'Not Doing Enough To Help Him': How Maple Leafs' Team Defense Is Costing Points In The NHL Standings

The Toronto Maple Leafs dropped the ball against the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday. With an opportunity to gather a point in this contest, Auston Matthews scored the equalizer for Toronto with one minute and 30 seconds remaining in the game, but one minute later after that, Seattle regained the lead, and it ended 5-4.

That loss was shadowed by the play of goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, allowing five goals on 17 shots and a .706 save percentage to end the night. However, the team sees it differently and doesn't believe the two-time Stanley Cup-winning netminder is the one to blame for their defeat to the Kraken.

"Bob's been great," Matthews said after the Leafs' loss on Wednesday. "I mean, he's been great for us all year long. Every now and then there's going to be a couple that you want back. But, you know, in the end, I put it more on us. You know, as a five-man unit, not doing enough to help him out in certain situations where they're coming down and getting Grade-A chances.

"I just think it's not solely on the defense any time there's a goal that goes in our net. I mean, we're out there as a five-man unit, and all five guys have jobs out there, and so if one or two has a breakdown or a mistake, it ends up in the back of our net. So it's just defending with all five guys and being cleaner in that area and being cleaner on our breakouts as well," the captain added.

According to MoneyPuck, the Kraken produced 2.36 expected goals in all situations against the Maple Leafs' 2.08.

"We made two mistakes, two 2-on-1s, and had, I think, three, four breakouts, turnovers in the first period," Leafs head coach Jim Hiller recalled. "Cost us chances. One cost us a goal. So there were just six or seven key breakdowns outside of that. They didn't have much. We kept them outside just like they did for us. So we were pretty good outside of, again, just some key mental errors."

When Bobrovsky summed up the team's game and his personal performance, he couldn't help but cite the fact that the opposition had several great scoring chances in this outing.

"We deserved the point," Bobrovsky said. "At least, it was good game. You know, was good challenge. Was good mentally challenge. I thought I could help on the last goal for sure, but other than that, they had good scoring chances. You know, like not much than scoring chances. So yeah, it was a good challenge."

Per NaturalStatTrick, the Kraken created nine high-danger scoring chances, compared to the Maple Leafs' four in all situations. They've also allowed the joint-second-most goals in the NHL this season, with 50 in 15 games. Only the Vancouver Canucks have allowed more (65).

Furthermore, the Maple Leafs are sixth in the NHL with the most high-danger chances allowed this year, with 135, and in the same position in giving up general scoring chances with 313.

While the numbers in the goaltending department could improve (middle of the pack with an .887 team save percentage), the team as a whole could lock it down much better than they have.

See more of The Hockey News on Google — Save us as Preferred Source

For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or creating your own post in our community forum.