3 takeaways from Leafs-Wild: Woll’s worst start of season, net-front defence completely absent

Reading the puck from distance appeared to be a consistent issue for Woll on Monday. Foligno tipped home another point shot from Faber to provide the Wild with a 5-1 lead at the second intermission. And the lack of velocity once again fooled Woll.

Tarasenko’s goals were both the function of some poor defensive play, but Woll certainly needed to make some key stops, and didn’t provide the Leafs with any valour on Monday.

“The last couple of games, obviously, not the result I want, but I’m going to go to the drawing board, learn from it and tomorrow’s a new day. Flush it and get back to work,” Woll said post-game.

“I don’t think it was his night tonight, but I think that’s on the team as well,” Matthew Knies said of Woll post-game. “We didn’t do a good job in front of him. A lot of the goals that went in were tipped pucks. Deflected pucks, rebounds, that’s a lot on the players in here, too.”

We’re not pinning the loss on Woll entirely, as there were several mistakes against an undermanned Wild team, but Woll certainly needed to be better. He’ll likely be afforded some rest, but could be in line to face the league-leading Colorado Avalanche on Friday.

Brandon Carlo and the Leafs’ net-front defence was completely absent

Toronto got picked apart in several aspects of the game, but its net-front defence was the biggest culprit Monday.

Simon Benoit took a needless penalty against the run of play, and Minnesota capitalized. Vladimir Tarasenko opened the scoring, after some poor coverage from the Maple Leafs. The puck reset to Quinn Hughes at the point, who found Kirill Kaprizov by the goal-line. Kaprizov one-touched the puck over to Ryan Hartman, while wrapping around Jake McCabe. Hartman then froze Brandon Carlo, who stood still in the gap, and tapped it over to Tarasenko for a 1-0 lead.

Foligno’s first two goals could be considered the function of poor net-front defending as well: Woll certainly needed to be better, but the Maple Leafs allowed oncoming traffic without much resistance whatsoever.

It wasn’t just the net-front defence either. Carlo was particularly awful off the rush. Hughes caught the Leafs sleeping during the second period, and sprung Tarasenko alone for a 4-1 lead. There was a canyon-like gap between Carlo and Oliver Ekman-Larsson, as the Wild attacked the Maple Leafs with speed, and in stationery scenarios, without any pushback.

During Carlo’s next shift, he fell down without prompt and Vinnie Hinostroza rang a shot off the post. Carlo and the Maple Leafs’ defence can move on and burn the tape.

Matthew Knies fights through lingering injury, but will need more rest

Matthew Knies was a game-time decision and lingered through his injury. Knies was arguably one of the Leafs’ best players in the losing effort, with the team outshooting the Wild 12-8 at 5-on-5 during his minutes. The 23-year-old was cleared to play after skating through the warmups, where he tested out his leg several times.

Knies delivered a terrific pass to John Tavares during the first period on the power play, the high point of the Leafs’ offensive output Monday. He won puck battles, he was engaged as a playmaker, and was the best player on his line alongside Matias Maccelli and John Tavares. Knies played the third-most minutes out of any Leafs forward, trailing Matthews and Maccelli. It may be time for load management.

“It’s one of those that the more you play, the more wear and tear on it, it’s not really going to get better,” Knies said. “The Christmas break obviously helped a lot. It’s a pretty tough schedule we have right now, playing every other day. Recovery is pretty important.”

“It will help for sure with rest,” Berube said post-game. “Right now, he doesn’t have the luxury of rest. We’ve tried to keep him off the ice, even on game day skates. I thought he competed hard tonight and did some good things. He’s fighting through it, which is good to see.”

William Nylander is already out of the lineup indefinitely, while Chris Tanev is still considering season-ending surgery. There may be few excuses in the standings when it comes to injuries, but the Leafs can ill-afford to lose Knies for any period of time. Knies wants to play in every game he can, but the Maple Leafs may need to exercise some further caution when it comes to their ascending power forward.