The Toronto Maple Leafs played a much better game against Boston on Thursday than they did earlier in the week against LA.
That isn’t saying much, however, as the Toronto Maple Leafs were an amazing game from Ilya Samsonov away from being blow out.
The Leafs starting goalie has had a rough go so far this season, but he had one of his best games in a Leafs uniform last night, stopping 38 out of 40 shots, including a ton of grade-A scoring chances.
The Leafs defense was terrible, and down a man for the third straight game. It didn’t matter, as Samsonov stole a point (with a little help from Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner).
Toronto Maple Leafs Take Deserved Loss to Bruins
Though in this game the Leafs at least had a pulse, the Bruins pretty much did what they wanted despite dressing a shorthanded lineup that was minus their best defenseman.
The Leafs lost the puck possession battle, they were outshot and they were out-chanced. Worst of all, the dangerous chances at 5v5 were 19 for Boston and 5 for Toronto.
Obviously, the Leafs never planned to have to use Mark Giordano so much, but he was so, so bad tonight. When Gio was on the ice, Boston had 27 shot attempts to the Leafs nine, for a Corsi-For Percentage of 25. Shots were 13-4 and dangerous chances were 7-0 for Boston.
Rielly wasn’t very good tonight, Liljegren got hurt, McCabe already was hurt, and John Klingberg makes more mistakes than the Burger King drive through. Brodie didn’t have his best game either.
The only Leafs defenseman who wasn’t garbagio was William Lagesson. He actually played a really good game, in limited minutes.
Tyler Bertuzzi was so bad he ended up on the fourth line. David Kampf was horrendous. John Klingberg directly caused a goal, and then almost immediately caused what should have been a second one.
The Leafs top line had a great game, or at least, a great second period. Combined with Samsonov, it was enough. The Leafs get a point, and they will continue to get points because they are, now more-so than ever before, a top-heavy team with zero depth.
When their stars and goalies combine for a good game, they’ll be able to beat anyone. Like last night, they can get points they don’t necessarily deserve. It’s almost too bad they got a point in this game, because it might have forced them to address some of their problems if they got hammered like they should have.
It’s also a shame about Timothy Liljegren who has been the Leafs best or second best defenseman all year. He’s playing both special teams and making up for the fact that Jake McCabe is a total no-show. (stats naturalstattrick.com).
Ironic also that in, by far, his best game as a Leaf so far, Ryan Reaves failed to prevent the brutal cheap shot that led to Liljegren’s injury. Imagine that.
This game once again featured all the Leafs major problems: they don’t start on time, they make weird lines, they play David Kampf in overtime, they have no physical presence to speak of on their blue-line, all of their summer time replacements have been major downgrades, they have no depth, they miss Michael Bunting like crazy, and they bleed dangerous chances against.
Maybe if they leaned into the fact they don’t have much physical or defence ability and played a more rush oriented offensive strategy, they might have more success with their current lineup.
After 10 games, the Toronto Maple Leafs rank 28th, ahead of only Chicago, Vancouver, San Jose and the Islanders, in high-danger chances allowed per minute.