Toronto Maple Leafs Let Goalie Down With Bad Defense, Lose in Shootout

The Toronto Maple Leafs played one of their sloppiest, and most entertaining, games last night against the St. Louis Blues and ultimately went down in their first shootout of the season.

The Toronto Maple Leafs entered the night as the only team besides the Jets not to appear in a shootout this season.

This is a game the Leafs would usually win, but their goaltending was a bit off.

In fact, Ilya Samsonov has been a little off ever since his 7-0 shutout of the Ducks a few weeks ago.  He is 2-2 in this time, and overall he’s had a great season, but four so-so games in a row equals at least  a slump.  But, that said, his defense didn’t do him any favors last night.

The Leafs goalies – Samsonov, Kalgren and Murray – have been great this season and the Leafs have a .928 5v5 save-percentage as a team, which is good for 5th in the NHL.   There is a level of randomness to goalies, and no guarantees, so it’s probably time to give Sammy a little rest and let Murray start a few in a row.

Toronto Maple Leafs vs St. Louis Blues

Good fight by the Leafs in this one – they were down early, but they fought back and ultimately were the better team on the night.

The Leafs won 4-2 in the 5v5 battle over 51 minutes, but the Leafs allowed 2 power-play goals (not much you can do) and a shorty (sloppy).

Special teams cost them the game, and there is something really annoying about losing a game where you took only two penalties and allowed goals on both of them.

It’s also worth pointing out that even though Samsonov wasn’t exactly great, four of those five goals were scored from in close, meaning the Leafs defenders weren’t doing a great job of preventing the Blues from getting to the crease.

Ultimately, loosing in a shootout barely qualifies as  loss, but this is a game the Leafs could easily have won.  This is the first time all year they lost when scoring 4 and you’re rarely going to lose games when you win by 2 goals 5v5.

Auston Matthews had a goal and an assist to move to 501 career points, in an impressive 445 games.  Its the fastest in Toronto Maple Leafs history. Mitch Marner only had one point, so the dynamic duo didn’t get to accomplish 500 together, which would have been super cool.

One concerning thing, however, was the beginning of the game when Mitch Marner was interviewed in street clothes that screamed “I’m a millionaire jock and people don’t make fun of me to my face”  which just made me sad.  Mitch clearly needs someone in his life to tell him no, because that hat and his clown outfit looked awful.

Was he kidding? Did he dress up that way on a dare? Did he lose a bet?  The Toronto Maple Leafs are an awesome team, but their best player is half bald with a bad moustache, and their second best player dresses like he’s on his way to Woodstock 99.

I guess that isn’t a real problem, but I wouldn’t complain if my favorite team was a little less “bro-tastic” and I would be lying if I wasn’t at least slightly concerned that MILK patch was going to get swapped out for an Axe Body Spray one.