Schenn, Simmonds Help Flyers Rout Maple Leafs
TORONTO (AP) — Brayden Schenn and Wayne Simmonds each scored twice and the Philadelphia Flyers beat Toronto 7-1 on Thursday night, handing the Maple Leafs their 11th straight home loss.
The disgruntled Toronto fans chanted "Let's Go Blue Jays!" on a couple of occasions, a clear sign most have already turned their attention to baseball season.
Matt Read, Eric Wellwood and Jakub Voracek also scored for Philadelphia, Danny Briere had four assists, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 16 saves. Mikhail Grabovski scored for Toronto.
Injuries have played a role in Toronto's struggles and popped up again when starting goalie Jonas Gustavsson took a shot off his left knee in warmups and had to be helped to the dressing room.
That left Jussi Rynnas to make his first NHL start against the NHL's third-highest scoring team. An emergency AHL callup because of James Reimer's upper-body injury, Rynnas stopped 23 shots but didn't have much of a chance with a dispirited team playing in front of him.
Two of Toronto's four remaining games will be played at home — Saturday against Buffalo and next Thursday against Tampa — where the Leafs haven't won since Feb. 6. The 11-game home losing run is four games longer than the previous mark for futility, set in 1984 when the franchise still called Maple Leaf Gardens home.
Schenn scored twice in the opening 12 minutes — the first came with brother Luke, a Toronto defenseman, on the ice — before Grabovski got Toronto on the board with a beautiful breakaway goal.
Simmonds extended the Flyers' lead to 3-1 at 3:55 of the second period and Read added to it with a short-handed marker at 12:03. The "Let's Go Blue Jays!" chants started before the period was out and resumed in the third just as Wellwood made it 5-1 at 5:49.
Notes: Toronto fell to 4-8-2 since Randy Carlyle replaced Ron Wilson as coach March 2 ... The Leafs have more wins on the road (17) than at home (16) ... Read leads all NHL rookies with 23 goals ... Three of Brayden Schenn's 11 goals on the season have come against the Leafs.
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