Winning was always a big challenge, but the habs made it harder in their own zone.
The new-look Toronto Maple Leafs, fresh off their Blockbuster trade, got to test their lineup against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night. They did as well as they could have wished and while their new signings didn’t find the scorer’s license, they didn’t need to in a 5-1 win either.
The main reason the Habs lost this particular game was their defensive zoning play, or lack thereof. William Nylander scored a completely uncovered goal to the left of the slot. On several occasions they found themselves trapped in their own zone because they couldn’t get the puck out.
And then you had that goal, which was just weird in terms of defensive marking.
This is just an example, but you see two players thoroughly embarrassed in it. David Savard completely loses David Kampf with a quick spin and Evgenii Dadonov looks even more lost trying to cover Calle Jarnkrok. In a way, this was the story of the game – one or more of the Leafs’ forwards were exposed in the offensive zone and ended up with a good chance finding the back of the net.
If you take out the defensive mistakes, which is admittedly difficult given the sheer volume, it wasn’t such a bad game for the Tricolore. They were right with the Leafs about half the game. Unfortunately, they don’t have a way to overcome as many defensive breakdowns against a strong offense as the Leafs’.
Perhaps less unfortunately, this new losing streak pushes them back to where they probably should be in the standings.
Lower Six Minutes!
We talk Mike Matheson’s continued improvement this season and whether or not his recent play could push him into trade talks as the deadline is fast approaching. I’ll also address the rumor that Jonathan Drouin could potentially get back together with Nathan MacKinnon in Colorado, and whether that idea has any validity.
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