They may have worn different jerseys, but it was more of the same from the Toronto Maple Leafs, as they were easily handled 3-1 by the New York Islanders Tuesday night at Scotiabank Arena.
These two teams battled it out on St. Patrick’s Day as the Leafs were sporting their green St. Pat’s jerseys, but this one was as close to a sleeper as you could get. This hockey game was like watching two teams who didn’t want to get anyone injured before an All-Star break. It was a complete snoozefest, and it’s kind of surprising more Leafs fans didn’t make an Irish goodbye before the final buzzer sounded.
There were careless turnovers, defensive breakdowns in their own end, a lack of consistent effort. It’s been the same ol’ story all season long, and it was much of the same for the Maple Leafs against the Islanders. The level of frustration is creeping close to its peak and it’s obvious from Craig Berube’s outbursts in practice recently that tensions are as high as ever around this hockey club. Berube tried to mix up the lines in the third period to spark some offence, but the wet wick of this lineup wouldn’t ignite.
In a rare bright spot for the Leafs, Morgan Rielly took matters into his own hands in the second period, after Islanders forward Kyle MacLean bumped goaltender Joseph Woll. Rielly followed MacLean, laid a vicious cross check and essentially forced MacLean to drop the gloves. It’s obvious the message has been received regarding sticking up for your teammates, but on the flip side, in this case, it wasn’t necessarily worthy of that type of reaction from Rielly, who left the Leafs down a man thanks to the extra two minutes for cross-checking.
Toronto’s lone goal came from Steven Lorentz, who scored his first goal in 30 games. Lorentz worked his tail off to be physical on the forecheck and found his way to the front of the net, and Bo Groulx found him with a quick touch pass, and Lorentz did the rest to beat Islanders’ Ilya Sorokin. Lorentz is under contract for two more seasons at $1.3 million AAV, and while he’s not expected to be much more than a versatile fourth liner, the Maple Leafs would love to see some more offense out of him the rest of this season, and leading into next year. The disastrous season continues, as no luck of the Irish was evident against the Isles.
