BUFFALO - Phil Kessel is still in Ron Wilson’s doghouse, but the real house of horrors for the Maple Leafs has become the penalty box.
The Leafs aren’t only sinking in the Eastern Conference playoff race, but the ball and chain dragging them further is their penalty-killing, which likely cost them a badly needed point last night in a 3-2 loss at HSBC Arena.
On one hand, the Leafs ignored coach Wilson’s loud edict from the day before to get their act in gear before falling behind by a goal or two. But on the other, they nearly did the impossible and claw back from a three-goal deficit against their nemesis, Ryan Miller.
The door to freedom was sitting there for Kessel with just over a minute to play, but his sweep at a puck with Miller out of position was partially blocked. Thus, he’s up to 11 games with just one goal 13 with no assists, while Toronto’s current freefall reached four losses in five games and 3-7-2 in their past 12. Miller, meanwhile, made a career-best 49 saves and improved to 5-0 versus the Leafs this season, part of 22 against them in his career.
After missing a golden opportunity to break Miller’s hex with three of its own wasted power plays, Toronto gave up three goals on consecutive Sabres man-advantages. No wonder Ian White argued so vehemently in the second period when called on a borderline hook. That ended up producing the eventual winning goal by Tyler Myers, before third-period markers from Matt Stajan and John Mitchell revived the Leafs and their hardy band of supporters who’d made the wintry drive.
“It’s getting kind of crazy and I don’t know what the reason is,” White said of the Leafs’ league-worst penalty kill. “It’s got to be mental at this stage. Three-for-three ... we get out there and we’re a little anxious and tentative. You’re usually playing against the top five guys on the other team and if you’re a step behind, they’ll make you pay.”
The Leafs continue to close in on the NHL record for the worst penalty-killing collective since the Original Six expanded. With a terrible 68.3% mark, they’re just ahead of the 1982-83 Los Angeles Kings and from there, it’s a short drop to the basement, the ‘79-80 Kings, who came in at 67.7%.
It was the first time the Leafs had allowed three power-play goals in consecutive games since December of 2005 after the Flyers lit them up Wednesday.
After his Thursday rant made the front pages of Toronto newspapers, Wilson spared the rod after the game.
“We gave it everything we had and out-chanced them at the end probably two to one,” Wilson said. “Once we scored (Stajan at 2:11 of the third), you could see the energy go through the team. I was ready to pull (Vesa Toskala) with 3 1/2 or maybe four minutes to go because we had them hemmed in and a team might panic at that point. We scored again and still had 1:43 with an empty net.
“But our penalty-killing let us down again. It would just be one little thing and boom, it’s in your net. Right now, it’s all we talk about and we’re a little psyched out. We had two back-door plays and our defence never bothered to look.”
Defenceman Jeff Finger was on for all three Buffalo goals, two by Myers and the other by Tim Connolly.
“It was one of those nights,” Mitchell said, “but again, we have to find a way to get past ‘one of those nights’. We have a game right away (Saturday) so maybe we can redeem ourselves.”
The Leafs complete the difficult back-to-back assignment at home against Pittsburgh. They did beat the Stanley Cup champions in their barn on Dec. 27, the night after an overtime loss to Montreal.
