Toronto Maple Leafs: Not to Worry, It’s Just One Game
The Toronto Maple Leafs didn’t play a great game on Saturday night.
The Philadelphia Flyers handed the Toronto Maple Leafs their second consecutive loss, the first time this season back to back losses have occurred.
I was thinking of saying that the Flyers and the officials handed the Leafs the loss, but just a few bad calls here and there doesn’t really call for much trash talking of how the game was officiated.
They have a tough enough job as is without us bashing them.
Obviously, there’s one play in particular where Leo Komarov was interfered with, no call, and then the Flyers scored, so that wasn’t too pretty.
Nevertheless, the Flyers were the better string and that was enough to give them the regulation time win and also slap the Leafs in the face too, a little wake up call if you will.
Play smarter hockey, turn the puck over less – like in the LA Kings game – and the winning will follow, it always does.
Let’s break down the team statistical comparison.
Outlook
More from Editor In Leaf
- Toronto Maple Leafs: Nick Robertson Healthy and Ready
- Ryan Reaves Will Have Zero Impact on Toronto Maple Leafs
- Toronto Maple Leafs: Playing Max Domi In Top-Six a HUGE Mistake
- Top 10 Scandals in the History of the Toronto Maple Leafs
- Toronto Maple Leafs: Results from the Traverse City Prospects Tournament
If you know my writing at all, you know that I like to make a few points before getting to the chart and this article’s no exception.
Josh Leivo and Kasperi Kapanen made their 2017-18 season debuts last night, suiting up on the same line.
As a big Leivo fan, but trying not to be biased, I thought he played a terrific game, didn’t look out of sync at all, which is impressive for someone who’s coming in out of the press box.
Another note, he only skated in 18 professional games last season between the NHL and the AHL, impressive statistics for that amount of games too, look.
Leivo’s produced two goals and 11 points in 10 games played dating back to February 14, 2016, riding a three-game point streak right now as well, I love it.
As for Kapanen, I didn’t really notice him a whole lot, but then again, he had only 7:31 of ice time and didn’t giveaway or turnover the puck once, so that’s good.
| Team | SOG | TFO% | PP | PIM | HITS | BLKS | GVA |
| Flyers | 30 | 48% | 1/1 | 6 | 32 | 15 | 15 |
| Leafs | 30 | 52% | 0/3 | 2 | 29 | 8 | 20 |
There’s not much to break down here, the shots were dead even, faceoffs were still over 50%, special teams didn’t show up (Nazem Kadri’s first goal came one second after the power play ended) and the giveaways were in abundance.
Individual Statistics
Okay, I already touched on Leivo and Kapanen, so I won’t kill those topics to death in this section.
- Nazem Kadri: two goals
- Auston Matthews: one assist
- Josh Leivo: one assist
- Connor Brown: one assist
- Ron Hainsey: one assist
Another player who had a terrific night, despite the loss, was Kadri, I mean, his second goal of the night wasn’t a highlight reel goal or anything like that, but how about not giving up on the play?
Quite the effective player, eh?
The Matthews line looked sharp again (especially Matthews and Nylander – almost capitalized on a nifty play) and how about Ron Hainsey?
He’s quietly racked up seven assists through 11 games played this season, not too shabby.
Last, but not least, we look to Frederik Andersen who had a shaky night, letting in that one short side goal, which wasn’t great.
He posted a .867 Sv% and really didn’t look all too confident, definitely needs a boost, but the loss can’t be put on him 100%.
Time to shake it off and bounce back.