Toronto Maple Leafs Shrug Off Unlikely and Meaningless Loss

The Toronto Maple Leafs game on Monday night can be likened to a billionaire getting a parking ticket in that it was slightly annoying, but had no real consequence.

With a 5-1 lead you call it a day and stop playing. Once per season, this will come back and haunt someone, while the rest of the teams who pile up four goal leads coast to victory.  The Toronto Maple Leafs just happen to have a recent history of unlikely nonsense to remind us that they are in fact the Leafs, no matter how many days they spend in first place.

Otherwise, it is just a single point in the standings, and if you think about it, that single point is probably a cheap cost to pay for a reminder about the potential cost of complacency.  I agree with Stephen when he wrote that the Leafs will probably, and ironically, benefit from this loss more than they would have the win.

And last night they gave a solid effort and locked down a hard fought victory that, really, could have been much less close if a couple of borderline calls go the Joe Thornton’s way.

Toronto Maple Leafs vs Ottawa Senators

To me, the first period was typical of what we sometimes see from the Leafs newfound commitment to defense – they aren’t sure how do it yet without sapping their game of all the good parts. It led to a boring, low event period where the teams traded three dangerous chances apiece, but where Ottawa was the better team.

The rest of the game was pretty much all Leafs, and the final result was great.  Some positives from the game were Freddie Andersen’s play, which was important after a horrible game the night before, and the lack of penalties – any time the Leafs give themselves an edge in power-plays they’ve got an excellent chance of winning.

But the best part of the game was obviously Joe Thornton. He fake-scored twice, and was instrumental in one of the other goals, and he was one of only five Leafs to finish above 50% CF on the night.  (stats naturalstattrick.com).

Next up is another game tonight against the Senators, and you’d like to see the Leafs finally give Michael Hutchinson a shot at a game, as he’s patiently sat every night since Campbell was injured. Of course, you get the feeling the Leafs don’t really want to risk it, so maybe we’ll see Andersen again tonight, who knows?  Hopefully we’ll also get to see the debut of Alex Galchenyuk.