In Toronto, the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning tagged the Maple Leafs with a 5-3 loss on Thursday night.
Steve Stamkos had a goal and four points in the win.
Ondrej Palat had two goals and three points for Tampa.
“You need your big guys to step up [when we have the number of injuries we do], and Stamkos has definitely done that,” Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “Good on him because when you have some of the injuries he’s dealt with, that wears on you. … He was a big part of our Cup run last year, got time to get healthy over the summer, and he’s really taken off again.”
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 35 saves in the Bolts win.
The Lightning improved to 17-5-4.
“It’s definitely not easy, especially when you are losing the quality of players who aren’t in the lineup for our group, but this group has never used that as an excuse,” Stamkos said.
“Guys stepped up and it starts with our goalie, Andrei Vasilevskiy, [who] played great again. That’s a really good team, and they’re missing a couple [of] key guys, too, but they were playing some good hockey and we weathered the storm and played a pretty good third period I thought.”
The Maple Leafs dropped to 18-8-2.
Ondrej Kase shit for a pair of goals the Maple Leafs, and William Nylander added a single marker.
“You can’t make those kind of plays, those 5-on-5 goals we gave up. Those were inexcusable, those were gifts,” Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “That’s precisely what we talked about before the game started. You give that team and that goaltender that kind of support, it’s going to be tough to climb out of.
“I didn’t think we played a terrible game by any means. We worked hard and had our chances, but you just can’t give that kind of stuff up. The decision-making and execution with the puck cost us.”
Taylor Raddysh and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, also scored for the Lightning.
Jack Campbell made 22 saves in the Leafs loss.
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