DETROIT — At one point during the onslaught that was the Detroit Red Wings’ three-goal, ice-tilting, two-points-snatching second period, a stickless Brandon Carlo hit the ice and threw his six-foot-five frame lengthwise across the slot.
Gassed and desperate toward the end of a marathon own-zone shift that lasted two minutes and 53 seconds, the Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman was doing all he could to prevent another cross-seam pass, another back-door tap-in for the opposition.
Carlo — heck, half of the visitors’ bench — could be seen hunched over in the middle frame, trying to catch wind in the face of a tornado.
“They took it to us in the second,” Morgan Rielly understated, after Toronto had watched a 2-0 first-period dissolve into a 6-3 defeat (with two empty-netters).
For Craig Berube’s strategy to succeed this season, the Maple Leafs can ill afford to squander two-goal leads on the road. The coach is pleading for basic execution.
Get pucks out. Get pucks deep. Get fresh legs.
Instead, the younger, faster Red Wings turned the Leafs’ zone into their personal playground for vast stretches Saturday.
At even-strength, Detroit imposed an advantage in slot shots (21-9), high-danger chances (20-7), rush chances (16-7), and cycle chances (12-5).
The Red Wings were full value for the W, even though Toronto’s goaltender, a bombarded Anthony Stolarz, appeared sharper than foil Cam Talbot and made the scoreboard look kind.
“We spent too much time in our zone. They eventually capitalized. We tired ourselves out because we three-quarter-iced ourselves in the second period. That cost us the hockey game,” Berube summed.
“You know, we had the puck twice — before two (Detroit) goals — on our tape, and guys were just standing watching the guy instead of working to get out of our zone. That’s really the game, for me.
“We beat ourselves, in my opinion.”
If we, as observers, are still trying to decipher what exactly the Maple Leafs have here, that’s because those conversations are being held internally as well.
Be it through injury or inconsistency, none of the forward lines have wowed through 120 minutes. Turnovers are too plentiful, unnecessary penalties too common, and Grade-As too easy to come by for the other guys.
The Leafs have generally been outskated and outshot, and those trends were foreshadowed in an uninspiring pre-season.
“We’ve got to be better in every area, that’s for sure,” said Max Domi, who scored a nice goal and took a bad penalty. “By no means hitting the panic button. It’s just we’ve got to be better. And we know that, and we will be.”
Rielly isn’t comforted by a 1-1 record and four points on his personal stat sheet. He’s a realist.
“If you look at our first game and you look at our pre-season games, there’s work to do,” Rielly said. “And no one is avoiding that. That’s just the reality of this time of year. So, we don’t want to dwell on all the negatives. But at the same time, there’s a balance. You’ve got to learn and grow.”
Toronto’s best player in the early going here is Stolarz.
The goaltender is playing with swagger, battling for every tip and rebound, and speaking to reporters like he wears a letter. He even thwacked Dylan Larkin on the legs as punishment for getting too close to his crease.
“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,” Domi said.
And one wonders if the team on a nine-year playoff streak took the team on a nine-year playoff drought for granted.
“We have to come to play every night. Doesn’t matter who you’re playing,” said Stolarz. He’s acutely aware that the Wings had been ripped by coach Todd McLellan after laying a 5-1 egg to Montreal in their home opener.
“They’re a team that, after their first game, and I imagine that (first) period, got reamed out. So, we knew that they were gonna come,” Stolarz said.
“We stopped getting pucks in deep, stopped hunting them on the forecheck, and we kind of just sat back and kind of let them walk all over us.”
The Maple Leafs fly home for a rematch — “a good chance to get revenge, if you will,” Rielly said — against these same Red Wings in less than 48 hours.
“It’s gonna leave a bad taste in everyone’s mouth,” Stolarz said, sounding like a leader.
“Going back home, two o’clock game on Thanksgiving, I think the fans will be riled up. We’re gonna have to match that intensity, and we’re gonna want to put forth a good effort.”
• Steven Lorentz took a high, open-ice hit from Ben Chiarot in the first period and left the game with an upper-body injury. He’ll receive further evaluation in Toronto.
“I saw him walking in the locker room there, so hopefully everything’s good,” Stolarz said. “The veteran presence he brings, the way he plays, and you can definitely see that (fourth) line, the way they’ve been clicking so far to start the year. So, hopefully it’s nothing serious, and he’s back out there with us.”
• Domi’s second-most-productive stretch of hockey arrived during his stint alongside Patrick Kane on the 2022-23 Blackhawks. Domi scored 18 goals in those 60 games, the same amount he has now scored in 156 as a Leaf.
Asked to name his favourite playmaker, Domi doesn’t hesitate to single out his American idol, who sniped and tacked on two primary assists Saturday.
“Kaner, for sure. He gets mad at me for saying that, because we’re good buddies, and we were linemates for a full season — which was a highlight of my career, absolutely. The way that he sees the play — and the whole ice, really — he can direct his linemates where to go. But he just doesn’t miss. It’s pretty amazing,” Domi says.
“That’s why I signed there, to be honest, kind of knowing what I was walking into (with Chicago’s rebuild). I learned a lot; I was a sponge. Patrick is one of the best players of all time. So, to have one of your childhood heroes playing next to you every single day, and a guy you can bounce questions off, a guy that can get mad at you once in a while for making a mistake here and there, that’s how you learn, right? So, I certainly enjoyed that, and I’m still talking to Kaner and keeping in touch.”
• A healthy Easton Cowan has now missed the first two Maple Leafs games and first two Marlies games. The kid needs to play some hockey.
We’re betting he debuts Monday afternoon.
• Toronto’s power play starts the season 0-for-4 with a minus-1 goal differential. Auston Matthews killed one Leafs power play Saturday by high-sticking Chiarot behind the Wings’ net. Room for improvement, to say the least.
“We took a penalty that was unnecessary,” Berube said, not singling out his captain. “You know, we didn’t need to do that either, but we had a good PP going and took a penalty.”
• Berube hasn’t loved the look of third-pair Simon Benoit defending on his unnatural right side, so he has flipped Oliver Ekman-Larsson back to the right.
Both lefties are more effective on their natural side, but Benoit had his training camp shortened by an upper-body injury, and the veteran Ekman-Larsson is more adaptable.
The theory was that Ekman-Larsson could create more offence from the left had Benoit been capable of playing RD. It’s a work-in-progress.
“Benny didn’t have a lot of camp time,” Berube says. “I’ve seen OEL on the right a lot, so that’s the reason I went with it. It could change.”
