Maple Leafs flirt with disaster, but find late belief in comeback win

TORONTO — Craig Berube has called for leadership. For an answer. For a statement.

Stood in the bowels of Scotiabank Arena three nights ago, reliving the 60-minute beating of his Toronto Maple Leafs fresh off a loss to a top-ranked Edmonton Oilers team, Toronto's bench coach has placed his bets.

“Our leaders need to take control of the situation, much more than they are now,” Berube said that evening after a heavy, exasperated sigh. “To me, it's all a mindset. Whether you get a goal or a goal, you just need to have more urgency. Be more direct in how we want to play. We didn't do that in the third period, two games in a row.”

The schedule presented an opportunity to bounce back: a clash with the Chicago Blackhawks, league residents for the past half-decade, who came into the Maple Leafs barn without their talisman Connor Bedard.

There was everything the blue and whites could grab onto. For the captain Auston Matthewsin particular. Start strong, tip the ice, answer the call.

But for 50 minutes on Tuesday night the home side looked a long way off. Bouncing passes, stumbling across the sheets, looking disjointed and incoherent as if they've done it too many times this season.

It took Chicago just 10 minutes to confuse the hosts, a point shot through traffic deflecting off Wyatt Kizer and past Joseph Wall, who returned to the Maple Leafs cage for the first time in a week and a half. Five minutes later, the Hawks scored another goal, taking advantage of William Nylander's lackluster power play entry attempt, moving the puck to the other end on a 2-on-1 and beating Wall short-handed.

“I thought we were a little stubborn in the first game,” the veteran defenseman. Oliver Ekman-Larsson spoke about leaving early. “Trying to get through five guys, throwing a lot of pucks.”

“We weren't under pressure and it showed,” the winger added. Dakota Joshua. “They took it on themselves and got the advantage. … They just inflicted wounds on themselves. Like, we inflicted it on ourselves. Too many turnovers. This can't happen. We just have to get better.”

In between the first two scores, the visitors scored another goal, beating the Maple Leafs in their own box and scoring past Wall, but the goal was disallowed due to goaltender interference.

While the officials were reviewing the play, Berube rushed into the team's bench seat. When asked about his message to the group during that disappointing first period, the coach didn't mince words.

“It could have gone either way,” Berube said after the game. “Giving up a shorthanded goal, then giving up a faceoff goal. Those things shouldn't happen. They shouldn't happen. I mean, we're losing power in front of our goal.

“It's just simple things. That's why I got angry.”

When the Maple Leafs left the ice for the first intermission, the crowd erupted in cheers.

“I mean, if I was a fan, I wouldn't be too happy with the performance either. So it's not surprising,” Joshua said of the hometown ridicule. “Nobody wants to be booed in their own building. But at the same time, they had every right to feel the same way about what we put there.”

More screams hit the ice midway through the third period, with Toronto still down 2–0. And for a moment, Berube's squad seemed to be on the verge of a decisive precipice, balancing dangerously.

Lose this game – against this opponent, with this performance, after what happened three nights ago in this building – and it seemed as if everything was sure to fall and break on the sidewalk. The race seemed over, Maple Leafs fans' faith in the team – and, most importantly, in its captain – had all but evaporated.

Ekman-Larsson then collected the puck from a faceoff win in the offensive zone at No. 34, took a few steps and sent it through traffic past goaltender Spencer Knight and into the net.

“Going into the third round, I said, 'We need to play like a desperate team,'” Joshua said. “If we played our game, we knew we could come back. It was a group effort, a lot of guys talking. And then when we made the first play, you could kind of feel it. Everybody was into it.”

A few minutes later, the captain found his moment – the type of exciting, escalating and life-giving sequence that fans in these stands have been craving for weeks.

It started with a strong forecheck from Nylander, who raced behind the net after a lost faceoff in the offensive zone, stole the puck from Kaiser and passed it to Matthews – No. 34 cornered the puck, turned toward the net and delivered a crisp wrister to Knight's shoulder.

Tie game. The crowd is on its feet. Boos burst into applause.

Before fans could return to their seats, the Maple Leafs found one more: Troy Stecher shooting the puck down the ice from the boards, Joshua barreling through still-stunned Hawks defenders and a forward who put the winner in the cage before Chicago even knew what was happening.

“That’s why you build your game throughout the game, just doing the right things – it adds up,” Ekman-Larsson said of the rollercoaster comeback. “That’s why we want to get the puck deep to make it difficult for the other defensemen, and I think that paid off again.”

“Birds were falling – and rightfully so – and I think after that first goal the crowd really got into it, which was great,” Matthews added. “And after the second the place shook. And after the third even more.”

By the time the final bell rang, the Maple Leafs had cruised to a 3–2 victory, a decisive victory and narrowly avoiding disaster. And despite long stretches of the night when the No. 34 looked a world away from the world's leading goalscorer who once terrorized goalkeepers across the league, the blue and white talisman who has long looked like one of the best players on the planet, there is no doubt that the captain played a crucial role in pulling his team out of the mud in this match.

“It was great. It was great to see and great for him and great for our team. I thought that line defined the game tonight and that was what I wanted to see,” Berube said of Matthews, Nylander and Matthew Nice. “Whether they scored or not, it's just more control of the game than they have and managing the game. And they did that, I think. All three of them were pretty good tonight.”

Overall, this is a small step forward for the Leafs, but not necessarily a leap. Late tantrums aside, the night had left a lot of question marks on the table, a lot of holes to patch. However, for a club that has lacked fire and fight on so many nights in this building this season, progress can be found in the late spark of belief and what it ignited on the night.

“It's just momentum swings that happen in every game. You have to believe you can come back,” Joshua said of what sparked the late-game turnaround. “Those were the big two points we needed. It was good to see us come together and make it.”