NHL: New York Islanders at Toronto Maple Leafs - Source: Imagn

3 least impressive players from Toronto Maple Leafs' 6-3 loss to New York Islanders feat. Joseph Woll

Modified Dec 22, 2024 06:05 GMT

While the Toronto Maple Leafs were hoping to keep their three-game winning streak alive on Saturday night against the New York Islanders, the visitors had other ideas. The Islanders doubled up the Maple Leafs by a 6-3 final score, improving their record to 13-14-7, while the Leafs fell to 21-11-2.

Maxim Tsyplakov opened the scoring for the Islanders with his seventh goal of the season just 1:47 into the game, followed by a Bo Horvat goal at 4:48.

Head coach Craig Berube was forced to use his timeout before the game was even 10 minutes old.

“Early on, they were just better than us. They were on their toes better. We weren’t very smart,” Berube said afterward. “I get that they’re rested and may play a bit quicker. But we gotta play smarter than that. We just can’t give freebies. And we gave them two freebies right away and got behind.

“We didn’t have enough guys step up tonight and do the job.”

William Nylander cut the lead in half with his 22nd goal of the season, only to have the Islanders respond with J.G. Pageau's seventh goal. Nylander managed to score again in the 2nd period, once again cutting New York's lead to a single goal. But Isaiah George and Noah Dobson increased the lead to three goals with tallies of their own.

Despite a late Bobby McMann goal to make things interesting, the Islanders sealed the win thanks to Matthew Barzal's third goal, scoring into the open net. Joseph Woll made 28 saves in a losing effort for the host Maple Leafs, while Ilya Sorokin stopped 26 shots in the win.

3 least impressive Toronto Maple Leafs players from 6-3 loss to New York Islanders

#1. Joseph Woll

While many will point to the fact that the sluggish Maple Leafs didn't lend much support to their goaltender, there were still a handful of New York's goals that Woll should have stopped.

Finishing with a .848 save percentage, Woll was outdueled by his counterpart in Sorokin, adding to the overall misery of the night for Toronto.

#2. Morgan Rielly

The veteran Leafs defenseman, whom the team relies upon for steady leadership, didn't have his best outing of the season. Finishing with a -2, Rielly also was caught out of position a handful of times during the night while also committing a turnover.

#3. Nicholas Robertson

Tied for a team-worst -3 rating against the Islanders, Robertson was largely invisible for most of the night for the host Leafs while also managing a single shot on Sorokin.