The Hype Machine was in full effect as the Toronto Maple Leafs hosted the Tampa Bay Lightning Monday night.
For the Toronto Maple Leafs, the gist of the pre-game chatter was that this was a ‘measuring stick’ game.
Except that it wasn’t.
When you’ve played the last quarter season at a pace that would make you one of the best teams of all time, you don’t have anything to prove or to measure.
The Toronto Maple Leafs faced Tampa twice already this year, and in both those games, they completely dominated.
So instead of overreacting to a crappy game, we should remember that when the Leafs actually iced a full lineup, they dusted the best team in the NHL.
Twice.
Last Night Sucked!
The Leafs played terrible last night. They lost, and they deserved to lose. Although, let’s not make judgements about how this team will fare in the playoffs based on one game.
Maybe base your view of the team on the fact that over the last 20 games they played to a 119 point pace.
Last night’s game saw the Leafs go up against the best the NHL has to offer without two of their top four defenseman, and without Kasperi Kapanen. Nazem Kadri is coming of a concussion and isn’t himself, and the team was ravaged by a flu bug, apparently.
Oh, and it was their first game at home after they just game off a Western road trip, a situation where teams almost always perform badly.
So the best thing to do about that game is forget it ever happened. There is nothing to be learned from it. The Leafs were at a serious disadvantage going in, and they also allowed five goals that deflected off things, making the score look so much worse than it was.
Overall, the Leafs were terrible, but the way in which people react to a single game is just too much. It’s one game, the Leafs were starting from a huge disadvantage and they predictably lost.
They shouldn’t have won, and they didn’t. (Stats from naturalstattrick.com).
The Toronto Maple Leafs have shown that they can not only beat Tampa, but that they can dominate them. Those other two games were far more indicative of the team the Leafs have than last night was.
With Dermott and Gardiner out of the lineup, the Leafs get a full pass from me. Here is a rule about the NHL: defenseman are so valuable that if you lose two of your best, you’re pretty much screwed.
The Leafs miss Jake Gardiner like crazy, and to a lesser extent, Dermott, so if you want to be pessimistic about things, be pessimistic about that because the overall game of a healthy Leafs lineup can beat anyone.
Gardiner is arguably the Leafs overall most valuable defensemen, because he provides both offensive and defense, not to mention leadership. He’s the one player fans probably don’t care if he’s out, but the team does. And in reality, the Leafs have very little chance of advancing without him.
Just like last week’s loss to the Islanders, people are making grand assumptions about a team missing half it’s good defensemen. They shouldn’t. It’s meaningless.
Finally, I guess I can’t write about last night’s game without addressing the Morgan Rielly (apparent) homophobic slur. (Editors Note: The NHL concluded that nothing happened and Morgan Rielly did not say anything wrong.)
Hockey is for everyone, and it’s important that when things like this happen, that we discuss them in a way in which makes it clear this language and culture is unacceptable. If hockey really is for everyone, and not just a meaningless catch phrase, then we need to make it clear that there are no excuses for this.
The player should be held accountable, and everyone should learn from this and continue to evolve. Remember that if you don’t think it’s a big deal, the people who are affected by this do, and it’s their voice we need to listen to.