The embattled Toronto Maple Leafs will look for a sorely needed morale boost when they visit the Nashville Predators on Saturday night.
The Maple Leafs are coming off an uninspiring 4-0 walloping at the hands of the Washington Capitals, a result that snapped their league-leading 70-game non-shutout streak. Toronto managed just 22 shots on Washington’s Logan Thompson in a game where they were gifted five power plays.
“The power play’s actually been getting better but (Thursday) it was god-awful in my opinion,” head coach Craig Berube said in one of a slew of testy soundbites from his postgame scrum. “Our top unit didn’t execute, didn’t win any battles when they needed to, just couldn’t make plays.”
With 14 goals and nine assists through 28 games, team captain Auston Matthews has come to embody the Leafs’ perceived decline from the top down. The three-time Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy recipient and 2021-22 Hart Trophy winner is on pace for the lowest point per game rate of his career.
Toronto owns a 5-3-2 record in their last 10 games but have failed to record 30 shots on net in eight of those outings. With the halfway point of the season rapidly approaching, the Leafs find themselves 21st in the league in shots for and second-worst in shots against.
“(The Capitals) played with a lot more passion than we did … I mean, that’s what it boils down to,” Berube said flatly. “It looked to me like they had way more urgency in their game, more passion in their game. That’s the difference.”
“Ask those guys, not me,” Berube replied when asked why that was the case.
They will be faced with a Predators team they bested 7-4 at the beginning of the season. Nashville’s tumultuous 6-12-4 start to the season has been tempered by a period of relative stability. That was interrupted on Wednesday night with their second loss of the month to the surging Carolina Hurricanes, this time by a score of 4-1.
“I didn’t think we did a great job going back for pucks,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said after the game. “I didn’t think we moved our feet. I think we just threw pucks away. When you throw pucks away, they’re going to slam the boards.”
Team leading goal-scorer Filip Forsberg (15 goals) netted Nashville’s only goal of the affair. Winger Cole Smith played his first game since Nov. 1 after being reactivated from injured reserve earlier in the day.
“I thought he was awesome,” Brunette said of Smith. “I thought after the first period he sort of took over and drove a little of our identity of our group.”
Even so, Nashville’s forward corps could not stay fully fit for long. A lower-body injury to veteran center Jonathan Marchessault saw him leave the game in the second period. Nashville will hope to have the 2023 Conn Smythe winner back in action as they aim to climb out from the bottom spot in an ultra-competitive Central Division.
Toronto has won seven of the last 10 matchups between the two teams dating back to 2020.
–Field Level Media
