DETROIT — The Detroit Red Wings were going to be angry after a season opening loss against the Montreal Canadiens. And the Toronto Maple Leafs expected firepower.
But it as the Leafs that seemed ill-prepared in a second period that saw Detroit erase a two-goal lead before defeating the Maple Leafs 6-3 at Little Caesar's Arena on Saturday.
Maple Leafs forward Max Domi finished the game with Toronto's third goal, but he also took a holding call in the third period that got in the way of Toronto's comeback attempt while down 4-3.
"I don't want to take away from what Detroit did. They played great, but that one was on us, "Domi lamented after the game. "We had complete control of the game and let our foot off the gas. So we can't do that against a good team like Detroit and they made us pay. I think it's a good learning experience early on in the year, but great opportunity going home now, four games at home. We've got to bear down and be a lot better, for sure."
Domi spoke at length about Toronto's performance and if it was just shaking out the cobwebs of the early part of the regular season.
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"At this point of the year where there's a lot to work on in everyone's game and I think that would be the easiest thing to tell you is we gotta be better in every area that's for sure and we all know that. By no means hitting the panic button it's just we gotta be better and we know that and we will be."
On Anthony Stolarz' performance, particularly holding the Leafs in it in the second period.
"He was outstanding he kept us in that game and we got to be a lot better for him."
On Steven Lorentz leaving the game with an upper-body injury in the first period.
"That's part of the game, obviously you never want to see anyone go down and Stevie's a huge part of our team especially I mean through I mean just early in the year but he's playing great both on and off the ice, which is a big piece, so hopefully he's okay. And yeah, that's all I can really comment on that right now."
More on Stolarz.
"He's a competitor. He wants to win and I think he's very vocal on the ice. He doesn't give up on any plays and I think that should kind of leak into the rest of our lineup and there's a bit of momentum that we grabbed there for a bit. Again when you're playing against a team like Detroit you don't want to put yourself in the hole so I think like I said we're going to watch this move on to the next one and be ready to go."
On the challenge of playing against Patrick Kane, who scored a goal and added two assists for Detroit.
"Yeah, Kaner thrives on feeling the puck right so obviously when you go to the box and you get guys like that and (Alex) DeBrincat, (Lucas) Raymond, I mean all of them (Dylan) Larkin they're good players and when you best in the world at that. So I think that's one thing we can definitely be better at, staying on the box, myself included."
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