The Good, Bad, & Ugly in Maple Leafs 4-1 Loss to the Rangers

The Toronto Maple Leafs picked up their second loss of the young season and their first loss at home when they fell to the New York Rangers 4-1. What were the good, bad, and ugly aspects of the game? Key players like Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and Matthew Knies stood out for the Maple Leafs. However, ultimately, their play wasn’t enough to secure a victory.

The Good: (Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, Matthew Knies)

The game was much closer than the final 4-1 score would indicate. The Rangers scored two empty-net goals in a classic goaltenders’ duel. Both teams provided lots of offense and many scoring chances. According to NaturalStatTrick, the Scoring Chances in all situations were 47-29 in favor of Toronto, and the High-Danger Scoring Chances were 21-13. At five-on-five, the Maple Leafs had 18 High-Danger Chances compared to the Rangers’ 11.

Toronto came storming out of the gate and was all over New York in the first half of the first period, outshooting the Rangers 6-2 in the first ten minutes. After a lull to end the first, they had the edge in the second period and carried most of the play in the third.

The Maple Leafs First Line Was Solid

The Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and Matthew Knies line had good looks all game long. They accounted for 71% of the Scoring Chances and 79% of the High-Danger Scoring Chances when they were on the ice at five-on-five. Matthews alone had nine shots on goal in the game.

Despite their chances, Matthews was the only player on that line and on the Maple Leafs who beat New York goalie Igor Shesterkin. The goal came on a hybrid wrap-around early in the third period. After taking a bank pass from Oliver Ekman-Larsson behind the Ranger net, rather than the traditional wrap-around play, Matthews took a much wider arc and took a stride out from behind the net as he was doing so. As a result, he beat Shesterkin on the far side, and Shesterkin committed to closing off the near side. Knies picked up the secondary assist, winning a battle for the puck along the boards and getting it back to Ekman-Larsson at the point.

While Anthony Stolarz ultimately lost the goaltender’s battle, he still played a solid game, stopping 25 of the 27 shots he faced, many of them dangerous scoring chances.

The Bad: The Leafs Made Igor Shesterkin’s Night Easy

Shesterkin is regarded as one of the best goalies in the NHL. His play in this game backed up that assessment. It appeared the Maple Leafs shooters let Shesterkin’s reputation get into their heads slightly. Toronto had 53 unblocked shot attempts in the game and registered 35 shots. That means they missed the net 18 times in the game. Several times Toronto players were either alone on Shesterkin or in a dangerous scoring position and tried to be too fine at picking the top corners, ultimately missing the net.

While the fourth line of David Kampf, Steven Lorentz, and Ryan Reaves had a couple of good shifts in the game, they caved in on their underlying numbers. When they were on the ice at five-on-five, they only had 16% of the Expected Goals, 31% of the Shots, and 35% of the Scoring Chances. Lorentz’s numbers were terrible, at 3% of the Expected Goals and 13% of the Scoring Chances. He was on the ice for zero High-Danger Scoring Chances For and three Against.

The Maple Leafs Third Line Was Better But Needed Some Changes

The third line of John Tavares, Nick Robertson, and Pontus Holmberg put up better underlying stats in this game than they did against Los Angeles. Still, Holmberg continued to struggle, both visually and statistically. Head Coach Craig Berube recognized that both Holmberg and Lorentz were not clicking in the game and switched them up in the third period, moving Lorentz up to that line alongside Tavares and Robertson and moving Holmberg down to play alongside Kampf and Reaves. The move made little difference.

As for the goals that did get by Stolarz, the first one started with a bad bounce off of the referee’s skate deep in the Toronto zone. Artemi Panarin got the loose puck back to Victor Mancini at the point. Mancini’s knee-high wrist shot from the point was deflected by Vincent Trocheck, forcing Stolarz to make an awkward move to get a pad on the puck. The rebound went to Alexis Lafreniere, who took a stride to the middle of the slot before firing a shot past Stolarz’s glove. Stolarz was not able to get reset after stopping the Trocheck deflection.

The second Ranger goal was a backdoor bang-in by Chris Kreider after six New York skaters were able to set up shop in the Toronto zone following a delayed penalty call that appeared to be going to Holmberg for tripping. Stolarz had no chance on the goal.

The Ugly: The Maple Leafs Defense

The Maple Leafs helped the Rangers pad their scoring when they pulled Stolarz with 1:30 left in the game. The Rangers were down 2-1, but they scored not one but two goals into the empty net to make the final score 4-1.

What’s Next for the Maple Leafs?

This game kicks off a busy week for the Maple Leafs, who play five games in eight nights. Toronto gets one day to prepare for the Tampa Bay Lightning’s visit on Monday night to close out their four-game home stand.

They then travel to Columbus to take on the Blue Jackets on Tuesday night. The Maple Leafs return to Toronto to take on Craig Berube’s old team, the St. Louis Blues, before venturing into Boston to take on the Bruins on Saturday night. Then, to make things even more challenging for the Maple Leafs, they fly from Boston to Winnipeg to play their sixth game in ten nights against the Jets the following Monday.

Related: Maple Leafs’ Joseph Woll Shares Unique Label for Stolarz and Hildeby