The Maple Leafs lost their eighth consecutive game, falling to the Canadiens 3-1 Tuesday night at the Bell Centre.
The best thing that can be said about this game, from a Toronto perspective, is that it could have been worse. The Leafs sleptwalked through the first period, allowing two goals off 18 shots and showed little interest in anything other than ending the season. Jake McCabe did stand up for teammate Easton Cowan, trading punches with Patrick Gallagher after the Habs’ forward went high on a hit to the rookie. That brief pushback was one of the few signs of fight from a team that appears to have already packed it in.
Montreal’s Oliver Kapanen opened the scoring at 4:46 of the first period. Ivan Demidov won a battle along the boards, fed the puck to Alex Newhook , who found Kapanen alone in front of the Maple Leafs’ net. The winger beat Joseph Woll to make it 1-0. Phillip Danault took advantage of a ricocheted dump-in pass that landed on the doorstep of an unsuspecting Woll, tucking it by the goaltender at the 14:41 mark to make it 2-0.
The Leafs managed to get one back on William Nylander’s 22nd on the season at 14:33 of the second period. “Willy Styles” intercepted a clearing attempt at the blue line, skated in, and executed a perfect give-and-go with Cowan to slam home a goal by Montreal netminder, Jakub Dobes.
The Leafs played better in the second, but came up empty in the third, registering only two shots on goal. Jake Evans sealed the deal for the Canadiens, scoring an empty netter at 19:32 to push the final to 3-1.
Next up, the Leafs will try to break their losing streak Thursday night when they host the Anaheim Ducks.
