As Moe Berg once famously said – it’s hard to laugh. But as the Toronto Maple Leafs fans have learned, if you don’t, you will go insane.
And all you could do last night was laugh as the should be-4 and oh Toronto Maple Leafs fell to a pedestrian 2-1-1 in what, results aside, could be seen as an absolute clinic of how to crush another NHL team.
The Leafs rode the return of Auston Matthews to an absolutely glorious beatdown of the New York Rangers, who, unfortunately for us, has an absolute superstar in net. Igor Shesterkin, like Anton Forsberg earlier in the week, was absolutely fabulous.
He ruined Matthews debut – he could easily have had two or even four goals. Tavares, who should probably have goals in three straight games, once again was held goalless by an otherworldly being. This after he scored a ghost hattrick on Saturday (in a game the Leafs barely won, but which they should have won by a touchdown).
Toronto Maple Leafs vs New York Rangers
At 5v5 last night, the Leafs had 58% puck possession and got 63% of the shots. That is an absolute beatdown, and a near flawless game. (all stats naturalstattrick.com).
Unfortunately, in the NHL, one player makes all the difference. The NYR goalie was every bit as good as Anton Forsberg was last week, robbing the Leafs of sure-thing goals and making spectacular save after spectacular save.
Auston Matthews looked amazing last night in his return from wrist surgery. Sure, he didn’t score, but that wasn’t his fault. Matthews took eight shots and had nine individual scoring chances.
Most of the entire team was great. Other than the score, there really isn’t anything you can complain about in this game. The Leafs were great offensively, defensively, and in net.
Going forward, I’d waive Nick Ritchie and hope someone takes his awful contact. Then I’d recall Josh Ho-Sang and unleash him with Matthews and Marner, because, if I do have one small complaint about last night, it’s the way the play ends on Nick Ritchie’s stick every time he touches the puck.
Sure he can hit and grind, but he can’t pass and he can’t shoot and he’s not a first line player. If the Leafs were paying him half the salary and didn’t have Wayne Simmonds, I’d say use him on the fourth line, but frankly, a Simmonds, Spezza and Ritchie line is just way too slow. ]
Leafs don’t play again until Friday when they take on the Sharks, but after four games, they should have a perfect record and should be extremely happy with all their star players, and their goalie. The fact that in three of their four games they’ve faced absolutely insane goaltending is nothing to worry about. If they keep playing like they have been and they’ll be the NHL’s top team.