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Until the Maple Leafs shed the anchor of the NHL’s fewest road wins, it will be hard to set sail from the depths of the Atlantic Division.
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As gutsy as they played Sunday in Detroit and despite Dennis Hildeby’s 33 saves, they lost 3-2 in overtime to remain at just five victories in 16 tries.
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Hildeby tried to poke a rebound to an open Matthews in the extra period — after the captain had just hit the post — but didn’t get enough of it and Simon Edvinsson supplied the dagger.
The point did nudge the Leafs to 40, which is the minimum to realistically stay in the playoff race.They’re actually just two points out of the second wildcard spot – if you don’t count the seven teams you have to pass.
Toronto, which had 13 goals including empty-netters in its past two games, relied on defence and goaltending in the second half of a back-to-back after beating Ottawa at home on Saturday.
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Matthew Knies, returning to the first power-play unit with William Nylander day-to-day with a lower-body injury, popped the Leafs into the lead at 4:25 of the second period. John Tavares emerged with the puck from behind the net, Matthews then drew attention to himself before getting it across the crease to Knies.
It gave Knies man-advantage goals in consecutive games, the first Leaf to do that this season, and three goals for both power-play groups. But what was another strong middle period for the Leafs after out-scoring Ottawa 3-1 the night before, took a scoreboard hit when they stalled in their zone in the last minute.
With Max Domi unable to clear, Jake McCabe tuckered out, and Matthews hobbled after blocking a shot with his left leg, Moritz Seider eventually drove one past a harried Hildeby on his club’s 21st shot. Edvinsson had absorbed a full-bore Matthews drive in the knee and struggled to his feet to block another.
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Robertson one-timer
Less than 30 seconds after Tavares dug a puck out for Nick Robertson’s rocket one-timer, Mason Appleton wristed one through to even things. Toronto also killed a late penalty to Bobby McMann
The Leafs should’ve been vulnerable at puck drop against the rested Wings, but Hildeby proved sharp after a week off and made several slot saves. He turned aside wily veteran Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat as the evening progressed at Little Caesars Arena , while at the other end, Scott Laughton clanked an earlier partial breakaway pass from Steven Lorentz off of Cam Talbot’s post.
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The Wings came into the game holding first in the Atlantic, beating Toronto twice to date, home and away. The division has flipped since the Leafs won it last season and adding to their struggles have been the lodge’s non-playoff teams greatly improving their lot, particularly the streaking Sabres and Detroit, trying to reverse 14 and nine-year droughts, respectively.
This was an interesting week for anniversaries on the Leaf bench, as it was almost a year ago that the Wings dismissed Derek Lalonde and replaced him with Todd McLellan, Lalonde winding up as Craig Berube’s assistant.
For Berube, it was 34 years to the day since he played his last home game for Toronto, a 5-4 loss to Detroit, before being part of the 10-player Doug Gilmour trade to Calgary.
The Leafs conclude the calendar year on Tuesday against the New Jersey Devils.
Lhornby@postmedia.com
X: @sunhornby
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