Instant Reaction: Another Leafs’ 3rd-period collapse spoils Joseph Woll’s heroics

The Toronto Maple Leafs clearly still have a lot of work to do if they want to overcome their sluggish start, as the issues plaguing the team all season long reared their ugly head on Friday in 4-2 loss against the Washington Capitals.

A first period that saw a rare instance of no commercial breaks was also one that the Leafs needed to hang on and survive, since the majority of it was spent in their own end. That’s not to say they didn’t get their looks, but Joseph Woll was clearly the only reason they were able to get out of it with a lead. Morgan Rielly scored on the Leafs’ first shot of the game, which also marked the first time the Leafs opened the scoring since November 13th.

That trend of having spent far too much time defending followed suit in the second frame, with the added challenge of having to kill off two penalties. The Leafs were not only able to get through them unscathed, but they even got some looks while shorthanded. At the tail end of the first infraction, Auston Matthews and Matthew Knies sprang free on a breakaway and got a scoring chance out of it. Matthews made a nice move along the wall to get around Alex Ovechkin, allowing Knies to find open space in the slot, and he made no mistake on his shot.

The Capitals gained some more extended zone time for much of the second frame, and eventually Connor McMichael cut the deficit to one.

But in the third, things fell apart for the Leafs as they broke after bending for much of the night and saw their lead disintegrate in brutal fashion. Goals from Anthony Beauvillier, Jakob Chychrun, and a Tom Wilson empty-netter flipped the game on its head, even though it was obvious off the jump that Toronto didn’t really deserve to be leading for much of the night. While Woll’s stellar play was commendable and the main reason why the final score wasn’t so lopsided, the team cannot keep banking on their netminders to bail them out and at some point give the goalies a solid showing in front.

The good news is the Leafs won’t have to wait long to get another wipe the slate clean as they head to Western Pennsylvania to take on the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.

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