Game 63: Montreal Canadiens vs. Toronto Maple Leafs
Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In Canada: Sportsnet E/O/P/1 (English), RDS (French)
Streaming: ESPN+, RDS, Sportsnet+
With a three-game winning streak in the final week before the Olympics to wrap up their road trip through Western Canada, the Toronto Maple Leafs gave their fans a sliver of hope that they could turn their season around. With those six points, they were six points out of a wild-card spot.
That hope has been thoroughly dashed. Toronto played six games between when Auston Matthews returned from Milan with his gold medal and the trade deadline on Friday, and didn’t win a single one of them. A handful of players were held out of the lineup in the days leading up to the deadline, only a few of them were traded, and now what’s left of the roster is trying to see out a season that won’t include a playoff appearance for the first time in Matthews’s career.
The losing streak has now hit seven games as they get set to welcome the Montreal Canadiens for the fourth and final match of the season series. Those three wins out west are also the only ones they have in their past 16 games dating back to a win in Winnipeg on January 17.
Tale of the Tape
| Canadiens | Statistics | Maple Leafs |
|---|---|---|
| 34-18-10 | Record | 27-26-11 |
| 48.3% (24th) | Expected-goal share | 47.6% (26th) |
| 3.55 (2nd) | Goals per game | 3.14 (17th) |
| 3.29 (24th) | Goals against per game | 3.48 (30th) |
| 25.1% (7th) | PP% | 19.3% (21st) |
| 76.6% (27th) | PK% | 82.8% (4th) |
| 2-1-0 | Head-to-Head Record | 1-1-1 |
| Cole Caufield (37) | Most goals | Auston Matthews (26) |
| Nick Suzuki (53) | Most assists | William Nylander (38) |
| Nick Suzuki (74) | Most points | William Nylander (59) |
Even with a surprising return for Nicolas Roy that included a first-round pick, the Maple Leafs won’t draft this June until round three unless the top-five protection gets activated on the first-rounder they traded to the Boston Bruins for Brandon Carlo a year ago. Spending most of their draft capital to improve for the playoff berths they’ve experienced in recent years, there isn’t a whole lot of internal help coming. Perhaps that reality has begun to weigh on the players, many of them signed to long-term deals, with the franchise facing an uncertain future.
The one source of pride the Maple Leafs have this season is their penalty kill, which ranks fourth in the NHL despite the team overall being third-worst in goals against. Yet even that has had issues during this losing streak, giving up five goals in that time. Montreal’s power play has been a big help to them accumulating points while their defence has struggled recently, operating at 37.5% since the Olympics, so that should be another source for offence in this game.
Juraj Slafkovský said after his two-goal performance on Saturday that the Canadiens need to start enjoying bigger margins in their games and not having to play a nail-biter each night. Tonight’s game not only could be the type he had in mind, but it should be with Toronto having nothing to play for and the Canadiens needing every point they can get. A couple of early goals would probably put an end to what little fight the Maple Leafs will bring to the game.
There’s a much more important game on the schedule for Wednesday against the Ottawa Senators, who sit five points behind the Habs thanks to a 4-0-2 run coming out of the break. The Habs need to save as much energy as they possibly can for that contest. There’s a real possibility that Montreal could increase the gap to Ottawa to nine points by the end of Wednesday night, and that would give everyone the breathing room their Slovak star is hoping for.
