A Terrible Loss By The Toronto Maple Leafs
from Lance Hornby of the Toronto Sun,
In a highly troubling sign of how bad their coverage game has slipped and that they’ve not absorbed their bitter lessons from the playoffs, they lost badly to the same team that upset them last spring.
The rejuvenated Montreal Canadiens slapped them around the Bell Centre, 5-2. It was another loss to a team that played the day before, Toronto’s fourth in six games with three or more goals against.
“It’s a continuation of how we defended Saturday against St. Louis and that’s the most disappointing part,” coach Sheldon Keefe said. “We didn’t do a good enough job coming out of the zone, we lost races, weren’t connected and when our D got involved, our forwards let guys loose.”
A few Leafs deserved detention for the Montreal rush chances that turned into goals, but the roster is already in a state of flux, complicated by another injury. Defenceman Jake Muzzin, struggling of late and victimized on Montreal’s third goal to start the second period, hit his head hard on the ice in a freak collision with Chris Wideman at the end of that period.
Just coming off a concussion, he was down a few minutes, but eventually went to the room on his own. He went to a local hospital and was to be kept overnight in Montreal under observation.
“It’s terrible,” Keefe said of seeing Muzzin flat on the ice. “About as bad a thing as you’ll see in the game.”
Game highlights are below....
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