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In a season just three weeks old, the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues last week marked a low point, as the club looked confused defensively in front of Joseph Woll in his first start of the season, and unenthused against Craig Berube’s former club. The Leafs will get another shot against the Blues in St. Louis on Saturday, with Woll playing in his hometown and for their head coach, who won a Stanley Cup in 2019.

“We had 43 shots on net in that game, (but) out of those 43 shots, there wasn’t a lot of second and third opportunities.” Berube said. “Execution was off and we didn’t play a hard enough game in my opinion, and the goals that (the Blues) scored, I thought we gave them. We were a little loose on some situations.”

After a solid performance against Seattle, Woll will get a chance to re-establish himself as the primary starter over Anthony Stolarz, but the Leafs will need both goalies in the first half of November, with three sets of back-to-back games.

Berube indicated that former Blue Ryan Reaves will step back in the lineup in place of Nick Robertson. Entering the game, Toronto is third in the Atlantic Division with 13 points (6-4-1), and needs to keep pace with the Cup champion Florida Panthers, who after sweeping the double-header Global Series in Finland lead the division and are six points ahead of Toronto.

Prior to leaving for Missouri, newly acquired defenseman Matt Benning joined the Leafs for practice. The 30-year-old blueliner was part of the deal that sent Timothy Liljegren to San Jose, but with the club’s roster crunch, his stay with the NHL squad could be short-lived. There have been rumors of Benning being flipped to another club for a draft choice or possibly being placed on waivers to be sent to the AHL.

If waived and cleared, the Leafs would free up nearly all of Benning’s $1.25 million salary from their cap.


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