The Toronto Maple Leafs didn’t bring their best effort of the season on Friday night. It wasn’t a total sell job like their 3-0 loss to Ottawa, but they’ve definitely had better games and didn’t deserve the two points.
One of the lone bright spots of the night was Chris Tanev’s stretch pass to John Tavares, springing him on a breakaway and leaving him with all the time in the world to pull off a slick move and give the Maple Leafs their only goal of the game. The defenceman has been finding ways to chip in offensively of late despite earning his money on the other side of the puck, and this pass was an example of what he’s able to provide from time to time.
Tanev wasn’t interested in discussing his pass postgame, keeping it rather blunt when asked about it.
It’s an answer that will resonate well with fans, and it’s encouraging to see this sort of mindset adopted despite the fact that the team currently sits tied for first in the Atlantic Division and have won ten of their last 13 games. It seems to be a far cry from the infamous “relax coach, we’re in first place” quote from Joe Thornton during the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season. Head coach Craig Berube is happy to give his team credit for stealing two points in games they didn’t necessarily play their best, but he’s also not shy to point out the areas he needs to see improvement in.
Tanev has been an instrumental part of the Maple Leafs’ vast improvement on defence this season, taking on crucial penalty minutes even more so than usual with the absence of Jake McCabe and providing a shutdown presence whenever he’s on the ice. The team successfully killed off all four of the penalties they were given and he was a big part of that. Even though he was far from the reason they lost, it shows what kind of a leader he is when he takes accountability for the loss and deflects questions about his own personal performance
The Maple Leafs will look to bounce back and split the back-to-back when they visit the Pittsburgh Penguins Saturday night.
-1733965866-q80.webp "Lisa Barlow’s son Henry, 12, scolded ‘RHOSLC’ editors after gaming scene: ‘You did me dirty’")
