Monday night’s game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Minnesota Wild was a tale of one team getting baited and the other team doing the baiting. Credit to Jody Shelley on the Monday Night Amazon Prime broadcast for coining that specific term and using it throughout the majority of the night, because there was truly no better way to describe it.

The Wild, backed by a strong performance in net from Filip Gustavsson, sheer dominance from the electrifying pair of Quinn Hughes and Brock Faber, and a coming-out party for veterans Vladimir Tarasenko and Marcus Foligno, walked all over the Leafs en route to a 6-3 win. All night, they sustained puck pressure and baited the Leafs into making poor decisions in pursuit, often leading to open ice or ill-timed penalties.

It was particularly a rough night for Joseph Woll, who allowed five goals on 24 shots and didn’t start the third period, and Brandon Carlo, who was caught in no-man’s land several times and could have had a bigger dash next to his name if not for the goal post. Simon Benoit struggled as well, taking a penalty early in the game that led to Minnesota’s first goal and muffed a clear that gave the Wild one final back-breaker before the second period ended. Matthew Knies was ironically one of their best players despite dealing with a nagging injury and waiting until the last possible moment before the game to confirm that he would be in the lineup.

The Leafs did their best to make things interesting in the third period, with Nick Robertson and Auston Matthews finding the back of the net to cut the deficit to two, but they pulled the goalie extremely early and never sustained possession, allowing Foligno to score the hat trick goal on the empty net.

If you asked me about the storyline of the game heading into the second period, I would have placed most of the blame on Woll, who allowed two goals on his first four shots against to start the game and had four past him on 16 shots. But, by the end of the game, it was hard to blame just one person. The Leafs are prone to a stinker in their first home game back following a long road trip, for reasons unknown, but that’s the way it’s been for a while.

It’s extra unfortunate that it comes on a night where both the Buffalo Sabres and Florida Panthers lost in regulation, but they know better than anybody that they can’t rely on their opponents’ failures to get them to the playoffs, and they’ll have a chance to make up some ground against the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday.

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