Amid losing streak, Maple Leafs preach patience

EDMONTON — As the Toronto Maple Leafs finished solemnly walking off the Rogers Place ice, the in-arena DJ threw a healthy dose of salt in the wounds of the visitors. The familiar sounds of Hall & Oates’ “You Make My Dreams,” the longtime Leafs goal song, played throughout the arena.

It was a cheeky dig at a team that as of late has not had plenty of reasons to celebrate the way it once did when hearing Hall & Oates.

Despite storming out of the gates against the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday, the Leafs have lost four games in a row, matching their longest losing streak of the season. But more concerning? Four blown leads in a row. Three of those blown leads came in the third period. The Leafs took a 2-1 lead into the final frame before losing 4-2 against an Oilers team that has won 11 games in a row.

“We’ve got to ignore what everyone else says,” Mitch Marner said postgame. “We know we’re a great hockey team. We show it every night. These last four games that we’ve had leads, we’ve played some awesome hockey, some great hockey.”

Despite coming out with one of their best starts of the season against the Oilers, the Leafs allowed enough opportunities after the midway point in the game. In the third period, the Oilers generated an impressive 66 percent of the five-on-five expected goals, according to Natural Stat Trick. It was something of a microcosm of this Leafs team. A once defensively sound and structured team under coach Sheldon Keefe has given way to an unpredictable one that continues to struggle to keep the puck out of its net.

It would be one thing if the Oilers world beaters like Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl worked their magic in the offensive zone alone. But on the Oilers’ third goal, which came with just over three minutes remaining in the third period, Morgan Rielly had done well to neutralize McDavid. Oilers forward Ryan McLeod, however, had all the time and space in central Edmonton to pick up a rebound, wrap around the net and fire home the winner for just his eighth goal of the season.

As he did, three Leafs were caught on the other side of their own goal. A disallowed Zach Hyman goal showed some equally worrying defensive play:

After sweeping their California road trip earlier this month, the Jekyll and Hyde nature of this team has emerged once again. Of the four wins in a row the Leafs earned against California-based teams, only one of those wins was against a team in a playoff position.

Zoom out and there are some very concerning trends. Over their last 14 games, the Leafs have just four regulation wins. They’ve allowed 48 goals against in that stretch. It’s how these goals against are occurring that remains concerning. There’s often a lack of structure in their play, especially late in games. These are the points in the games that great teams separate themselves from good teams.

The Leafs’ inability to hold leads this month has cost them points and tightened the gap between them and the wild-card teams. With a 7-point lead on the third-place Leafs, the second-place Florida Panthers look like they could be separating themselves in the Atlantic Division. Though the Leafs have 50 points through 42 games, the Detroit Red Wings and Tampa Bay Lightning are on their heels with 49 points apiece.

But even with the warning signs in the team’s play late in the game against the Oilers — and late in games against the Red Wings, Colorado Avalanche and New York Islanders — the Leafs are preaching patience.

“My job is to be even-keeled about it, really recognize what’s going on, see where we can continue to grow and continue to show belief in the guys,” Keefe said.

Leafs GM Brad Treliving mingled around the team and staff postgame, looking calm and measured while speaking to players as opposed to frustrated or defeated.

“What’s it been, like, eight days?” Keefe said when asked about how concerned he is about blowing leads becoming a trend. “That’s the trend, eight days? The week before that, we won four in a row, got leads early and took care of them and played mature games.”

If you were looking for anger, it was tough to find it in the immediate aftermath of the loss. Sometimes all it can take is a few players growing short in postgame media availabilities to suggest there’s genuine frustration brewing behind closed doors. But every single player echoed the same message: Their level of belief hasn’t been compromised.

“We’re not completely down in the dumps at all,” Rielly said.

“I don’t sense frustration, particularly after this one because the guys knew the challenge they were up against tonight and they know they played a game that very easily could have gone the other way,” Keefe added of his team.

Whether you believe that is a matter of opinion. But the Oilers did generate 59 percent of the five-on-five possession and 56 percent of the expected goals.

What appears to matter more to the coaching staff than blowing leads is what’s happening at the other end of the ice: just 10 goals scored over their last four games.

Against the Oilers, whether it was William Nylander sending a shot on a breakaway off the post or Tyler Bertuzzi hitting the post close to goal with nearly a wide-open net, an inability to finish hurt the Leafs.

“While the story will be us giving up leads, to me the story is more our inability to execute on scoring chances and grow our lead and pull away and take away the will of the other team,” Keefe said.

The Leafs coach is bang on about how glaring the team’s scoring woes have become: The league’s second-best power play last season has not scored a single goal with the man advantage over the last four losses.

“You play that game over, we’re gonna score four or five a lot of nights,” Keefe said.

So for now, the sky doesn’t appear to be falling within the Leafs just yet. They have not lost five games in a row since April 2021.

Asked after the loss what gives him encouragement this team can get on the right track, Marner was defiant: There’s no frustration growing.

“But I think a lot of people on the outside are trying to do that. That’s how it goes. For us, we know we’re doing the right things,” Marner said.

The optimist’s take is this attitude suggests a level of maturity continuing to emerge within this team and that staying positive amid struggles could lead to better results.

As their road trip continues against teams either clawing to get into the wild-card picture in the Calgary Flames and Seattle Kraken, or one at the top of the division in the Vancouver Canucks, we’re about to find out how effective the power of positivity can be.

(Photo of Morgan Rielly and Connor McDavid: Perry Nelson / USA Today)