Maple Leafs Repeat Defensive and Power Play Mistakes in Loss Against Blues – The Hockey Writers – Toronto Maple Leafs

On Thursday night, October 24, St. With a 5-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues, the Toronto Maple Leafs lost back-to-back games for the first time in the 2024-25 season.

In between recovering from a brutal performance in a 6-2 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday, October 22, Joseph Woll Coming back from injury and head coach Craig Berube’s first game against the team that fired him last December, the Leafs had plenty of motivation to bounce back. But that wasn’t the case in another sloppy defeat.

Woll’s Return Was a Mixed Bag

Woll missed seven consecutive games to start the season. returned to the squad Against the Blues. The Missouri native made his first start of the season against his hometown team after recovering from a groin strain.

A goal was scored from a double screen on the third shot he faced after four minutes of the first period. The Leafs were too passive defensively while guarding close to the end boards, which led to Philip Broberg making an easy pass and shooting. The second goal he allowed came in the fifth inning after his teammates allowed Dylan Holloway to break in uncontested and score on the power play. He had plenty of time in front of the net to take down Woll and put the Leafs in an early hole. Toronto’s penalty takers were caught watching the puck near the corner, leaving their goalie on an island.

The 25-year-old netminder then settled down, making excellent saves on a breakaway from Brayden Schenn and a one-timer from Mathieu Joseph’s 2-on-1 to keep the score at 2-0. Unfortunately, those were the only things that stood out in what was a disappointing return. Still, he was lucky to stay in the game after an early collision with Holloway, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

The Leafs responded by cutting the lead in half in the second stanza. However, Alexandre Texier restored the Blues’ two-goal lead after Pavel Buchnevich forced a turnover past Jake McCabe and Auston Matthews. Carelessness with the puck proved costly again in the third period when Jake Neighbors stripped William Nylander at the blue line and redirected what was essentially a 3-on-1 scrimmage before shooting over Woll’s glove.

Woll didn’t get much help from his teammates in his first game back in 2024-25 and will likely need time to shake off the rust. There’s still work to do Discard the injury-prone tagbut he will have plenty of chances to get back into game speed and has the ability to make a difference. Woll is expected to share the floor with Anthony Stolarz, and the Maple Leafs expect both goaltenders to produce positive results.

Switching Defensive Pairings Provides Brief Sparks

Toronto’s only goal came from a one-timer with Oliver Ekman-Larsson After Morgan Rielly and John Tavares played catch at the blue line, before Rielly put the puck up the court for his new partner. This change also resulted in Jake McCabe playing alongside Chris Tanev, who was playing in his 800th career regular season game.

It was a struggle in the defensive zone all night for the Maple Leafs, though. Forwards and defenders struggled with control and were unable to keep up with the Blues’ pace.

Power Outage Continues

The Maple Leafs went 0-for-4 on the power play in Thursday’s loss and fell to 3-for-27 this season. The club’s inability to generate man advantage has been a glaring issue since the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs, where Toronto lit the lamp on 21 opportunities against the Boston Bruins.

Relating to: Marc Savard Could Be the Solution to Maple Leafs’ Power Play

Toronto has too much talent on its roster to be this inefficient. After all, the Maple Leafs rank fifth in the NHL in power play goals (184) and have the third-best power play percentage (25.7) from 2021-22 through 2023-24. The power game will eventually escalate.

Additional Game Notes

Max Pacioretty missed Thursday’s game against the Blues due to a lower-body injury. He left Tuesday’s loss to the Blue Jackets and considered daily. Due to Pacioretty’s absence, David Kampf returned to the squad after being injured.

Berube led the Blues to the franchise’s first Stanley Cup championship in 2018-19. The team finished the regular season with a 38-19-6 record and enjoyed an 11-game winning streak despite starting with a 7-9-3 record.

Problematic Trends During Hard Patch

The Maple Leafs deserved the victory with their defeats against the Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers, but they had very poor performances in the last two games. Toronto (4-4-0) has a tough two-game road trip after this; Games against the Bruins on Saturday, October 26, and the Winnipeg Jets on Monday, October 28. The Leafs need a much better response as some bad habits are starting to seep into their game. Attention to detail should improve and power play chances should create more goals. Once the app improves, this rough patch will appear as a blip on the radar.