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Toronto Maple Leafs Play Great and Lose – Must be Playoff Time!

By James Tanner

Nov 21, 2022; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mitchell Marner (16) and forward Auston Matthews (34) congratulate forward John Tavares (center) on his goal against the New York Islanders during the second period at Scotiabank Arena. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 21, 2022; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mitchell Marner (16) and forward Auston Matthews (34) congratulate forward John Tavares (center) on his goal against the New York Islanders during the second period at Scotiabank Arena. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports /
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It must be playoff time, because the Toronto Maple Leafs played a great game and lost.

Going up against the Hurricanes on Saturday night, the Toronto Maple Leafs had one of their best games of the season.

Unfortunately, the same can also be said about the Carolina Hurricanes goalie.  And, like most goalies who save their career best for the Leafs, I don’t even know his name.

Well, I do now, and it’s Pyotr Kochetkov, and he’s the third string goalie forced into 23 games because the Hurricanes employ two other guys who make Matt Murray look as durable as Phil Kessel.

This Kochetkov character made 41 saves in a game where the road scorer awarded the Leafs with 50 scoring chances.  Cowabunga! but they lost anyways.

Toronto Maple Leafs vs the Universe

This was a very good game for the Leafs, and they tied it late only to lose on a fairly weak goal 45 seconds later.

After the game I made the horrible mistake of watching the Keanu Reaves movie Replicants.  This move is horrible so do yourself a favor and do not ever watch it.

Unlike the movie, the game was actually good.

The Leafs got off to a bad start, including being penalized a very cheap and stupid 5 on 3 (hilarious it must have been on league orders since they only got their 1st one of the season last game and we totally can’t have that)  but after that they completely and utterly dominated the best statistical team in the NHL. (naturalstattrick.com).

They crushed them for the next 50 minutes, and only a no-name goalie’s best ever game prevented them from achieving the glorious accomplishment of a meaningless regular season victory.

All in all, the refs were horrible. The Toronto Maple Leafs got only 3 poweplays despite having the puck constantly.  They really should make a bigger deal about how they are constantly jobbed by the NHL’s officiating.

The evidence speaks for itself – they are in their 6th straight year of being near the bottom of the league in power-play time.

At the end of the day, this game didn’t really matter and it was great to see the Toronto Maple Leafs dominate one of the two best teams (that isn’t them) in the NHL.

Next. 5 Reasons to Be Excited for the Playoffs. dark

The Leafs will get right back on the horse today as they don their cowboy hats and put Porter Wagoner on the turntable as they head to Nashville to take on the Predators.

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