Knee Jerk Reaction: Maple Leafs turn in sloppy affair in 6-3 loss to Red Wings

The Toronto Maple Leafs found themselves on the receiving end of a bounce-back effort from the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday night to even their record at 1-1 through two games. The Red Wings, who were booed off the ice in their home opener after losing 5-1 to the Montreal Canadiens, who the Maple Leafs beat 5-2 in their own home opener. Isn’t hockey fun?

What wasn’t fun was the Maple Leafs’ effort after the first period of the game. Despite a strong start with Calle Jarnkrok’s second goal in as many games and Nicolas Roy’s first as a Leaf, the Red Wings came out with the jets turned on in the second period and the Leafs couldn’t keep up with them. Amid a solid five-minute stretch that saw the Leafs hemmed in their own zone, the Red Wings started to chip away and kept at it.

In particular, the Leafs seemed to struggle mightily at defending the Red Wings’ cross-ice passes. First it was a goal from Marco Kasper, then came two cross-ice feeds in a row, one to Lucas Raymond and one to Patrick Kane. Although Max Domi tied the game early in the third period, a tripping penalty to Oliver Ekman-Larsson got the Red Wings on the power play where they took the goal back.

The Leafs have historically been very average in the first month of the season, and by historically, I mean over the past couple of years. Last season they were 6-4-1 in the month of October, the year before they were 5-3-1, and the year before that they were 4-4-2. Pair that with the fact that half of the forward group is new, and you should probably brace for some tough games to watch as we kick off a fresh season.

The Maple Leafs will look to rebound when they face the Red Wings again on Monday afternoon.