In Toronto, the Maple Leafs laid the proverbial stinker of a home game, on Monday night.
With the Los Angeles Kings in town, the Leafs managed to drop a 5-1 decision on home ice to an under-performing LA squad.
“This is a tough place to come and play; we’re playing against a very good hockey club,” Los Angeles head coach Todd McLellan said. “Our start allowed us to weather the storm later, it got us the lead. We bent but did not break at the end of the second, and we tried to reestablish our game in the third. We got a big penalty kill in the third and found a way to shut them down after that.”
Jonathan Quick made 33 saves for the LA win.
John Tavares had the lone goal for the Maple Leafs off the power play.
“We just weren’t able to sustain our game,” Tavares said. “They do a really good job in the neutral zone and don’t give us a whole lot, even just to get good efficient dumps where we can recover pucks. Giving up the lead and having to play from behind, we couldn’t seem to make enough plays and be consistent enough putting pressure on them.”
Phillip Danault struck in the second and third periods for the Kings after Tavares had scored to cut the LA lead to 2-1; his strikes made it 4-1, and gave the Kings some breathing room.
Toronto dropped to 7-5-1.
LA’s Andreas Athanasiou and Trevor Moore also scored in the win.
“A lot of speed, good poise, he makes good plays, and he stretches the defense a lot with his speed,” Danault said about Athanasiou. “His speed is opening everything for us in the offensive zone.”
LA improved to 6-5-1.
“Quick had a big impact as he does almost every night when he plays,” McLellan said. “You don’t win in this League without having good goaltending. Rarely do you leave the rink, I don’t think anybody can remember a night where you say, ‘Boy we got terrible goaltending yet won the game’. That doesn’t happen. The winning team often gets the best goaltending, and Quick was really good when he needed to be.”
Adrian Kempe iced the game with an empty-net marker late for the 5-1 final.
“He (Quick) did make some big saves, but I think in general we weren’t around the net enough, we weren’t causing havoc enough around that net,” Toronto’s Mitchell Marner said. “We did do it well in certain periods of time, but we have to do it more often, especially against a team like that who just wants to keep everything in tight and let us do our thing on the outside.”
Jack Campbell made 24 saves in the Toronto loss.
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