Toronto Maple Leafs Have First Bad Game Under Keefe

The Toronto Maple Leafs lost to the Buffalo Sabres yesterday.

The Toronto Maple Leafs will look to get back on track tonight in a rematch.

For the Leafs, if they do, it will be their first victory all year on the second half of a back-to-back.

At least Freddie Andersen will be in net for tonight’s game.

Toronto Maple Leafs vs Sabres

Last night’s game was pretty weird.

The Toronto Maple Leafs came out flying and were up 2-0, but it could have been so much worse for Buffalo.

William Nylander had two incredible chances, and both times he was robbed by the glove of the Buffalo goalie.

Nylander also had a third excellent chance, and it was just bad luck he didn’t get a goal in the first period.  Tavares had two, and he almost had a hatrick.

Cody Ceci whiffed on two high-grade chances, and Matthews had at least one good scoring chance.

After that though……yikes.

The Nylander Matthews line was caved in for the rest of the game, and Matthews got an assist on the winning goal that would get any other player but Zach Hyman ran out of town.

Had Hutchinsen been capable of even one save, the Leafs could have won the game despite not really deserving to.  Hutchinson honestly is an OK back-up, but he’s been so rough this year he’s probably done.

The Leafs, even just psychologically, could probably use a different back-up.  Then again, by all accounts Hutchinson is a cool guy that everyone loves having around.  No NHL goalie is as bad as he’s been, and it’s been  5 games that were the second half of back-to-backs and one matinée.

I do agree that he has to play better, but really, he hasn’t gotten a lot of help either.

Even the Leafs weren’t their best yesterday, there were still a lot of things I really liked.  Nylander and Matthews set career highs in ice time, the power play looked really dangerous, and the team never gave up.

Under Babock or Keefe, this team deserves credit for it’s heart and determination because they never give up (except that one game where they quit on their coach).

All year when down, you can see that they believe in their ability to score their way back into the game.  The Leafs play a style of game where sometimes they won’t score and things will get ugly.

But even yesterday, in a game where they played a very bad second period, they can rest easy knowing that in 99.9% of situations, they’re going to the intermission up 3-0 because Nylander would have scored on at least one of those killer glove saves.

Bad game, could have won it easily.

Let’s hope the Toronto Maple Leafs do a bit better tonight.