Maple Leafs taking ‘step in the right direction’ heading into 2024
Toronto, winless in its past 3, heads to California for 3-game road trip
TORONTO — The results have not been good lately for the Toronto Maple Leafs, but there is a feeling of positivity as the team turns the calendar to 2024.
The Maple Leafs are winless in three games since the holiday break (0-2-1). They are 1-4-1 and have been outscored 28-18 in their past six following a successful stretch where they were 10-1-4 from Nov. 10 to Dec. 16.
“The group feels good,” coach Sheldon Keefe said after practice Monday. “We haven’t gotten the results we want here since coming back (from the holiday break), but we felt quite good about a lot of the things we’ve been doing the last couple of games, in particular on that back-to-back with Columbus and Carolina. I thought we did a lot of [good] things and very easily could have had four points coming out of that, but that wasn’t the case and that continues to drive you.”
The Maple Leafs will face the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday (10:30 p.m. ET; HULU, ESPN+, SNO) to begin a three-game California road trip also featuring games against the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday and San Jose Sharks on Saturday.
The Kings, meanwhile, are 4-2-1 in their past seven games and have allowed only 14 goals during that stretch. They trail the Vancouver Canucks by four points for first place in the Pacific Division, but hold three games in hand. By points percentage, only the New York Rangers (.729), Boston Bruins (.714), Winnipeg Jets (.686) and Dallas Stars (.686) have been better than the Kings (.682) this season.
“L.A. is one of the top teams in the League,” captain John Tavares said. “You’ve seen what they’ve done to this point in the season and how difficult they are to play against, so it’s one of those nights you are really going to have to work for your space, and to generate offense isn’t going to be easy. They’re a very deep team and certainly a contender, so we will have to be at our best.
“We’re in a very competitive League and a very competitive division, we want to challenge for the top of the division. That’s what we want our standard to be and what we expect of ourselves.”
Center Auston Matthews leads the NHL with 29 goals in 33 games, but has only one in his past three after scoring 12 during a seven-game personal goal streak.
Forward William Nylander had a 13-game point streak (21 points; five goals, 17 assists) end on Saturday in a 3-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes, though he said the team was pleased with how they played despite the result.
“I think last game was a good game for us, a step in the right direction,” Nylander told NHL.com. “I think we had more scoring chances at 5-on-5 but obviously special teams made the difference in the game, but otherwise I thought we played a pretty good game last game, so build off of that.”
Toronto outshot Carolina 25-20 at even strength, outscoring them 2-1, the lone goal against into an empty net. They were 0-for-3 on the power play and 2-for-4 on the penalty kill.
On Friday, the Maple Leafs lost 6-5 in overtime to the Columbus Blue Jackets with Ilya Samsonov allowing six goals on 21 shots. It was the fifth time in six starts Samsonov had allowed four or more goals, prompting the Maple Leafs to place him on waivers Sunday and recall Dennis Hildeby from Toronto of the American Hockey League. Samsonov cleared waivers on Monday.
But in that game, Toronto outshot the Blue Jackets 30-19 at even strength, another positive indication for Keefe on where their game is trending.
“Just focus on how we’ve played, a ton of really good things there,” Keefe said. “When you step away from the results, in Columbus there was a lot of pucks that go in our net, and Carolina, we make some mistakes on special teams on the penalty kill that end up in our net but at 5-on-5, two of our best defensive efforts of the season in terms of not giving up very much. Carolina game, there’s not much between the two teams and you’ve got to really work for your offense, and I think that sets us up well for this trip to start off in L.A.”
Whether Hildeby, the No. 122 pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, makes his League debut on the upcoming road trip is unclear. Keefe said he has not ruled out starting Martin Jones in both of Toronto’s back-to-back games Tuesday against the Kings and Wednesday against the Ducks.
Keefe said the focus should not be on who is playing in net, but rather on playing to their structure to limit chances against and find ways to generate offense against a strong defensive team in the Kings.
“You look at Carolina and L.A., two of the best defensive teams in the NHL, and coming out of that Carolina, we should know exactly what we’re in for in terms of the challenge of going into L.A.,” Keefe said.
“They make it really hard to get to their net. It’s going to be a game about working and pace and patience.”
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