Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

The Slide Continues For The Toronto Maple Leafs

03/26/2014 at 7:57am EDT

Toronto has now lost 6 games in a row, all in regulation...

from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

Carlyle pulled Jonathan Bernier. That was smart. Then he put captain Dion Phaneuf on the point with an extra attacker.

That wasn’t smart.

All night long, in maybe the Leafs’ most important game of the season, Phaneuf fought the puck. He had a sloppy, uncharacteristically terrible night, causing someone to ask if they’d ever seen him play worse as a Leaf.

read on

from Jonas Siegel of TSN,

Head coach Randy Carlyle observed "tenseness" during the first half of Wednesday's game, one that saw St. Louis completely manhandle their sinking opponents, especially so in a dominant first frame. Big, hard, fast and strong, the best team in the West controlled possession of the puck almost without exception, peppering Jonathan Bernier with 23 shots while scoring the first two of four unanswered.

"It's like we were frozen for 30 minutes of the hockey game," Carlyle said. "We didn't pick up the puck and skate with it at all. And that's showing signs of being nervous, tense, [lacking] confidence, not wanting to make a mistake which led to more offensive zone time [for the Blues]."

more

from Chris Johnston of Sportsnet,

All season, the Leafs have leaned heavily on the top line of van Riemsdyk, Kessel and Tyler Bozak. While those players have continued to produce during the team’s slump, they have slowed from the ridiculous scoring pace they established from mid-January through the Olympic break and haven’t really been picked up by the secondary scorers.

That put more pressure on Toronto’s porous defensive play and, by extension, the goaltending – with James Reimer struggling in a few outings recently after Bernier went down to injury.

While many have started searching out individual targets, the real problem is that the entire machine has been bogged down. The bucket is springing leaks.

more

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

From breaking news to in-depth stories around the league, KK Hockey is updated with fresh stories all day long and will bring you the latest news as quickly as possible.

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