Toronto Maple Leafs Hang on For Win vs Avalanche

It’s Saturday night and the Toronto Maple Leafs are in Denver to faceoff against Nazem Kadri and the Colorado Avalanche.

There is plenty to be excited about with Kadri playing his first game against his former team after being in the Toronto Maple Leafs organization for ten years.

Tyson Barrie also playing his first game against his former team of 10 years. All of this after an exciting first game with Sheldon Keefe behind the bench.

In the first period Nathan MacKinnon strikes less than a minute in, and the Leafs looked like they were on their heels.

Toronto Maple Leafs vs Avalanche

The fourth line came out scored and the Leafs never looked back in that period. Matthews scored, followed by Tyson Barrie and Kasperi Kapanen. What a fun period that was to watch. The Leafs absolutely dominated the play and looked like they remembered they are able to score goals.

After one period, the Leafs controlled 60% of the shot attempts and 66!!!! percent of the high danger shots, that is a good period of hockey.

In the 2nd they were caught on their heels but were able to hold on.

They didn’t look very good on the penalty kill but they still looked better than they have most of the season.

The Avalanche definitely dictated the majority of the play in this period, part of that is due to the power play and teams behind tend to get more chances than the team in the lead.

I thought that the Leafs really could have controlled that 2nd period a lot more if not for a few bad passes in their own zone when they weren’t really under any pressure at all.

Could be coincidence, or trying to adjust to a different coaches system. Either way, you cannot be making mistakes like that in this league. Especially against teams as fast and as skilled as the Avalanche.

The third period would have been bad for anybody with a heart condition to watch.

The Toronto Maple Leafs had a few good opportunity’s that whats-his-face somehow stopped. Other than that the 3rd was all Colorado. Again there were times where Colorado was able to sustain offensive zone pressure due to failed passes by Toronto players in their own zone.

I’m not too worried about this continuing to happen as most of our D are pretty good with the puck, but it could have cost them the game.

Nazem Kadri looked absolutely determined to score against his old team. He did come away with two secondary assists but I must say, watching him get so frustrated after failing to score or even take out Johnsson was quite enjoyable.

Tyson Barrie did manage a goal and an assist against his former team. It’s great to see that he’s beginning to produce in the way that brought him to this team in the first place. An offensive dman who isn’t putting out offense isn’t much of an asset after all.

Toronto’s best player throughout this game was without a doubt Frederik Andersen. He let in a terrible muffin to start the period but he bailed his team out in that 2nd and 3rd period. To be fair, the game wouldn’t have been as close as it was if he didn’t let in that first one but hey, that’s hockey.

The worst players in this game is between Andreas Johnsson and Morgan Rielly. Both of them seemed to be making bad passes in their own zone and the offensive zone.

There were a few instances where the Toronto Maple Leafs had extended zone time only for it to be killed by a pass to nowhere by Johnsson or a low percentage shot from Rielly. I have not liked either of their game for some time now.

Watch out NHL.

Leafs 7/10

Keefe 2-0

Stats from www.naturalstattrick.com

This was not the Toronto Maple Leafs best effort this season, but it’s nice to see they can score goals again.

I am very excited to see where this team will be in the standings after the road trip. Even more than that, I’m excited to see where this team is after Keefe’s systems are fully implemented and understood by the whole roster.