Maple Leafs offence goes into a collective slumber in 4-1 loss to New York Islanders

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Never mind sitting Gavin McKenna, the whole Maple Leafs’ offence was a near no-show on Saturday night.

The offensively challenged New York Islanders, despite two early-game injuries, put the clamps on Toronto, which was playing its first full game without injured second-line centre John Tavares. The 4-1 result at Scotiabank Arena dropped the Leafs’ record to 3-4-2 after it started the previous week with a win and overtime point on a three-game road trip.

Auston Matthews and William Nylander, who both entered the game among the National Hockey League’s leading scorers, were held to one shot each. Nylander’s not coming until there were less than three minutes remaining in the third period.

Toronto’s only goal came after two disjointed third-period power plays, when Nick Paul and Easton Cowan worked it back to defenceman Troy Stecher for a bullet that Colton Sissons tipped.

McKenna had his chances

McKenna, subject of so much scrutiny since his puzzling benching for the last half of Thursday’s 5-4 loss to Buffalo, responded to an encouraging meeting with coach Jim Hiller, opening with high-energy shifts. He had a chance to break the ice with a nice 2-on-1 feed from third-line winger Sissons but didn’t get enough on his shot.

But in trying to be too crafty in the Isles’ end, the rookie put a couple of soft passes right on New York’s tape, especially as part of the top power-play unit. The last of three Leafs man-advantages resulted in just one shot before Simon Holmstrom cruised uncovered into the slot for an insurance goal, as well as an empty-netter.

The Isles had lost centre Calum Ritchie after just 28 seconds of ice time, then ex-Leaf Matias Maccelli when his leg was stretched by a Darren Raddysh trip. The visitors got on the board after consecutive shifts of pressure, Anthony Duclair getting the puck in the slot, beating Paul and snapping it past Sergei Bobrovsky. Bo Horvat added a second-period goal. Toronto has just three goals against the Isles in splitting the early-season series.

Still getting used to the Leafs penchant for defensive lapses, especially with Chris Tanev out at least a couple of weeks, the hard-luck Bobrovsky’s record fell to 1-3-2 in making 16 saves.

He did improve his streak of league-leading short-handed stops to 33 during a brief 5-on-3 late in the first period, as a big part of Toronto’s No. 1 penalty kill, getting close to 97%.

The Leafs will have their first home-road back-to-back next week, hosting San Jose on Monday and off to Columbus to re-unite with Matthew Knies the next evening.

Lhornby@postmedia.com 

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