The Toronto Maple Leafs record would be a lot better than it is if they’d gotten even league average goaltending up to this point.
Last night, the Toronto Maple Leafs beat their hated rivals – the Boston Bruins in overtime.
Freddie Andersen finally seemed to get the message.
Morgan Rielly had himself a game, and the Leafs won in overtime.
Toronto Maple Leafs Win
The Leafs survived a putrid second period, an absolutely embarrassing performance from the referees, a series of weird coaching decisions, and the absence of their best all-round player to beat the Bruins last night.
So far this year the Leafs have four losses – the ones against Montreal, Washington and St.Louis were all games they’d have won if they got the goaltending they’ve come to expect.
Last night was the inverse of this situation. The Toronto Maple Leafs deserved to lose, but their goalie stole them the game.
It’s the first time that’s happened this season.
Boston, on the other hand, was getting an impossible to sustain 95% save percentage heading into last night’s game.
Such is the difference that goalies make.
Even after last night’s stellar performance, the Leafs are still under 90% and the Bruins are still over 94%.
When this is the case, and you’re still comparable in the standings, you’ve got to be happy. It is a statistical impossibility that the Leafs goaltending is as bad as it’s been, or that the Bruins is as good as it’s been. This means the Leafs are in good shape.
Eventually, their goalie and their player will play good in the same game, and they’ll be next to unstoppable.
Last Night’s Game
With Tavares out, Babcock put his lineup int he proverbial blender and came up short.
He separated Matthews and Nylander, at least at first (they played about six minutes together) and while the top line of Matthews, Marner and Johnson was effective when they got on the ice against duds, Matthews played over 20 minutes of 42% hockey and didn’t look particularly great.
Other than Mitch Marner – who was fantastic – and Morgan Rielly, who had two goals, the Leafs weren’t too hot last night.
But that’s fine. Without Tavares, the Leafs have essentially an entire new lineup, with basically everyone in a new role. It’s to be expected.
The important thing is that Andersen was back in fine form and he covered for his team. (All stats naturalstattrick.com).
Once again, the Leafs were on the wrong end of a massive discrepancy in power-play opportunities, and the Andersen eneded up facing 16 more shots than Halek.
He was up to it.
One last thought: When you’ve got Jake Muzzin on your team, why would you match Cody Ceci against the NHL’s best line? Brad Marchand’s most common opponent last night was Cody Ceci, who is objectively awful defensively, for 12 minutes.
It’s clear that Cody Ceci is hardly an NHL player, let alone someone you should put out against Bergeron. The coach nearly cost the team this game, but lucky Andersen was up to the task of making him look good.