Toronto Maple Leafs: Chip and Chase, Stop and Go

The Toronto Maple Leafs handed the LA Kings their first regulation loss of the season on Monday night.

What a solid two way game for the Toronto Maple Leafs to bounce back from their 3-6 loss to the Ottawa Senators.

It wasn’t the prettiest of wins, but it’s a win nonetheless and I think it’s safe to say that the Leafs are the big dogs.

Okay, that might be a little premature, but it’s still nice saying that they own a 7-2-0 record, the second best in the NHL, only trailing behind the Tampa Bay Lightning.

I’d like to call it a chip and chase, stop and go game because there wasn’t much flow to it, just a lot of whistles and confusion.

I’m mainly talking about the Jonathan Quick concussion issue and the two reviewed Leafs goals.

Anyways, let’s get to the team statistical comparison.

Outlook

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When the Kings come to town, you know it’s going to be a tough game for two reasons, one, they’re a powerhouse team and two, they’re massive.

Hence, Roman Polak was signed prior to the game and helped with the pushing around.

Now, Matt Martin (an Andrew favorite) played a fantastic game, one assist away from his first career Gordie Howe hat trick, but I wasn’t a fan of either of his two fights.

The first one was in response to a hit on Dominic Moore (a clean hit from a suicide pass), where he didn’t even drop the gloves with the guy that hit Moore.

The second was because Mitchell Marner was hit when he was skating up the side wall, kicking the puck with his feet because his stick was broken, yet another clean hit.

If you play and have possession of the puck, you just signed your waiver for getting hit, that’s part of hockey.

Neither fights were warranted and that’s all I’ll say on that subject.

The last note I’ll bring up before the chart is that when James van Riemsdyk went down, it looked awful and part of me is still waiting to hear some report that he is in fact injured.

I really hope not.

Team	SOG	TFO%	PP	PIM	HITS	BLKS	GVA
Kings	38	46%	0/2	21	28	13	10
Leafs	34	54%	1/6	13	29	12	5

Shots were pretty even, as were blocked shots and once again, the Leafs dominated the faceoff dot.

Let’s turn the tide and talk about special teams.

The penalty kill was on point against a slightly above average power play team (minus that shorthanded goal against), but the Leafs power play, on the other hand, was just awful.

Granted, they were playing against the best penalty kill team in the league, but still, 1/6 isn’t great.

On a positive note, the Leafs gave away far fewer pucks and I commend Mike Babcock and Co. for fixing this issue, especially against the Kings who force a lot of turnovers.

Well done.

Individual Statistics

A team game, a defensively sound game, but goals were still scored and points were added, so let’s look at the scoresheet.

Mitchell Marner: two assists
Matt Martin: one goal
Patrick Marleau: one goal
Tyler Bozak: one goal
James van Riemsdyk: one assist
Nazem Kadri: one assist
Morgan Rielly: one assist
Roman Polak: one assist

Marner had that bounce back game that he needed and Marleau continues to score clutch goals gathering his 99th career game-winner, passing Bobby Hull and Guy Lafleur for eigth overall in NHL history.

Bozak, van Riemsdyk, Kadri, and Rielly all looked sharp and continue to roll in the points and what about Polak?

First game back and he gets on the board, nice.

Last, but not least, we look to Frederik Andersen who played a great game and posted a Sv% of .947.

Sure, he should’ve stopped that one weak goal, but I’ll take what I can get.

Next: The Key

Next up, the Carolina Hurricanes.

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