Following a team meeting, the Toronto Maple Leafs are looking to turn their fortunate amid a four-game losing streak.
Following a team meeting, the Toronto Maple Leafs are looking to turn their fortunate amid a four-game losing streak.
CALGARY — Matthew Knies is still adjusting to life at the NHL level and part of that is learning how professionals deal with losing streaks.
The 21-year-old forward joined his teammates for a team meeting on Wednesday following his team's 4-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday and outside of hearing from head coach Sheldon Keefe about the team's inability to close out games, he learned more about his team's resolve to try and dig out of their four-game slide.
"As a young guy I took away that everyone wants to win. Everyone wants to compete and play in the playoffs," Knies said following his team's morning skate at Scotiabank Saddledome on Thursday. "What’s going to put us on top and what’s going give us the kind of advantage against other teams."
The Maple Leafs visit the Calgary Flames on Thursday. Toronto has gone three consecutive games in which they have jumped out to leads only to give up the go-ahead goal late in regulation time. It has certainly put pressure on a group that has fallen to fourth place in the Atlantic Division.
"I think we're just trying to stay strong mentally, stay prepared and take it one day at a time," Knies said. "Obviously this isn’t the stretch of hockey that we wanted to play. I think we’re going to turn heads and I think we have the capability to really turn it around.
"I think we just need one bounce and we’ll be right back into playoff form."
On Wednesday, Sheldon Keefe admitted that through 42 games, he is still figuring out which players he can rely on in pressure-packed situations. That's troublesome for the Maple Leafs who in recent years had most of their game figured out by the midway point of a regular season.
When they aren't hanging onto leads, the Leafs aren't getting enough scoring, either.
Maple Leafs captain John Tavares is on his longest scoring slump since joining the club in 2018. He has no points in five games and was benched in the third period, limited to just three shifts in a 5-3 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday.
"Obviously when things haven’t gone your way you can sense frustration and things like that get in,' Tavares told TSN's Mark Masters. "We’ve just continued to stay with it. Not to get too high, not to get too low.
"I know it’s kind of cliche and kind of boring. Just keep plugging away and control what we can control. We’re obviously just right there."
The Maple Leafs are 21-13-8 this season. They rank 25th out of 32 teams in regulation wins (13).
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