The Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly solidified his Norris Trophy candidacy with another stellar performance against the New Jersey Devils.
Get out your ballads folks, it’s time to add a name almost no one thought of at the beginning of the season: the Toronto Maple Leafs own Morgan Rielly. Playing another strong game against the New Jersey Devils, whilst picking up another two points (yes the second one was an early Christmas present from Keith Kinkaid).
Don’t get misled by this positive takeaway and the score-sheet, aside from Rielly’s two-point night and Frederik Andersen performance, the Toronto Maple Leafs played an unworthy game that only masques the absence of much needed Auston Matthews.
Be the boss in you’re own home
The Toronto Maple Leafs started the game as they should do every home game, be the boss in you’re own home. The first Devils shoot was only after 7 minutes and 26 seconds, while the Toronto Maple Leafs were absolutely firing on all cylinders towards Kinkaid.
After the first 10 minutes, the Toronto Maple Leafs became arrogant and lost control of the game. Turning the puck over 21 times after the first 10 minutes and allowing 16 shots in both the second and third period.
Perhaps best displayed visually in the possession numbers throughout the game; 58,06% CF in the first period, 45,65% CF in the second period and a disgraceful 36% in the third period. The Toronto Maple Leafs have been dominated most of the game by a team that has been struggling of late.
The score-sheet of this game has been an entire fabricated product of the goaltenders, luckily for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Frederik Andersen did it for the better for them.
Frederik Andersen
It’s in no way news-worthy anymore that Frederik Andersen played a big role in the Toronto Maple Leafs victory. Making 38 saves after, of which 31 came in the second and third period.
Yesterday fellow writer Josh Tessler and I talked about the decisions Mike Babcock makes about the starting goalies, discussing that Babcock always plays Andersen in the first half. We were not exactly thrilled about that this time, however, seeing the Leafs play the way they did yesterday, Babcock made the right decision starting Andersen.
If not for the absolute abysmal turn-over in front of the net by Nazem Kadri, Frederik Andersen would most likely have had another shut-out added to his resumé.
Up Next
The Toronto Maple Leafs will travel to Boston for their second half of a back to back series. While flawless on the road thus far (7-0-0), it’s obvious there is a lot of work to be done if they want to stay ahead of their division rivals.
Thanks for reading!
All stats from naturalstattrick.