LAS VEGAS — There’s been some soul searching, tough words and a players-only meeting.
But still the Toronto Maple Leafs continue to come up empty.
In seeing their losing streak reach six games after Tuesday’s 4-2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights, they have to be wondering where to go from here.
The Leafs showed much more defensive commitment at T-Mobile Arena than they managed in a 6-1 loss to Pittsburgh over the weekend, but still surrendered the first goal for the 18th time in 23 games this season.
That came from rookie Cody Glass during a second period where the Golden Knights leaned heavily on the visitors, outshooting Toronto 18-7 while out-attempting them 27-18 at 5-on-5.
Jason Spezza managed to answer that goal with a rocket of a wrist shot at 7:26 of the third period, but Tomas Nosek restored the Vegas lead 42 seconds later. He stole the puck from Tyson Barrie in the neutral zone and tucked it behind Frederik Andersen on a clear breakaway.
Mark Stone then roofed a shot on the power play — Toronto’s much-maligned penalty killing unit was 0-for-2 on the night — and that was too big of a hill for the visitors to climb.
Zach Hyman jammed in a rebound on a Leafs power play and Nic Petan fired a high backhander at an empty net, but Marc-Andre Fleury dove across his crease to snare it on what has to be one of the saves of the year.
Cody Eakin iced it with an empty-netter.
The Leafs arrived here looking for a response after the debacle against the Penguins — with the players addressing their struggles in a meeting between games.
"The talk is the talk. Like everyone talks, right?" defenceman Jake Muzzin said Monday. "Address what needs to be addressed but then you’ve got to, honestly, you’ve just got to … get to work. It’s what you’ve got to do.
"I mean it’s not X’s and O’s, it’s playing with passion and playing with heart. That’s what we need to do."
It’s not just that the Leafs are losing. They haven’t played with a lead in more than 427 consecutive minutes of play — dating back to late in the third period of a Nov. 5 victory over the Los Angeles Kings.
Their record now sits at 9-10-4, leaving them ahead of just three other Eastern Conference teams in points percentage: Ottawa, New Jersey and Detroit.
"I’ve been around a long time, been around a lot of teams and seen hockey," said Leafs coach Mike Babcock. "Obviously we’re not playing as good as we think we can on the ice. That’s reality.
"I don’t think anybody’s pretending we are, but I think we’re also owning that, too, and we plan on changing it."
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November 20, 2019 at 12:55PM
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