CHICAGO — The Toronto Maple Leafs could have used Mitch Marner to complete the comeback.
Playing without their star winger for the first time in more than two years, the Leafs spotted the Chicago Blackhawks four first-period goals and couldn’t dig their way out of the hole in a 5-4 loss on Sunday.
A big reason for that was Robin Lehner, who continued his strong start to the season for the Blackhawks while facing 50-plus shots.
Marner will be out for a minimum of four weeks with an ankle injury, the Leafs announced, which means he can be placed on long-term injured reserve while recovering and delay the team’s impending salary cap crunch until he’s ready to return. However, filling his minutes as a key penalty killer, power-play distributor and linemate to John Tavares at 5-on-5 will have to be done by committee.
They didn’t find an answer against Chicago, which built a 3-0 lead before the 13-minute mark. Patrick Kane scored twice against backup Michael Hutchinson while Kirby Dach added the other.
William Nylander struck back for Toronto from Auston Matthews — the first of two goals they’d connect for in this game — but Jonathan Toews scored on a Chicago power play to keep his team comfortably in front.
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Matthews drew a third assist on a Tavares power-play goal to get it back to 4-3, but Brandon Saad answered with an insurance marker for Chicago. Andreas Johnsson scored with 41.8 seconds left in regulation — earning a career-best fourth assist for Matthews.
The Leafs have yet to play a game at full health this season and were days away from doing so with Zach Hyman set to return from off-season knee surgery this week. But Marner got injured during Saturday’s visit from Philadelphia, stepping on an opponent’s stick and falling awkwardly to the ice.
On Sunday, with both Toronto and Chicago playing the second half of a back-to-back, the Leafs dropped to 0-4-1 in those situations this season. Hutchinson has been in net for each of those losses — allowing 23 goals in the process.
"As teammates, we’ve got to do a better job for him at times," defenceman Morgan Rielly said of Hutchinson.
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It didn’t happen at United Center, where the Leafs drowned in a sea of early turnovers.
The team believed it was getting on track with a 4-1-2 stretch entering the night, but now must regroup and face at least the next 12 games without Marner — its second-leading scorer and top playmaker.
"We’re still trying to find a way to figure out what we are and what we’re going to be," said Leafs coach Mike Babcock. "In the meantime, though, I think the injuries will help us improve our team. Guys are playing a lot more, in a lot more situations than they would."
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November 11, 2019 at 09:57AM
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