Leafs’ post-Olympic push off to rough start

One moment you’re in Sochi and the next you find yourself standing in the lobby of the Long Island Marriott. Talk about a mind-altering transition.

So you couldn’t fault Phil Kessel and James van Riemsdyk if they had to rub their eyes a little after the 48 ugly seconds that got the Toronto Maple Leafs post-Olympic experience off to a rough start on Thursday. That was all the time it took for Michael Grabner to score not just one short-handed goal, but two, while setting the tone for a night of sloppy play at Nassau Coliseum.

“That’s a weird sort of thing,” van Riemsdyk said after a 5-4 overtime win by the New York Islanders.

“Gifts,” added Randy Carlyle. “Total gifts.”

There was the expectation of a little rust from both sides after almost three weeks between games, but this won’t be the kind of performance the Leafs coach will simply brush off. Now moving into the final quarter of the regular season, he needs to find a way to get this team to show a little more defensive commitment and that won’t be easy.

In some ways, he might actually have been a bit fortunate to see them blow a pair of leads in the final nine minutes of regulation before Lubomir Visnovsky ended in overtime after another defensive breakdown. Otherwise Toronto would have pulled this one out of the hat.

And as much as Carlyle would have taken the extra point in the standings, that outcome would have undermined the message he’s been trying to get through to the non-Olympians on his roster over the last seven practice days. Their skill might take them far, sure, but it won’t take them anywhere near their ultimate goal if it isn’t backed up by effort.

There was no question which team possessed the most skill in this particular matchup. The Islanders were missing their top two centres, John Tavares and Frans Nielsen, and will be in the conversation for a lottery pick in the upcoming draft. Toronto rightfully fancies itself as a playoff team and actually controls its own destiny with 21 regular-season games remaining and a modest gap on its pursuers.

Yet you wouldn’t have had much sense of that difference by simply watching this one unfold.

The game played out fairly evenly over the first two periods – in spite of Grabner’s double dip while short-handed – and the Leafs managed to pull ahead midway through the third with quick goals by defencemen Paul Ranger and Dion Phaneuf. It was a relative unknown by the name of Anders Lee, a recent Isles callup playing his third NHL game, who scored twice to force overtime.

What Carlyle saw from the visitor’s bench was a New York team showing more determination than his group. He was especially dismayed by the fact that the Leafs couldn’t lock things down after seemingly having the game in hand. Twice.

“They had a different attitude – they tried to grind it with us,” said Carlyle. “We didn’t play to anywhere near the compete grind game that we’re capable of. We tried to outskill a hockey club tonight.”

It obviously didn’t work.

And while there was a tiny whiff of controversy on Lee’s second goal, with Jonathan Bernier feeling that the referees were slow to blow their whistles prior to the puck crossing the goal-line, that notion rang a little hollow when all was said and done here.

This was far from a disaster on any scale but it sure reminded of how easily things can get away if Toronto isn’t completely engaged. Kessel and van Riemsdyk weren’t exactly eased back into the 11-forward lineup a few days after returning from the Olympics, but both made an impression on the scoresheet while seeing more than 23 minutes of ice team apiece.

That is usually a recipe for success for this group.

However, Bernier wasn’t as sharp as he would like to be and the special teams battle fell in New York’s favour. It wasn’t just that the Leafs were 0-for-5 on the power play – an area that they usually count as a strength – those goals by Grabner stung.

The first came when Jake Gardiner turned the puck over to Casey Cizikas and the second happened when Bernier had some miscommunication with Morgan Rielly and sent the puck off the unsuspecting defenceman’s skate and onto Grabner’s stick. Even though it was still early, overcoming those type of mistakes is much easier said than done.

“That was a tough game for us,” said Kessel. “I don’t think we played very well.”

And so the Leafs moved on to the next stop on the road – Montreal and the Bell Centre for what should be a spirited Saturday night affair. The team built itself a cushion with an 11-2-1 run prior to the Olympic break and will have a little time to get back on steady footing.

But no one has any reason to feel too comfortable just yet.

“We know that we left a point here,” said Phaneuf.