The Toronto Maple Leafs seem to be operating on a pattern of one step forward, several steps back. After snapping a five-game winless streak with a 3-2 overtime win against the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday night, the Leafs dropped their next game on Thursday night against the Columbus Blue Jackets and followed it up with a worse effort against their rival Montreal Canadiens.

While the Blue Jackets loss was painful, the Leafs dominated possession for a good chunk of that game and it was the first game in a while where you could make the argument that they didn’t deserve to lose. Against Montreal, however, it was a different story. The moment the Leafs allowed a goal against, they seemingly folded and let the Canadiens take full control of the game.

John Tavares was asked following the game how much of an impact the team’s injuries has had on the team and said that it doesn’t excuse the way the team has been playing.

“There’s no excuses,” Tavares said. “I think we believe we have a very deep team, obviously missing some really good key players, but I think that’s when you want to rely on your game and the identity you build, and we’re still having that come together consistently. So, we gotta continue to stay with it and work through it.”

The Leafs are currently down Auston Matthews, Chris Tanev, Matthew Knies, Anthony Stolarz, Brandon Carlo, and Nicolas Roy. It’s no secret that if you take away two, arguably three of the team’s best players, two solid complementary players and their starting goalie, the results will be ugly now and then, which Tavares acknowledged but said that the rest of the team needs to do a better job of keeping things moving until they reach full health.

“As we get guys back, obviously it will be good for our group, but whatever the case is, we have the capability of being more consistent and doing what we need to do to earn results.”

The Leafs pulled goaltender Joseph Woll after he allowed four goals on 25 shots, but everybody agreed following the game that it was more of a message to the team rather than an indictment of Woll’s play.

“As a group, that’s the ultimate one on us when you leave your goalie out to dry,” Tavares said of Woll. “He’s giving you everything he’s got, keeping you in the game, and you’re not executing well enough to turn the game around and get us back in it to give him a break and provide some run support.”

The Maple Leafs will have a much-needed three-day break from games before they return to action on Wednesday against the Columbus Blue Jackets, where they’ll look to avoid a season sweep at their hands.

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