The Toronto Maple Leafs yet another game they deserved to win after running into the hot goaltending of Sergei Bobrovsky.
After posting a .950 save percentage against the Toronto Maple Leafs in last year’s playoffs, and after being the only reason why Florida won that series, Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky was once again solely responsible for the Leafs losing.
While I’d like to have seen a more urgent third period, there were lots of things to build on in last night’s game, and the result wasn’t exactly earned.
After four games, I’d say it was their best one. The Montreal game was super sloppy and they were lucky to win, they didn’t deserve to beat the Wild, and the Blackhawks game was their worst one. So, even though it wasn’t a beauty by any stretch, last night was probably their best game of the year so far.
Faint praise, but there you have it. (stats naturalstattrick.com).
Toronto Maple Leafs Play Their Best Game Yet, Bobrovsky Doesn’t Care
Auston Matthews didn’t score, but he did have 5 shots, eight individual shot-attempts, almost 60% Corsi and a 74% Expected Goals Rating. He is back on the MVP track for sure.
The Leafs lost by a single goal, but on most night’s Matthews isn’t playing like this and going home empty handed, so I wouldn’t worry too much about this loss.
Extreme props to Timothy Liljegren who was the Leafs best defender, played the full game in the top four and even managed to make Jake McCabe look good. Liljegren finished the night with a nearly 80% Expected Goals rating.
Even John Klingberg had a good game (his first one on Toronto) and he and Giordano where much better than the previous Klingberg/McCabe pairing which was being routinely sliced and diced.
Max Domi also had his best game as a Leafs player.
Other than the Ryan Reaves/ Noah Gregor line being complete garbage, each Leafs line was great. You don’t want to see them have to move to a third line that features Kampf on it, which they did after the second period, because it basically eliminates offense, but even he had his most effective game of the year last night.
Overall I don’t think there was much to complain about. Maybe William Nylander played like crap, but he’s been so amazing to start the year he’s entitled to an off night. Ilya Samsonov was great, the team played great, and normally when that happens it’s a win.
Unfortunately, Sergei Bobrovsky owns more of the Leafs than Larry Tannenbaum.