Toronto Maple Leafs Get Unlucky, Lose to Senators

The Toronto Maple Leafs played  a solid game but ultimately lost to the Senators on Saturday night.

With the nation watching on ‘Hockey Night in Canada’, the Toronto Maple Leafs couldn’t beat a Sens squad that, on paper, is inferior in almost every category. Now they have to hit the road immediately and head to Chicago tonight to start a four game road trip.

After a fun, but sloppy, overtime win against the Montréal Canadians the Leafs played a much improved game but just got unlucky.

It’s hard to be mad about this one, even against a weak team, since teams that control 65% of the play and out-chance their opponent by 15 scoring chances usually win.

What Can You Do? 

It’s funny because the Leafs actually looked better in this game than they did on Wednesday. They out shot the Sens 12 to 6 in the first and 37 to 24 for the whole game and even showed a physical bite with 30 hits compared to the Sens’ 26. They even had a strong three goal second period where they tied the game at three with a gorgeous individual effort by Mitch Marner.

Besides Marner, who was excellent, Morgan Rielly stood out in this one, having a great offensive game. He scored once at 5v5 and added a PP assist, to go along with a +13 shot-attempt differential.  (65% CF).

Frederik Andersen looked mortal in several parts of the game, particularly in the second period. He allowed two goals, one a rebound blasted by him as he dives to make a save, the other saw the puck squeeze through his five hole as he was in an awkward position after a turnover at the opposite blue line. One bad game isn’t going to derail his season, and putting this game behind him would be the best course of action.

The defense continues to struggle, particularly Ron Hainsey and Igor Ozhiganov. Hainsey looked better last night but he lost races to pucks, was outmatched along the boards and still doesn’t look totally comfortable with the puck in his own end. Ozhiganov had similar problems, including getting absolutely schooled by Thomas Chabot on what would turn out to be the game winning goal.

Ozhiganov was on the ice for two Sens goals and it looked like he’s still trying to find his footing as an NHL defenseman. We can chalk it up to nerves for now, but eventually he’s going to have to move past that and step up and keep his spot on the roster.

Besides the star forwards (Matthews, Kadri, Tavares and Marner) the depth forwards on the team have done next to nothing through the first two games.  Matthews had a great game but got little support from either Marleau or Ennis.  Kasperi Kapanen, at least, had a good game and could be looking at being moved off the fourth line sooner than later.

Babcock was also encouraging tonight as he pulled the goalie with three minutes left, and showed a willingness to drop Hainsey down the lineup in favor of Travis Dermott who played almost 20 minutes and finished with more ice-time than Hainsey.  There were also shifts were Gardiner and Rielly were paired, and where Kadri skated with Matthews.

You could, however, question Babcock about his decision to call a time-out after Ottawa had two straight icings, couldn’t change their lines and had a winded team out there, He did this to keep his top players out, which ended up costing him as the team had finish the last minute-plus of the game with secondary players on the ice.  I think it would have been smarter to put the second unit out against the tired Senators and wait to call a time-out in order to get the Matthews/Tavares unit out for the final minute.

The Leafs lost, but they played a significantly better game than they did in the opener, and sometimes hockey is just like that.  You win some you didn’t deserve to, and you lose some you should have had.

The Toronto Maple Leafs play the Blackhawks tonight and if they play like they did last night, they’ll have a great chance to win.

Garret Sparks will possibly be in net for the first time this season and the team is going to be facing a Hawks squad that has won both of their games so far, but who give the Leafs their third straight sub-par opponent.

Stats from Naturalstattrick.com