The Toronto Maple Leafs Go Down 2-1 to the Refs / Columbus

The Toronto Maple Leafs blew a three goal lead last night and lost in overtime.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are going to face the same old criticisms today, and make no mistake, it was a rough loss.

But it was also a total fluke, and while a loss is a loss, this isn’t the kind of loss you brood over. This is a loss that is the result of that old enemy of winners everywhere: bad luck.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Sure, young teams need to learn to win in the playoffs, and a team like the Leafs eventually has to learn how to lock down a game and hold a lead, BUT (and there is always a but) despite the score here, the positives vastly outweigh the negatives.

The Leafs have played three games since the NHL resumed after a four and a half month layoff.

Leafs Lose 1 Outer

If I had told you that by the end of game three, the Toronto Maple Leafs would have played seven consecutive dominant periods (and I mean like “playing an AHL team” type of dominance) that Nick Robertson would look like a future Rocket Richard winner, and that Freddie Andersen would allow only one goal through two and a half games, you’d be pretty happy.

You might even assume that the Leafs had won the series in a sweep, which is something far more probable than what has actually happened.

Look, what some people might call “excuses,” I call “reasons for things happening.”

A loss after a three goal game is brutal.  But here are the facts:

Mitch Marner rang the 4-0 goal off the crossbar, Columbus scored to make it 3-1 and Matthews rang a one-timer 4-1 lead off the post.  What else are you supposed to do? Sometimes you make a great call, your opponent shows a bad hand and then hits runner-runner to improbably win.

That’s all that happened last night.

The one Columbus goal threaded its way off a stick through a crowd of ten people and was a complete fluke.

And the officiating.  The referees.

Yeah yeah I know excuses excuses……..

Columbus got away with a too many men violation in overtime.

Auston Matthews was about to break in alone.  All eyes in the arena were on him, he had full control of the puck and Nick Foligno took his hand off his stick and used his arm to wrestle Matthews to the ground.  (stats naturalstattrick.com).

There were many, many Columbus penalties that went uncalled, but that was obvious, egregious and completely inexplicable.  The NHL should fire referee Wes McCauley , that’s how bad of a non-call that was. At the very least her shouldn’t be doing any more playoff games this year.

Over two losses, and seven periods, the Blue Jackets have taken three minor penalties.  Against a team that passes the puck around in the offensive zone at 5v5 like they are on a power play.  Against a team that constantly has the puck.

Three minor penalties in seven periods is ridiculous.  Columbus is not the cleanest, most rule-following team in the NHL. That is an absurd number and the Leafs have a legitimate complaint.

It’s hard to win in the NHL playoffs.

It’s damn near impossible when your opponent plays by a different set of rules.