Toronto Maple Leafs Entertaining As Possible, But Playing Like Garbage
By James Tanner
The Toronto Maple Leafs allowed a team that won’t even make the playoffs to absolute dominate them last night.
It was a great by Matt Murray, who made almost 50 saves, but the Toronto Maple Leafs once again stunk it up.
In the last week or so, the Leafs managed to beat Edmonton, New Jersey, Carolina, and Ottawa, while picking up a point against the Avs, while playing more or less like crappola in every single game.
They’ve outscored their problems and had good goaltending, but that’s it.
It’s almost as if pairing Sam Lafferty and William Nylander is dumber than anything I’ve ever been criticized for suggesting. (Factually, it is).
Sheldon Keefe is melting down before our very eyes, and the its becoming clear that, at least without Ryan O’Reilly, the Leafs were better before the Trade Deadline.
Toronto Maple Leafs vs Ottawa Senators
The Leafs started the game with Marner, Matthews and Nylander on different lines. It was just as bad an idea in reality as in theory.
A night after possessing the puck 32% of the time against Carolina, the Leafs were barely any better against a much worse team.
The Leafs did not deserve a point in this game, and thanks to the game’s two goalies, they got two. Hurray!
William Nylander spend the most time with Sam Lafferty, and they were absolutely dominated. Why? Because Sam Lafferty is, as far as I can see, an AHL player.
Other than Matt Murray's excellent performance, the only good thing about last night's game was that it was Jake McCabe's best game so far, and he was paired with Timothy Liljegren to form the only good pairing of the night.
— Editor in Leaf (@EditorinLeaf) March 19, 2023
TJ Brodie was 'dude have you considered retiring' bad
A lot of people will tell you TJ Brodie is the Leafs most reliable defenseman, but he was horrible last night. With Brodie on the ice, the Sens were expected to score 85% of the goals, and he was constantly, to the point of parody almost, hemmed in his own zone.
Sure, he was paired with Justin Holl, but that’s no excuse.
If the Leafs are going to dress a lineup with Luke Schenn, Wayne Simmonds, Sam Lafferty, Zach Aston Reese and a rookie, this is what’s going to happen.
Credit to the Senators who are super fun to watch and just never let up. They were robbed on a ticky-tack BS offside call (it was definitely offside, but if you can’t see it without slowmotion who cares?) and still came back and tied it. (stats naturalstattrick.com).
Once again, the Toronto Maple Leafs played like crap and while I’m sure most people will look at the results and shrug their shoulders, in the last seven years of playoff failure, they’ve never struggled this much down the stretch.
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