The Toronto Maple Leafs brought a busy week to a disappointing close on Sunday afternoon, falling 4-1 to the league-leading Colorado Avalanche.
Brock Nelson tallied two goals in the opening eight minutes, and the Leafs weren’t able to find any life in the match from there on out. Speaking after the game, John Tavares highlighted some of Toronto’s issues as they were chasing this one from the start.
“Obviously, getting behind early is not ideal, against a team that’s very good,” Tavares said. “They really test you with their speed and their ability to spread you out. I think we created some looks at times, just not able to break through earlier to change the momentum of the game. And then, unfortunately, we just didn’t execute as well as they did, and they just made some better plays with the puck. At times our puck play wasn’t as sharp and it slowed us down a bit. Obviously, somewhere, we’ve got to get better.”
The Leafs have now dropped four in a row, going winless through their current home stand. Collecting just one point this week, they’ve once again fallen further from a wild card spot, now tied with four teams at five points behind playoff position. With 30 games remaining in the season, Tavares was asked how the team can find the needed urgency.
“I think it’s just a choice,” Tavares said. “You come in, you get focused, you prepare the way you need to prepare, take what’s in front of you and not focus on what’s in the past or what’s down the line. No worrying about the big picture too much. We’ve played a lot of good hockey this year and put together some really good stretches. Obviously, the results this week haven’t been great, but a great chance to turn that around.”
With another matchup quickly on the way, Tavares stressed the importance of putting this week behind them while learning the necessary lessons.
“It’s a quick turnaround, so there’s no time to hang our head and be frustrated about things,” he said. “You got to continue to work at it, use tomorrow as the day to reset, and get ready for Tuesday.”
Toronto wraps up its home stand on Tuesday night, facing an Atlantic division opponent in the Buffalo Sabres.
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