LEAFS NOTES: It doesn't take many losses for standings to bunch up
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When trying to hold first place in the Atlantic Division, the Maple Leafs can echo Shakespeare’s line: “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown”.
It took only Wednesday and Saturday losses last week to teams not in the conference’s top eight at the time, to draw the whole field tighter. By the time the Leafs depart for their first Western swing in a few days — an always-challenging trip, to either Canada or California, that every Eastern team except Toronto and the Montreal Canadiens have already completed — they might not be in top spot.
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The Florida Panthers are a point behind, missing a chance to pass Toronto Sunday night with a 4-1 loss in Vegas.
The Boston Bruins are also back in the chase, winning five of their past seven and though the Leafs’ most recent win came against the Tampa Bay Lightning as part of the latter’s difficult northern road trip, Ottawa, Montreal and Detroit are pressuring the Bolts from behind.
“Every game against your division is extremely intense (now),” defenceman Chris Tanev told the media in Ottawa before Toronto dropped a 2-1 squeaker to the Sens on Saturday night at the Canadian Tire Centre.
“You want to win to sort of separate from them, but definitely down the stretch here, every two points is important.
“There’s a ton of parity in the league (the wild-card race as of Sunday night had nine teams separated by eight points). It’s usually not like that this far into the season so I think it speaks to the parity.”
THE WEEK AHEAD
The Leafs had a scheduled day off Sunday, with two days to prep for their final home game against the Minnesota Wild, before heading west to Edmonton, Calgary, Seattle and Vancouver. That final stop against the Canucks on Feb. 8 is followed by the near two-week break for the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament for all Leafs except Mitch Marner (Canada), Auston Matthews (United States), William Nylander (Sweden) and Jani Hakanpaa (Finland).
Monday’s practice will be more of a community-relations exercise, outdoors on the Prince of Wales rink in south Etobicoke for the public, but more scrutiny comes Tuesday at the Ford Centre.
It’s hoped there will be clarity by then on the injury status of forwards John Tavares, Matthew Knies, Connor Dewar, goalie Anthony Stolarz and whether defenceman Hakanpaa’s methodical build-up to testing his knee in a real game again will happen before the break.
Tavares and Pacioretty are eligible to come off injured reserve, Dewar went on that list just Saturday, but expect the team to keep the most recent callups — forwards Jacob Quillan and Nikita Grebenkin — nearby with the farm team Marlies still playing far away in California the next few days.
Matt Murray is the current back up to Joseph Woll, as Stolarz nears a return from minor knee surgery. The salary cap website Puckpedia noted that the Leafs shifted Stolarz to long-term IR on Saturday, a paper move to gain the necessary cap space for Grebenkin to be elevated.
NO QUIT IN QUILLAN
When Quillan and Ottawa’s Nick Cousins went down Saturday in an ugly knee-on-knee collision, both benches went silent. The Hockey Night in Canada camera also found Quillan’s mom and some of the 15 friends and relatives in attendance, going from pre-game excitement to being fraught with worry.
But the rookie was OK to finish his debut after making it to the bench, while Cousins needed help off the ice and did not return. Senators coach Travis Green said the initial diagnosis was that Cousins would miss some time.
Toronto coach Craig Berube thought there was grounds for a penalty on Cousins for trying to get a piece of Quillan when he couldn’t deliver more of a bodycheck.
“That was a tough hit,” the coach said. “I didn’t understand how (the officials) all missed that. To me, that’s a knee all day long. But (Quillan) was fine. A tough game for him (to start his career). It got close so I didn’t use him much down the stretch. But to me, he was fine.”
SCORING WOES
Berube and the Leafs lamented good work on the attack Saturday, but faced a strong goaltending performance from Anton Forsberg, a Senators team content to sit back and not be burned in transition and, in the final period a disproportionate number of unfavourable bounces.
Two goals scored since Wednesday is alarming, but such droughts haven’t lasted for this year’s Leafs. After being held to three or fewer goals in a two-game span on three other occasions this season, the Leafs are 2-0-1 with plenty of goals in the next outing.
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