The Toronto Maple Leafs got the kind of win that can make a room feel a lot better for a night, but the 5-4 overtime result against the Nashville Predators didn’t exactly hide the problems underneath it.
Toronto closed out its four-game homestand with a comeback that had all the drama of the old firewagon days, the kind of game that feels familiar from the earlier stretch of the Auston Matthews-William Nylander era. The goals came in bunches, the scoreboard kept moving, and the Leafs found a way to finish. But the way they got there also came with a string of defensive breakdowns that were hard to ignore.
That’s the part the road trip now puts front and center. Toronto is about to head into a tough stretch through Vegas, Colorado, and Utah, and if the Leafs want that trip to look any better than this one felt at times, the cleanup has to start behind the puck.
The warning signs were there almost immediately against Nashville. On Steven Stamkos’ power-play goal for a 1-0 Predators lead, Toronto failed twice to clear the zone despite having full possession.
Brandon Duhaime and Jake McCabe both had chances to get the puck out, and both came up empty. That was especially jarring because both had been key pieces of Toronto’s perfect penalty-killing stretch before the Stamkos goal.
The issues didn’t stop there. McCabe and Chris Tanev were caught flat-footed on Nashville’s second goal after they botched a simple dump-in and never recovered in time to get back into shape before Nils Hoglander finished the play.
Then came another costly lapse. Oliver Ekman-Larsson missed a defensive-zone clearing attempt entirely, and the Predators turned it right into Hoglander’s second goal early in the second period for a 3-0 lead. Ekman-Larsson compounded the mistake by losing track of Hoglander and then making only a weak effort to engage him.
Toronto could have been in a much deeper hole by then. Anthony Stolarz was the reason it wasn’t, turning aside several big chances that kept the Leafs from staring at a four- or five-goal deficit. That mattered, because the game finally started to swing once John Tavares got Toronto on the board with help from Stolarz and McKenna, who picked up his first NHL point.
Even after the comeback had taken shape, the sloppiness lingered. With the score tied 4-4 late in the third period, Tanev tried a no-look backhand pass behind Stolarz, and Nashville nearly turned it into what would have been a game-winning goal. Toronto was that close to leaving regulation with another painful one-goal home loss.
There are positives in the numbers after four games, but the bigger issue is sitting in plain sight. The Leafs can’t keep asking their offense to erase the damage from avoidable mistakes.
That kind of formula might survive a night like this one. It won’t hold up for long.
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