ST. LOUIS — In this season of firsts for the Toronto Maple Leafs, it’s remarkable that it took 49 games before they lost a third consecutive game in regulation.
That’s the uncharted territory the Leafs find themselves in after losing 5-1 on Thursday night at the Scottrade Center against a St. Louis Blues team that played desperate hockey in Mike Yeo’s first game as head coach.
Defenceman Morgan Rielly returned after missing six games with a right leg injury and Toronto coach Mike Babcock did what he could to pull the strings with some changes — at least initially — but the Leafs were mediocre again after getting crunched in Dallas on Tuesday. As well, goalie Frederik Andersen wasn’t good after he was pulled against the Stars.
So much for a bounce-back effort by the Leafs.
Toronto, which continues its trip in Boston on Saturday, fell further away from a playoff spot. The Leafs, with 55 points, already were three points behind the third-place Bruins in the Atlantic Division; when the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday, they moved three up on the Leafs for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
The Leafs lost four in a row in October, but one was in overtime and another came in a shootout.
Babcock tried Nazem Kadri between James van Riemsdyk and Mitch Marner; had William Nylander back on a line with Auston Matthews and Zach Hyman after the trio was together earlier in the season; and put Tyler Bozak between Leo Komarov and Connor Brown.
Ben Smith was back after a hand injury forced him to watch for 18 games, and took the spot of Frederik Gauthier, who was sent to the Toronto Marlies, on the fourth line between Matt Martin and Nikita Soshnikov.
Before the first period was over, Babcock had Marner back with Bozak and van Riemsdyk, Brown with Matthews and Hyman, and Nylander with Komarov and Kadri.
Marner opened the scoring at 14:22 of the first period after he was reunited with his two veteran pals, but that was it for Toronto.
The Leafs were stifled by their own disorganized hockey and didn’t want the puck as badly as the Blues, who had won one of their final six home games under Ken Hitchcock.
The Leafs appeared to be somewhat interested until the Blues pulled away with three goals in less than five minutes, starting at 6:27 of the second period.
Paul Stastny, checked by no one, beat Andersen easily; at 7:02, Vladimir Tarasenko stepped around Rielly and ripped a shot past Andersen’s glove.
A power-play goal by Colton Parayko at 11:02 gave the Blues a three-goal lead, and only by luck were the Leafs not down 5-1 a few minutes later.
Marner took an uncharacteristically dumb interference penalty at 11:56, and as he sat in the box, Tarasenko hit the post on Andersen’s right.
Stastny made it 5-1 in the third.
The game, delayed by a pre-game ceremony honouring the retirement of Bob Plager’s No. 5, was tied 1-1 after the first period and though the Leafs were OK out of the gate, but just OK. Lapses remained.
Parayko isn’t the second coming of Bobby Orr but the Leafs watched as he danced through the neutral zone and went in alone for a chance, only to be stopped by Andersen.
Later, Andersen stopped David Perron, who had a clear breakaway. And we have no idea what was going through Martin Marincin’s mind when Marner passed the puck to him, only to see Marincin miss it completely and turn to chase it down in the defensive zone. The Leafs were lucky the mental lapse didn’t cost them.
Marner’s goal on Jake Allen marked the fourth time the rookie has scored in back-to-back games this season.
The Toronto lead was shortlived as ex-Leaf Alex Steen scored three minutes later.
Smith was glad to be back after missing 18 games. He had not played since Dec. 17.
“It’s a frustrating injury,” Smith said after the morning skate. “It has been a long time. I’ve been fortunate I can keep my conditioning (where it should be).”
Rielly’s return meant Matt Hunwick was a healthy scratch.
tkoshan@postmedia.com
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