The Toronto Maple Leafs were fighting an uphill battle on Saturday in the second half of a back-to-back dealing with the sudden absence of Auston Matthews — but those factors don’t account for their chaotic mess of a loss to the New York Islanders.
William Nylander came to play, producing two goals for the second time in three games, but not many other Maple Leafs can be proud of their performance in the 6-3 defeat.
The team conceded two goals in the first five minutes of the game, leading to an early timeout for Craig Berube, but the wake-up call didn’t move the needle much. Berube continually shuffled his forward lines and defence pairs, but no one could drive play consistently, and the Maple Leafs were out-attempted 68-48 at five-on-five, with New York earning 60.78 percent of the expected goals.
Joseph Woll’s unimpressive evening didn’t help, but Toronto was brutal in the neutral zone, allowing the Islanders to produce quick-strike offence with impunity.
The mitigating circumstances elevate the grade slightly, but we can’t go above a C-.
Unit grades
L1 (Max Pacioretty / Bobby McMann – John Tavares – Mitch Marner): C
Nylander opened the game on this line, but Berube put Marner in at the start of the second period, hoping for a spark. That move may have seemed odd considering Pacioretty-Tavares-Nylander’s proof of concept, but that group had been out-attempted 9-1 in the first. It just so happened that one attempt was a top-shelf backhand that kept Toronto in the game early.
WILLIAM NYLANDER 🚨
22 4 88! pic.twitter.com/7V4BrG5SGx
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) December 22, 2024
Marner joining the line didn’t make much of a difference for most of the game until a newly formed trio that included McMann made things a little bit interesting late.
Bobby McMann makes it 5-3 🚨
Good keep by McCabe at the point pic.twitter.com/C1wLpDK2jM
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) December 22, 2024
L2 (Matthew Knies – David Kämpf – William Nylander): B+
Moving Max Domi into the top six would’ve been an easy move because of his offence-first skill set, but Berube opted to elevate Kämpf to keep his red-hot third line intact.
That group didn’t reward his faith, but Kämpf acquitted himself surprisingly well for a guy who entered the game with three points in 20 games. His biggest play of the game was a fine feed to Nylander for one of the goofier goals of the season.
WILLIAM NYLANDER 🚨🚨
Second of the game! pic.twitter.com/trP4UhJ0JE
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) December 22, 2024
When Kämpf was on the ice with Knies, Toronto narrowly outshot and out-attempted the Islanders, which was impressive on a night when everyone else got buried.
L3 (McMann / Pacioretty – Max Domi – Nick Robertson): D+
After scoring eight goals in their last three games, the most productive third line the Maple Leafs have had all season hit a speed bump on Saturday.
Their ability to generate offence off the rush has been a refreshing change of pace for Toronto, but it can open the team to counterattacks, and that hurt the Maple Leafs.
Later in the game, Pacioretty joined Domi and Robertson, but neither iteration of the unit could get anything going. When Domi and Robertson shared the ice Toronto was outshot 8-3 and outscored 2-0.
L4 (Steven Lorentz – Connor Dewar – Ryan Reaves): B+
With the lines and pairs in the blender, this trio was consistent and generally did what was asked of them. The trio generally stalemated the Islanders and didn’t allow the kind of counterattacks that hurt the other groups.
The fourth line also showed a willingness to get physical, delivering 12 hits — one-third of Toronto’s total. Reaves even had his best scoring chance in recent memory.
wicked lob pass by OEL to Reaves pic.twitter.com/8OSs2xQKxL
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) December 22, 2024
Defence
The defence was mixed up so consistently throughout the game that we’re going to go with individual grades here:
Morgan Rielly: B-
When you’re part of a pairing that concedes two goals in the first five minutes of the game, chances are it isn’t your night.
Rielly’s effort on the second goal was particularly rough as he got caught way behind the play in an unsuccessful attempt to stop Simon Holmstrom’s progress. Holmstrom passed the puck by him with ease, and the Islanders had a two-on-one:
Bo Horvat makes it 2-0 pic.twitter.com/nE3J66D2Us
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) December 22, 2024
The rest of the night was calmer and more effective, even if he didn’t create much offensively. Rielly was the only Maple Leaf who produced standout possession numbers as Toronto outshot New York 17-8 in his five-on-five minutes. Or, put another way, they were dominated by a 27-11 margin without him.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson: B+
Ekman-Larsson’s play wasn’t electric, but he got on the scoreboard and was the only Maple Leafs defenceman with a positive plus-minus. On a difficult night when everyone had to deal with a constant shuffle of dance partners, OEL held his own.
If Reaves had buried his beautiful lob pass, his night would’ve looked even better.
Jake McCabe: D+
McCabe played 21:19, and much of it was fine, but his ill-advised offensive-zone activation on New York’s third goal hung Tanev out to dry on the counterattack.
J.G. Pageau restores the Islander’s two-goal lead pic.twitter.com/rsPKWm3NX3
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) December 22, 2024
While playing with Tanev opens the door for McCabe to take some liberties on the offensive end, he needs to pick and choose better than that.
To his credit, he did a fine job keeping the puck in on McMann’s late goal, but the Islanders shelled Toronto in his minutes with a 16-8 shot advantage.
Chris Tanev: C-
Tanev’s level of responsibility for the goal above is up for some interpretation, but even if we put that primarily on McCabe, it wasn’t a standout game for the veteran.
Tanev’s passing wasn’t as reliable as usual; not only did he miss a few targets, but he also ended the game with four turnovers, more than the rest of Toronto’s blue line combined (2).
New York scoring its fourth goal off his knee wasn’t necessarily his fault, but it was characteristic of a long night.
re-directed along the way pic.twitter.com/5vBakwYmGS
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) December 22, 2024
Simon Benoit: C-
Benoit threw his body around a bit with six hits, but he had the Maple Leafs’ roughest on-ice numbers, with the Islanders out-shooting Toronto 14-2 in his five-on-five minutes. It’s tough for Benoit to overcome that kind of ice-tilting when he doesn’t offer any offensive production.
Conor Timmins: D
It was unequivocally a bad night for Timmins. The 26-year-old was on the ice with Rielly for the first two goals and had some level of culpability on both.
The rough start to the game clearly affected Berube’s trust in the right-shot defenceman as he played more than five fewer minutes than any other Maple Leafs blueliner. Timmins wasn’t able to compensate for his early wobbles with any offensive threat, producing two relatively harmless shots on the night.
Goaltender (Woll): C-
Woll was not the reason Toronto lost. He made a few fine saves, and his team consistently put him in tough positions. At the same time, pucks seemed to find holes in him.
This is not an outing he’ll be happy with.
Game score
What’s next?
The Maple Leafs remain at home to face the Winnipeg Jets at 2 p.m. Monday on TSN.
(Photo of Maple Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll making a save against the Islanders: John E. Sokolowski / Imagn Images)
