed off.”

As the Maple Leafs left the ice for the primary intermission, the gang rained down boos upon them.

“I mean, if I was a fan, I wouldn’t have been too happy with the performance either. So, no surprise there,” Joshua mentioned of the hometown jeers. “No one wants to get booed in their own building. But at the same time, they had every right to feel that way with what we were putting out there.”

More boos fell to the ice halfway by means of the third interval, Toronto nonetheless trailing 2-0. And for a second, Berube’s squad appeared perched on an important precipice, teetering dangerously. 

Lose this recreation — in opposition to this opponent, with any such efficiency, after what occurred three nights in the past on this constructing — and it appeared sure to all topple over, to shatter on the pavement. The race appeared run, the Maple Leafs devoted’s perception on this crew — and, crucially, in its captain — all however evaporated.

Then Ekman-Larsson took the puck off an offensive-zone faceoff win from No. 34, took a number of steps, and wired it by means of visitors, previous netminder Spencer Knight, and into the again of the web.

“Going into the third, it was, ‘We need to play like the desperate team,’” Joshua mentioned. “If we played our game, we knew that we could come back. It was a group effort, a lot of guys talking. And then after we got that first one to go, you could kind of feel it. Everyone was into it.”

A couple of minutes later, the captain discovered his second — the kind of game-swinging, momentum-building, life-giving sequence the followers in these stands have been longing for weeks. 

It began with a powerful forecheck from Nylander, who dashed behind the web after a misplaced offensive-zone faceoff, wrestled the puck from Kaiser, and acquired it to Matthews — No. 34 corralled the puck, wheeled round to the entrance of the web, and wired a crisp wrister over Knight’s shoulder.

Tie recreation. Crowd on its toes. Boos turned to cheers.

Before the followers might return to their seats, the Maple Leafs had discovered one other, Troy Stecher firing a puck down the ice off the end-boards, Joshua beelining by means of the Hawks’ still-stunned defenders, and the winger whipping the game-winner into the cage earlier than Chicago knew what was taking place.

“That’s why you build your game throughout the game, just doing the right things — it adds up,” Ekman-Larsson mentioned of the roller-coaster comeback. “That’s why we want to get the puck deep, to make it harder on the other defencemen, and I thought it paid off again.”

“The boo-birds were coming down — rightfully so — and I think after that first goal, the crowd really got into it, which was great,” Matthews added. “And then after the second one, the place was rocking. And after the third one, even more.”

By the time the ultimate buzzer rang, the Maple Leafs had bagged a 3-2 victory, discovered an important comeback win and narrowly dodged catastrophe. And regardless of prolonged stretches of the evening during which No. 34 regarded removed from the all-world scorer who as soon as terrorized netminders across the league, the blue-and-white talisman who appeared among the many greatest gamers on the planet for a prolonged spell, there’s little doubt the captain was essential in pulling his aspect out of the mud on this one.

“It was great. It was great to see, and great for him, and great for our team. I thought that line drove play tonight, which was what I wanted to see,” Berube mentioned of Matthews, Nylander and Matthew Knies. “Whether they scored or not, it’s just controlling the game more than they have, and driving play. And they did, I thought. All three of them were pretty good tonight.”

Big-picture, it’s a small step ahead for these Leafs — however not essentially a leap. Late outburst apart, the evening left loads of query marks on the desk, loads of holes in want of patching. Still, for a membership that’s lacked fireplace, lacked combat, on so many nights on this constructing this season, there’s progress to be present in a late spark of perception, and what it ignited on this evening.

“It’s just the momentum swings that happen every game. You’ve got to believe that you can come back,” Joshua mentioned of what spurred the late-game-turning flurry. “That was a big two points that we needed there. It was nice to see us come together and squeeze it out.”