Maple Leafs Takeaways: No middle ground for forwards, beat goes on for Bob

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Make that four forgettable periods for the Maple Leafs and three straight losses that have tempered their early October enthusiasm. 

Saturday’s 4-1 empty-net goal defeat to the short-handed New York Islanders, on the heels of a collapse and overtime failure against Buffalo, has suddenly turned the heat up on the Leafs to get it right in the coming week before another Western Road trip. 

And when Toronto can’t score its way out of trouble, as was the case Saturday and as it was able to do in earning the early points of its (3-4-2) start, the concern grows. 

Our takeaways on a distinctly unentertaining evening at Scotiabank Arena: 

Flow hockey flops

Auston Matthews and William Nylander, among the NHL’s top 10 scorers when play began, were limited to a shot apiece. Give the Isles credit for taking the middle of the ice away, however the Leafs kept trying to jam square pegs in round holes, as evidenced by 20 giveaways and being out-hit 29-18 . 

“They did a good job keeping us to the outside, but we passed up on a lot of shots, too,” admitted Matthews. “We just kind of made it a little easier on them.” 

If there’s a drawback to the increased creativity the Leafs brought into camp under new coach Jim Hiller, it’s that they try the extra pretty pass, perhaps trying too hard to please at home. But that was not an issue for Jack Roslovic and Kirill Marchenko, who tallied 10 of Toronto’s 29 shots on Ilya Sorokin. 

Hiller wanted more jam inside on the Isles as big Matthew Schaefer led the visitors’ blueline with 24 minutes of ice time a second time against the Leafs this month. 

“Their defencemen did a good job squishing us in the corners,” Hiller said. “We’ve got to create some chaos, we did it two or three times and one was a goal.”  

That was a partial screen and tip by Colton Sissons on a Troy Stecher drive. It was certainly a night the Leafs missed the down-low digging of second-line centre John Tavares, who’ll be out anywhere from one to a few weeks with a lower body injury suffered Thursday. 

Bob robbed of support 

You have to feel for Sergei Bobrovsky, who has thus far proven last season’s dip in numbers with the Florida Panthers was not going to bleed into the 38-year-old’s first season of a $21-million US contract. 

But the goaltender is 1-3-2 and still looking for his first win on Bay St. He’s covered up for many, but not all of the turnovers in Toronto’s end when pressed by the opposition. 

“He’s playing great and we’ve really left him out to dry in these last couple of starts,” said Matthews apologetically. “That’s on us, he’s doing his job, making big saves.” 

A few came on back-to-back Islander power plays during which the in-house graphics flashed a stat that his 33 saves so far without allowing a power-play goal are a league high. It’s part of the Leafs’ 96.4 per cent kill rate, the NHL’s best, and one of the things Bobrovsky highlighted as a sign the Leafs do have some mojo. 

“It is what it is, I stay patient,” he said of his first weeks here. “You can think ‘what if this, what if that?’, but I’m confident and feel good about my game. It doesn’t always go your way. 

“The style here is different obviously. There are new guys, we’re all working to build the chemistry to build the belief. We have skills guys, professional guys and just have to find our game.” 

Goaltending is one area the Leafs can feel safe in when his number’s called. 

Gavin give-and-take 

With his highly-publicized benching on Thursday night and the absence of Tavares, Gavin McKenna played likely his most undisciplined game to date. 

He was moving his feet of course and just didn’t get enough of a shot away on a 2-on-1 with Sissons and the game scoreless. But from there he made a few soft passes through traffic and couldn’t generate much as part of the first power play unit in Tavares’s spot when the Leafs had three late-game opportunities. 

He wasn’t rattled by his first negative press, and his17:56 was a season high after Hiller hooked him midway through the Buffalo game when Toronto needed a spark to nail down a win. 

“He was good, he was skating, but like everyone else, he had a hard time.” 

Monday will be an interesting head-to-head, No. 1 overall McKenna and No. 2 Ivar Stenberg, the Sharks’ impressive young winger with four points in his last three games. 

Lhornby@postmedia.com 

X: @sunhornby 

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