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Maple Leafs report cards: Special teams help Toronto save point against Wild

The Toronto Maple Leafs have rarely been kept in games this season thanks to their special teams, but they have those units to thank for the point they took on Sunday in Minnesota.

In a 2-1 overtime loss, Toronto was defeated 62-36 and 29-17 at five-on-five in regulation time. However, thanks to a power play that eventually found the net and a penalty kill that the Minnesota Wild blocked, it went to overtime.

When the Maple Leafs got there, they had no answer for Minnesota, as Matt Boldy ended the night with a hit on Anthony Stolarz, who had been playing brilliantly up until that point.

The Maple Leafs were on the verge of victory, but they ran out of gas along the way. The fact that we are playing against a difficult away opponent for the second evening in a row increases the overall grade, but we can't get higher than a C-plus here.

Unit grades

L1 (Knies–Matthews–Marner): C

For long periods of the game, the top team managed to control their minutes, even if they didn't create too many dangerous chances.

The wheels came off a bit in the third period, but it still didn't concede many shots near the net, resulting in a strong expected goals rate of 69.64 percent. Still, this trio experienced the evening a coach would hope for from a bottom-six control line, not their first group.

On the bright side, Matthew Knies threw his body around effectively and Mitch Marner swung a noticeably disruptive stick.

L2 (Pacioretty–Tavares–Nylander): D

At the beginning of Sunday, this trio had defeated their opponents 26:12 and 5:1 in 34:27 in five-on-five play, but on Sunday they came back down to earth.

The second line spent an inordinate amount of time flailing around in the defensive zone and couldn't generate much offense. With 8:36 remaining in five-on-five play, Toronto held a 10-3 lead, had an expected goal rate of 3.30 percent and conceded the team's only goal in regulation time.

Max Pacioretty delivered a few goals with conviction and William Nylander scored on the power play, but this unit had a terrible night.

L3 (McMann–Domi–Robertson): B-

It's hard to be too critical of this group's performance considering the Wild scored few goals in their minutes (0.38 expected goals) and Bobby McMann had some good chances.

At the same time, the Maple Leafs desperately need this unit to produce. McMann and Max Domi have now played seven games without a point. Nick Robertson has a not-so-long pointless streak (four games), but he has also been in the lineup before.

The power play is Toronto's sleeping giant, which if it works could make the offense one of the NHL's best, but some life from those secondary scorers is also an important factor.

L4 (Lorentz–Kämpf–Reaves): C-

Ryan Reaves did his thing physically, and Steven Lorentz had a good chance off the rush late in the game, but this group didn't accomplish much.

The trio only had a modest advantage (3-4), but managed an expected goal rate of only 20.25 percent.

D1 (Rielly–Ekman-Larsson): C+

Morgan Rielly and Oliver Ekman-Larsson tend to stand out for one reason or another and in this case it was OEL in particular who made their presence felt. The 33-year-old made one of the best defensive moves of the game in the first third and prevented a chance from Kirill Kaprizov…

… and almost went into the net in a four-on-four game at the start of the second half.

His night took a turn when he made an unnecessary double minor at the end of the middle frame that could have put Toronto in a difficult position.

Rielly had a more consistent performance with fewer ups and downs, but at the end of the evening the collective results on the ice were mediocre as they were slightly underwater across the board and were particularly poor on expected goals (35.77 percent).

D2 (McCabe–Tanev): A-

Toronto's best defensive pair did their job against Minnesota. Some of their possession numbers were mediocre, but the Wild were mostly limited to low perimeter attacks against them.

Going into the game, one of the dominant narratives was the incredible start Kaprizov was off to with 21 points in 12 games, and those two were able to keep the superstar under wraps. Neither Jake McCabe nor Chris Tanev were on the ice for more than two shots or 0.11 expected goals in the five-on-five game against the Russian, although both logged just under seven minutes in the matchup.

As always, Tanev lived up to his reputation as a warrior with four blocks. Perhaps the best example of his tendency to sacrifice his body was a piece that does not appear in the box score.

D3 (Benoît–Timmins): C-

It would be unfair to expect this third pair to consistently win their minutes, but on Sunday they lost significantly.

When Simon Benoît and Conor Timmins were on the ice in five-on-five play, Toronto had a 12-5 lead and missed some significant chances, resulting in an ugly expected goals rate (22.93 percent).

Minnesota scored its only five-on-five goal against the pair and scored 55.9 percent of its expected goals against them. On a good night for this duo, Timmins makes a few creative attacking moves and Benoit delivers a few powerful hits – but neither had any memorable positive moments in this game.

Power play: A

Facing a penalty kill unit with a 66.7 percent success rate this season seemed like a perfect opportunity for this group to get going, and that's exactly what the Maple Leafs did as Nylander scored the team's first power play goal achieved since October 21st.

Toronto introduced a new wrinkle by using an all-forward group including the Core Four and Knies. While that grouping didn't impress on the team's first power play – which led to coach Craig Berube opening the second game with a different unit – it ultimately found its way.

An “A” may be a bit generous here, but breaking out of a massive panic was an important moment for the team.

Penalty shootout: A

Minnesota entered this game with the 10th-best power play in the NHL, and Toronto allowed the Wild to take just three shots in six minutes with the man advantage.

Stolarz played a role in the success of this unit as two of those shots were extremely dangerous, but the Maple Leafs were aggressive and effective at killing.

Eliminating a double minor that spanned the second and third periods could have been a turning point if the team had produced something offensively late in the game.

Goalkeeper (Stolarz): A-

Stolarz looked sharp in his first appearance since Monday, stopping 31 of the 33 shots he faced and robbing Wild shooters a few times.

A peculiarity of this evening was that he lost his stick at least four times, but at no point did it cost him, so it is difficult to lower the grade for this reason.

It would have been too much to expect him to save his team when the Wild were two-nil in overtime.

Score

What's next?

The Maple Leafs return home to take on the Boston Bruins on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. on TSN.

(Photo of Mitch Marner and Wild Center Marco Rossi: Brace Hemmelgarn / Imagn Images)

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