Instant Reaction: Maple Leafs delivers a stinker vs. Wild in the first game since the road trip

The Wild, buoyed by a strong performance in net from Filip Gustavsson, sheer dominance from the exciting pair of Quinn Hughes and Brock Faber, and a coming-out party for veterans Vladimir Tarasenko and Marcus Foligno, ran over the Leafs en route to a 6-3 win. They kept up the puck pressure all night and provoked the Leafs into making poor decisions in pursuit, often leading to open ice or poorly timed penalties.

It was an especially tough night for Joseph Woll, who allowed five goals on 24 shots and didn’t start the third period, and Brandon Carlo, who found himself in no man’s land several times and could have had a bigger mark next to his name had he not been on the goal post. Simon Benoit also struggled, taking a penalty early in the game that led to Minnesota’s first goal and cushioning a clean sheet that gave the Wild a final breakback before the second period ended. Matthew Knies was ironically one of their best players, despite a nagging injury and waiting until the last possible moment before the game to confirm he would be in the lineup.

The Leafs did their best to make things interesting in the third period, with Nick Robertson and Auston Matthews finding the back of the net to cut the deficit to two, but they pulled the goalkeeper extremely early and never held onto possession, allowing Foligno to score the hat trick. goal into the empty net.

If you had asked me about the storyline of the game heading into the second period, I would have placed most of the blame on Woll, who allowed two goals on his first four shots against to start the game and had four past him on sixteen shots. But by the end of the match it was hard to blame just one person. The Leafs are prone to a stinker in their first home game after a long road trip, for unknown reasons, but it’s been that way for a while.

It’s especially unfortunate that it comes on a night when both the Buffalo Sabers and Florida Panthers have lost in regulation, but they know better than anyone that they can’t rely on their opponents’ failure to get them into the playoffs, and they’ll have a chance to make up some ground on Wednesday against the Detroit Red Wings.

PRESENTED BY OFF THE ROSTER