Watered down Maple Leafs lose fifth straight on eve of trade deadline

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The big news in Newark wasn’t who started for the Maple Leafs, but rather their high-profile scratches.

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Were the missing trio of Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Scott Laughton and Bobby McMann on their way out, or merely preserved as potential trade pieces, while players began changing teams throughout the NHL ahead of Friday’s 3 p.m. Eastern time deadline.

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While that speculation raged, the Leafs’ losing streak went to five games in a late letdown 4-3 shootout to the New Jersey Devils. Three times the Devils clawed back to tie, the last goal by ex-Leaf Connor Brown with 2:21 to play soon after Matthew Knies scored.

It ruined home-state goalie Anthony Stolarz’s 44-regulation save performance before family and friends, as the Devils scored twice in the shootout, while Auston Matthews and William Nylander were stopped by Jacob Markstrom.

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The Wednesday afternoon lineup deletions — after coach Craig Berube said hours before there’d be no ‘roster management considerations’ — underlined Toronto’s shift to sell mode.

Winger McMann and centre Laughton are pending unrestricted free agents and thus cheap pickups for any playoff contenders. Ekman-Larsson is having the best season of the three, but has two years at $3.5 million US on his contract. It was the first game he’s missed this season, which is down to 20 for the Leafs. All three could be out again for the second of the back-to-back Thursday in Manhattan.

The deadline has two major overlapping concerns for the Leafs, beginning with how much of a leash Brad Treliving has with CEO Keith Pelley in job security this summer. If the general manager can indeed plan long-term, is it for small changes on Friday to keep the base for a playoff push in 2027, or a larger rebuild in summer?

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Defencemen around the league were in the news Wednesday night, Tyler Myers from Vancouver to Dallas, Colton Parayko reportedly St. Louis to Buffalo, while McKenzie Weegar was headed Calgary to Utah.

Toronto is facing playoff elimination for the first time in 10 seasons forcing Treliving’s hand.

The drawback is that other fading teams are now hawking players to contending clubs and only Ekman-Larsson has played to potential of late. While McMann can score and has some dash to his game, he’s been ineffective since the break and taken off the top line.

Laughton, who along with defenceman Brandon Carlo, cost the Leafs a first-round draft pick this time last year, has been a fourth-line centre all season.

Both UFAs expressed disappointment at the Leafs’ season in recent days and said they wanted to stay, but realized the business of the game could bring new addresses in coming days. Scouts have flooded the Scotiabank Arena press box the past two home games.

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Forwards Nick Robertson, Calle Jarnkrok and defenceman Troy Stecher, all healthy scratches in Monday’s shootout loss to the Philadelphia Flyers, came back in Wednesday.

Rookie Easton Cowan, whose lack of playing time became an issue as the Leafs fell out of the race, was given a first-line assignment with Matthews and Nylander. He took a Matthews draw and fired it off of Nylander to give the Leafs a 2-1 second-period lead.
Matthews is now in a nine-game goal slump that hasn’t helped playoff chances. He had a great look on a first-period power play that he drew on a partial breakaway.

Mattias Maccelli, playing some good hockey of late on a new third line with Dakota Joshua and centre Nick Roy, opened the scoring, giving him six points in seven games since the start of February. However, defencemanJake McCabe’s turnover resulted in Timo Meier’s goal, while the Leafs, with the league’s worst 5-on-5 goals against, were standing around again when Jersey’s Arseni Gritsyuk tied it 2-2 and on Brown’s late marker.

John Tavares had his 300th Leaf assist on Knies’s goal, but Toronto has just two regulation wins in its past 18 games, still eight points out of a playoff spot with five teams to pass, a few with games in hand on it.

lhornby@postmedia.com

X: @sunhornby

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