Toronto Maple Leafs (And William Nylander) Deserved to Win Game Four

The Toronto Maple Leafs lost 6-4 (5-4 with an empty netter) to the Bruins last  night in game four of their first round playoff series.

The Toronto Maple Leafs played well and deserved the victory.

Unfortunately, hockey games are not always won by the better team, and the Leafs couldn’t get it done.

The series is now tied at 2, with game five to go tomorrow night in Boston.

Leafs vs Bs

The Bruins were 2-2 on the power-play, and not being able to get at least one kill did the Leafs in last night.  However, keep in mind that if you win the game 5v5, you usually win the game.  The Leafs controlled 62% of the play last night, and were by far the better team.

That’s just how she goes sometimes.

After a game, something I’ve noticed the past few years, now that everything is online and people can share their opinions instantaneously, is that someone always has to be blamed for everything.

So, you could blame Andersen , but you’d have to also admit that if not for several saves (and one crazy one comes to mind) in the first when Boston was winning 2-0, the game would have been over after five minutes.

You could blame Babcock, because why in the hell was Patrick Marleau on the ice while the Leafs two best players in the game – William Nylander and  Auston Matthews  – were on the bench with the empty net?

But you can’t really blame Babcock because the team he coached last night played an awesome game.

You could blame Tavares for not scoring more, but the fact is it’s hard to go head to head against the Bruins top line,  and despite the plus/minus, he played them to a draw. (Can’t get mad about the goals they scored, Andersen had a .750% with JT on the ice last night).

The tenancy to blame someone for everything is immature and stupid. It’s the worst part about being a hockey fan. (Other than the harassment you get from total strangers because they don’t share your opinion).

Last night’s game doesn’t need a scapegoat.  The Toronto Maple Leafs played in a way in which they’ll win nine games out of ten.  Sometimes, you hit a post that would tie the game.

Best Player on the Ice

The thing about last night’s game is that Auston Matthews and William Nylander were incredible.  Kadri was not missed at all because Nylander filled in and played arguably better than Kadri ever has.  (All stats naturalstattrick.com).

72% Puck Possession for Nylander, which is an outstanding total for a single game.  When Nylander was on the ice, the Leafs out-shot Boston 14-3 and outchanced them 14-6.

Nylander was an absolute beast as the team’s third line centre.  Of course, in what seemed unprofessional and uninformed, he was attacked by the broadcasts panel, yet again.

I don’t really get it, it’s just like Jake Gardiner, Brian McCabe or Larry Murphy.  Leafs fans and media have chosen a whipping boy and reality has no part of the conversation.

Last night, in perhaps his best ever game in the NHL, Nylander was a man on a mission. He carried pucks over the line, he found passing lanes, got off a few shots and made it so that the Leafs biggest strength – their 1-2-3 punch down the middle – was not altered at all by the loss of Nazem Kadri.

To perform this way after the flack he gets, which any half-way competent statistical analysis can prove is not just undeserved, but comically misapplied, is a testament to Nylander’s character.  It would be one thing to pick on him if he was playing bad, but he’s really just putting up great numbers and being betrayed by low personal and on-ice shooting percentage – things he has no control over.

Athletes make a lot of money and you can criticize their performance, but if that performance is good and you never stop complaining anyways, that is not OK. It’s sad and it’s embarrassing.  I can’t blame the fans because the majority of them are lead by what they see on the TV broadcast, and these guys just won’t stop kicking a dead horse.

And the fact that they don’t stop, even when Nylander is by far the best player on the ice, is just embarrassing.

Last night the Leafs lost, but they played great.

There’s no shame in that.