The Toronto Maple Leafs’ slide kept rolling Sunday night, and the shutout loss to the New Jersey Devils brought a few familiar frustrations into focus.
Toronto fell 4-0 at Scotiabank Arena, dropping to 8-9-2 and suffering its third straight defeat and fifth loss in six games. The Leafs entered the night seventh in the Atlantic Division and without Morgan Rielly, who is dealing with a lower-body injury. New Jersey, meanwhile, arrived at 12-5-0 riding a four-game winning streak.
The game stayed locked at 0-0 through the first period, but the Devils broke through early in the second. Timo Meier opened the scoring at 8:28 after an offensive-zone faceoff, taking Declan Chisholm’s pass from the left wall and sliding the puck into the open side for his second goal of the season and first in 10 games. Nico Hischier picked up the assist, reaching the 500-point mark in his NHL career.
Meier struck again at 12:44, redirecting Jack Hughes’ wrist shot from the top of the crease past Anthony Stolarz. Jesper Bratt earned the secondary assist, and Toronto’s best chance of the period came late when Auston Matthews worked into the slot and sent his shot into Hellebuyck’s stick instead of the open side.
New Jersey finished the job in the third. Oliver Ekman-Larsson was whistled for tripping Jack Hughes at 8:41, and Hischier cashed in on the power play 68 seconds later for his eighth goal of the season and fifth with the man advantage. Connor Brown added an empty-net goal off a feed from Cody Glass with 2:37 remaining after Toronto pulled Stolarz for an extra attacker.
Against that backdrop, three Maple Leafs stood out for the wrong reasons.
#3. John Tavares
Tavares came back for his second game after a nine-game absence, but the night never really tilted in his favor. He finished minus-2, was beaten cleanly by Hischier on two third-period faceoffs, and turned the puck over at 7:08 of the third with Toronto still searching for its first goal. He was on the ice for three New Jersey goals and won just 4 of 12 draws, good for a 33.33% faceoff win rate.
#2. Darren Raddysh
Raddysh’s night was rough on the scoreboard and on the stat sheet. He finished minus-2 and was on the ice for two of the Devils’ four goals. The defenseman, whom the Maple Leafs handed a $68 million contract to, is still looking for his first goal for Toronto, and he logged more minutes than anyone else while struggling to provide much offensively.
#1. Auston Matthews
Matthews had the biggest spotlight and the quietest finish. He went without a goal for the third straight game, and all three of those losses have ended with Toronto on the wrong side of the result. He entered the night with 27 points in 18 games and a point streak of six games, but with the Maple Leafs generating 23 shots and getting nothing for it, this was the kind of night when the captain needed to break through.
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