Toronto Maple Leafs: Getting Beat in Your Own Barn, 101

The Toronto Maple Leafs brought the offense to the old offensive powerhouse team in the NHL.

Yes, the Toronto Maple Leafs are the NHL’s newest offensive juggernaut, dethroning the Washington Capitals with a 2-0 win on Tuesday night in the oppositions own barn.

It was a good game, especially if your name is Frederik Andersen who really needed a strong showing and that’s exactly what he delivered.

October’s not a friendly month for him, but there are still five games left to turn that around, six if he was starting tonight, but it’s time for the backup.

Curtis McElhinney will make his much anticipated 2017-18 season debut against the Detroit Red Wings and he really needs to impress.

I like McElhinney, but with the Leafs trading for Calvin Pickard, internal competition is going to really heat up.

Alright, we’re going to look at the team statistical comparison and then break down the individual sats.

Let’s get to it.

Outlook

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It was a fast-paced game from start to finish and I enjoyed every minute of it, especially since it’s a growing rivalry.

My main concern was Alex Ovechkin, Niklas Backstrom, Evgeny Kuznetsov, T.J. Oshie and Braden Holtby, all for good reasons.

The four skaters above have produced a combined 17 goals and 40 points in only seven games played this season, a scary statistic.

Then you have to worry about one of the best goalies in the league.

However, the Leafs tamed them all by completely shutting down the opposition and scoring two late-game goals.

Team	SOG	TFO%	PP	PIM	HITS	BLKS	GVA
Leafs	30	45%	0/2	6	24	17	10
Capitals	30	55%	0/3	4	24	9	22

This was the first game of the season that the Leafs didn’t own the faceoff dot, which is okay, it just serves as another learning curve.

The shots were dead even, but just look at how many more pucks were blocked by the Leafs.

Other than that, the statistics were pretty balanced, well, not the scoresheet and I know, that was a cheap shot.

Individual Stats

Not many appearances on the box score, but it’s always nice to have them all in one place.

Morgan Rielly: two assists
Connor Brown: one goal
Nazem Kadri: one goal
Zach Hyman: one assist

How about that career year point wise coming up for Rielly, any doubters?

It’s nice to see him gather a couple assists in one night, just goes to show how Mike Babcock’s new approach to his three main defensemen is working out.

What a great garbage goal, but a goal nonetheless, by Brown to break the deadlock and put the Leafs ahead, shifting momentum in a big way.

It’s not the prettiest way to score, but it’s effective.

Good for him after he was recently acknowledged for his good play by Babcock to get on the scoresheet and a nod to Mitchell Marner who did have a pretty solid game on the fourth line.

How about that empty netter by Kadri?

Not too often do we commend an empty-netter, but that was a slick move to get the goal.

Last, but not least, we have Andersen’s first shutout of the year, giving him a Sv% of .899 through six games played, winning five of them.

His GAA will continue to drop, things are looking good for the Danish netminder.

Notes

To top off the article, I have some general notes moving forward, the first of which is positive because tonight’s game will be Patrick Marleau’s 1,500th in the NHL.

I’d expect the Leafs to honor him in some fashion and recognize this amazing milestone in his career, but they won’t overdue by any means.

The second note is that Babs is doing some tremendous work in regards to mental health and I just wanted to include that as it’s close to my heart.

Luke Fox of Sportsnet wrote a great article on Babcock’s contribution to the effort and I implore you all to read it.

Also, Eric Fehr (only Leaf without a point this season) will slide in for Dominic Moore and Andreas Borgman for Calle Rosen, the shuffle continues.

And lastly, some sad news today as we lost Gord Downie, a Canadian icon.

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Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.

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