Samsonov solid, but Leafs lose third straight

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The Maple Leafs have a lot more problems than Ilya Samsonov’s goaltending.

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While the much-maligned netminder held Toronto in for much of Sunday’s 4-2 empty net loss to Detroit, atfer costing them a handful of games up to New Year’s, the rest of the team continues to have issues holding leads.

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The visitors, with ex-Leaf James Reimer in their cage, survived off a mostly misfiring Toronto offence much of the evening and pounced when opportunity arose as the Leafs swallowed a third consecutive loss, giving up the go-ahead goal in the dying minutes of the past two.

Samsonov had turned the introductory boos into third-period cheers and even chants of ‘Sammy! Sammy!’ before Andrew Copp’s winner with 1:40 to go when the Leafs were bumped off the puck behind him. Seconds earlier, Samsonov stretched to glove a shot heading to the open side from a diving J.D. Compher.

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Samsonov, a controversial starter when named in the morning, made 20 saves.

Puck drop was delayed nearly an hour to almost 8 p.m., because the Wings had been held up a home since late Saturday night, first by a mechanical issue with their plane, then Sunday afternoon by weather. They didn’t get to Scotiabank Arena until nearly 6 p.m.

Samsonov had to know a loud Bronx cheer was coming on his first routine save from  Compher. Dylan Larkin had a partial breakaway, but lost the puck, so Samsonov was able to settle down. Twice he came far out of his crease to stop Detroit forwards from catching up to loose pucks and made 15 stops, including a short-handed 2-on-1 stretch pad save, before a Jake McCabe mistake in the corner led to Larkin’s 1-1 goal.

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Pontus Holmberg tipped a Morgan Rielly point shot before that and Larkin’s goal was answered less than three minutes later when Tyler Bertuzzi handed off to Mitch Marner who had an open cage for his 600^th NHL point, the fastest Leaf to that milestone in 548 games.

But bad luck has also dogged Samsonov, such as Morgan Rielly’s stick blowing up on a point shot that rendered him unable to stop Alex DeBrincat from springing Daniel Sprong on a breakaway goal for the 2-2 equalizer just 2:46 into the third period.

After one of the worst stretches a Toronto goalie has endured in recent memory — poor starts, personal issues and public criticism — coach Sheldon Keefe said it was a collective organizational determination to re-activate the Russian.

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In his previous four games, all losses, Samsonov gave up 21 goals, a few of them true groaners, while losing his grip on his positional play. It sank his save percentage to .862 with his overall record of 5-2-6.

“It’s a big decision for a lot of reasons, for both Samsonov and (rookie Dennis) Hildeby,” Keefe said Sunday morning. “But you make a (comeback) plan for Sammy, and he’s done the work to be ready for tonight.”

Keefe said once himself, general manager Brad Treliving, and goaltending coach Curtis Sanford determined Samsonov would not actually play any AHL games as part of his reboot, Sunday’s back-to-back was the logical return date.

“It’s bigger than just me or Curtis. You have a guy who is our highest-paid goalie (versus) our top prospect (and the need to give de facto No. 1 Martin Jones a rest).”

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Three disjointed power plays underlined the Leafs’ special teams’ issues of late. The Core Four and defenceman Rielly stayed together, but Keefe used the switch to Samsonov to make wholesale line changes, as well as bring defenceman Conor Timmins out of mothballs to give 40-year-old Mark Giordano a night off.

Auston Matthews had the suddenly popular Holmberg and William Nylander on his wings, former London Knights Marner and Max Domi teamed up with Bertuzzi, while Matthew Knies was the other displaced first-liner, dropped down with David Kampf and Noah Gregor. John Tavares, coming back from a third-period benching the night before in the loss to Colorado, was with the reinstated Nick Robertson (for Bobby McMann).

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The Leafs had to re-jig their goaltending picture when Samsonov stumbled and Joseph Woll sprained his ankle. Samsonov won 27 games last year, but incoming GM Treliving held firm on not lavishing a new multi-year contract and took him back for one year at an arbitrator’s $3.55-million US award.

Hildeby who backed up Jones in a three-game sweep of California and was Plan B for the Wings game, wound up getting lit up for three goals on his first 11 shots during Sunday afternoon’s Marlies game in Belleville before getting pulled in an eventual 6-2 loss.

Sunday also brought the Leafs to 41 games and the midway mark of their schedule with a record of 21-12-8.

Other than the COVID-19 season adjustments, this was the most uneven half of hockey for Keefe and the team, in-game swings, inability to hold leads, coupled with amazing comebacks to rescue a point or two.

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A number of new players either laboured with their play (Ryan Reaves) injuries (John Klingberg) or took awhile to find their comfort level (Domi and Bertuzzi).

“I’ve never been one to live in the past,” Domi said Sunday morning. “That’s the best way to focus on it. This is when hockey starts to be fun (heading into the playoff races).”

But the Leafs have to make better use of games in hand, that are now against some of the NHL’s best. They couldn’t keep up for an entire 60-minute match against top-ranked Colorado on Saturday and now have two of the top Canadian teams this week on the road, Edmonton and Vancouver. A home-and-home with Winnipeg then sends them into the all-star break.

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