Toronto Maple Leafs: How’d Leivo and Kapanen Play?

The Toronto Maple Leafs lost to the Flyers last night 4-2.

The Toronto Maple Leafs played well, and they still lost.  These games happen. Not that Andersen was awful,  but he was outplayed by Brian Elliot and that was the difference.

Each team had 30 shots, but the Leafs had three power-plays to the Flyer’s one and they could not capitalize.  The Flyers did score on their one shot, however.

The Leafs controlled almost 54% of the play, and they had six more scoring chances on the night, but Elliot shut the door.  I probably sound like a broken record at this point, but the Leafs goaltending will eventually get better and then they’ll win these games.

You simply can’t win a lot of games when you need to score four or five goals to do so.  The Play of Andersen has been sub-par, but as I pointed out in this article, as an NHL goalie it is 100% assured that his save percentage on low-danger shots will eventually normalize, and when that happens the Leafs will have a much better chance of winning more games.

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As it stands, they won seven out of eleven, and outplayed the other team in more games than that.  Of course we notice that Tampa and Ottawa are starting to pull away, but do not fret my friends, even the best team of all-time couldn’t maintain the pace they’re setting, and neither of them are that.

The Toronto Maple Leafs on the other hand, deserve a better record and everything that rises must converge.

Leivo / Kapanen

The most interesting part of last night’s game was the insertion of Kasperi Kapanen and Josh Leivo into the lineup after sitting out all year (in Leivo’s case) or being in the AHL (as Kapanen was).

I’ll let my man Steve Burtch tell you about Leivo:

Of course Babock will almost certainly take him out of the lineup for Matt Martin.  What a joke that is.  The idea that a tough guy needs to “protect the kids” is about as necessary today as preparing for Y2K but you’re just never going to convince some people who are almost religiously fanatical about the role of an enforcer.   Statistical analysis be damned!

Anyways, Leivo was fantastic and if anyone has ever deserved to play a prominent role on an NHL team, it’s this guy. If there was any justice in the world, he wouldn’t sit another game all year.

Next: Andersen Not Playing as Badly as You Think

As for Kapanen, old Babs didn’t play him too much. Kapanen played only 7:30 in ice time, and did not receive any special teams ice time. Even though he started three of his four faceoffs in the defensive end, while he was on the ice the Leafs managed to get four scoring chances in seven minutes and Kap finished with a respectable 53% Corsi.

The Leafs desperately need to find room for Leivo and Kapanen to play more prominent roles.