SUNRISE, FLA.—The idea, coming into Florida, was for the Maple Leafs to get back on track.
The Maple Leafs got a point thanks to a Nazem Kadri goal in the third period, but dropped their second in a row — this one in a shootout, 2-1 to the Florida Panthers.
If this is the track, they’re going the wrong way. They started flat, and could barely generate any offence against a Florida team that can’t match the Leafs’ depth, and waited for the third period to truly come to life.
Overtime was exciting but solved nothing, the game decided on Nick Bjugstad’s deke on Frederik Andersen in the shootout. Andersen faced 42 shots.
It was a plodding game until the third period, played before a sparsely populated BB&T Center, and it looked for a while like the only goal would be off a lucky second-period bounce from behind the net from Bjugstad’s stick.
After Roberto Luongo, who faced 43 shots, spent the night frustrating Maple Leafs shooters, Kadri finally broke through, finishing a two-on-one with Connor Brown with 6:02 remaining.
Kadri extended his points streak to eight games, and it was his 14th goal all-time against the Panthers, a team he likes to beat up on.
“I like the Sunshine State and everything about it,” Kadri said earlier in the day. “It gives you energy to walk outside and see the sun. Recently in Toronto we haven’t seen a whole lot of sun. It’s nice to get out here and feel that vibe and try to enjoy ourselves.”
Luongo had paid a familiar homage to the Maple Leafs.
“They are highly skilled,” said Luongo. “They can come from a lot of areas. It’s not just going to be a matter of keeping an eye out for the first line. They have guys that contribute throughout the whole lineup.”
To Luongo’s point, the Leafs have so far been able to outscore their problems, which go much deeper than Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner playing on the same line.
A big one lately is slow starts. They were terrible against Montreal until a line juggling act got them going and had everyone talking about offence again after a 6-0 win.
But the plodding start plagued the Leafs Monday in a 4-1 loss to Arizona, when they only came to life after the lines were changed.
“It’s one game. It’s not the end of the world, obviously,” said Matthews.
The trip to Florida was supposed to be refreshing, with new lines in tow.
Marner played his 100th game and started with Matthews for the first time as coach Mike Babcock appeared to be playing mind games with his matchups.
One day he’s putting his foot down that he’s the coach and making the decisions. Later, he apologizes for sounding like a “jackass.”
He follows that up with an adamant statement that Marner and Matthews won’t play together, because he needs them to “drive” different units. Then voila, next day they’re together.
But who is he playing mind games with? The media, who seem to second-guess the combinations? The fans, who clamour online to see Matthews and Marner together? The players, who now have to be used to the constant juggling?
How about the official statisticians, who are told before the game that Matt Martin was on the top line with Matthews and Marner, then didn’t even start the game there.
Truly, the target of his misdirection was the opposition. Florida plays its top line of Jonathan Huberdeau, Aleksander Barkov and Evgeni Dadonov a lot, and Babcock said he would make line changes to adjust to the Panthers, depending on how their top unit was going.
So the first period was fascinating. William Nylander was moved around the most, double-shifted at times, playing with Tyler Bozak and James van Riemsdyk as well as Patrick Marleau and Brown. He played with three different centres in the first period alone, amassing seven minutes and 30 seconds of playing time in that frame, the most by any forward on either team.
It ended 0-0 with Florida outshooting Toronto 15-7. The Leafs didn’t get a shot on net until 8:32, after Florida had taken nine.
The second period ended with Florida up 10, leading in shots 26-17. Bjugstad’s goal had “lucky bounce” written all over it. The winger was in a battle behind the Leafs net and centred the puck. It deflected off Connor Carrick, surprising Andersen for the lone goal of the second period.
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