"The Toronto Maple Leafs will return home from their three-game road trip to Philadelphia, Minnesota and Detroit with no points after their 3-1 loss to the Red Wings. Not only did they lose all three games of the trip, but they were outscored 9-3 and are now 3-4-0 during the month of December.
The recent offensive struggles have been a hot topic of late, but the Maple Leafs got on the board less than two minutes into the game with some help from the blue line while the fourth line was on the ice. Dominic Moore won an offensive zone face over to Matt Martin, who got it back to the point where Andreas Borgman blasted a one-timer through traffic and past Jimmy Howard.
The Leafs played a decent first period, but it was erased by a rather miserable second period. Not only where they outshot 12-5, but they also gave up goals to a pair of defensemen who had yet to find the back of the net entering the night.
Danny DeKeyser tied the game at the 5:22 mark by racing in to get a loose puck in the left circle and then beating Curtis McElhinney with a top-shelf shot over his shoulder for his first goal of the year.
Exactly six minutes later, Trevor Daley became the third defenseman of the night to score and gave the Wings a 2-1 with a shorthanded goal. Daley intercepted the puck deep in his own zone, skated the length of the ice and then beat McElhinney to the short side with a wrist shot from the bottom of the left circle.
Daley's goal was the sixth shorthanded goal the Maple Leafs have allowed this season, tying them with the Florida Panthers and San Jose Sharks for the most allowed this season.
Midway through the third period, Connor Brown created a shorthanded chance for Moore, but he could not get the puck past Howard and moments later the Red Wings extended their lead to 3-1. Tomas Tatar got to the front of the net and got his stick on the ice to redirect a Henrik Zetterberg slap-pass into the Leafs net.
The Maple Leafs will get three days off before hosting the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night. Lord knows they can use them! "
