Toronto Maple Leafs: Referees Deserve Partial Credit for Sens Win

The Toronto Maple Leafs didn’t have their best game.

Among the things you could complain about, were you so inclined: The Toronto Maple Leafs had a second straight game of “not starting on time,” and they blew a few defensive assignments.

But really, complaining about these things in game two is pretty lame.  The team changed a lot of its roster – either on purpose or  temporarily due to injury – and will eventually fix the two problems listed above.

Other than that though, there have been a ton of positives through the first two games:

Jack Campbell has been great, William Nylander is playing like an MVP, and the power-play has three goals on eight chances.

Even strength goals have been a problem so far, but the Leafs have had the NHL’s 5v5 goal scoring leader for three years in a row now, so I am not too concerned about that. (all stats naturalstattrick.com).

Toronto Maple Leafs vs the Sens

Let me preface these thoughts by saying that I’m not whining.  Whining is when you complain about your favorite team every day, regardless of what happens. Say what you will about me, I am the least whiny Leafs fan that there is – I am 100% positive, 100% of the time.

So, when the Leafs lose a stupid game like last night, I like to point out some of the reasons that they lost.  We aren’t sitting here thinking that the result was unfair.  The point is just to realize that a game where your team gets 47 shots on goal and absolutely goalied, isn’t the game to complain about the team’s performance.

Tthe Leafs were down 3-0 at one point, but all three goals were a joke, and they easily could have shut out the Senators last night. (But only because, weird bounces aside, the Leafs goalie duo was fantastic). The first goal was kicked in. It was garbage, and the only thing worse than that goal were the sycophants in the intermission acting like it wasn’t even questionable.  The second goal was a pinball the goalie had no chance on.  The third goal bounced right to an open player and went in the net like a fractional second before the period ended.

The Sens did have some grade A chances, but they were robbed by Mrazek and Campbell, both of whom played great.  Hopefully Mrazek is OK and won’t miss too much time.

As for the referees, they should all probably be fired, because they clearly don’t know what they are doing.  Due to the NHL’s officiating incompetence, we don’t even know what a penalty is anymore.

The calls on Pierre Engvall and John  Tavares were so soft, if they put out an album, my mom would buy it.

The Toronto Maple Leafs had one power-play negated, and then had their ability to pull the goalie and tie the game taken away from them.  Teams should decide games, not referees.

In another instance, Michael Bunting (huge fan after two games) drew about five penalties at once, but only one was called.  It’s ridiculous.  If I’m remembering correctly, this was just before the Engvall “penalty” so instead of the Leafs having a two-man advantage for a full two minutes, they had to play four on four.

Overall though, these excuses would hold more water if the Leafs played well.  They played OK. Their goalies great and deserved a better outcome.  The Senators were probably the better team overall, but the Leafs overcame horrible games from Marner and Muzzin and an absent Matthews and still almost pulled it off.

You have to like the way this team never quits, and putting up 47 shots usually means you’ll win the game.  Kudos to Forsberg, as he was the first, second and third stars of the game.