The Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Anaheim Mighty Ducks last night by a score of 3-2 that makes the game seem close (it wasn't) and which doesn't come close to doing the team's effort justice.
The Toronto Maple played one of their best games of the season but it was ruined by an injury to Anthony Stolarz.
Stolarz was sharp in the first period when he had to be (the Ducks only had two dangerous chances) and didn't seem hurt, but did not return for the second period.
Joseph Woll stepped in admirably, but of course, Stolarz has been the Leafs co-MVP this year (along with Woll) so his injury is both terrifying and bound to happen.
Anthony Stolarz Injury Ruins Maple Leafs Best Game of the Season
The Leafs - especially the line of Max Pacioretty, John Tavares and William Nylander - were fantastic. The play of Lukas Dostal was the only reason the Leafs didn't score five or six times. In fact, Nylander alone probably could have had that many goals if he was a bit luckier.
For an example of the Leafs dominance, they had 8 high-danger chances in the first period, which was two more than Anaheim managed for the entire night. If you look at just 5v5 stats, which are the most important, The Leafs had 20 dangerious chances and the Ducks had 3.
You don't see that kind of lopsided dominance that much in the NHL. Now, obviously, the Ducks are a really, really bad team, but the Leafs failed to be better than the Blackhawks just last week, let alone dominate them. (stats naturalstattrick.com).
Crushing loser teams is incredibly important if you want to be a top team. It's also important to win games completely instead of just getting lucky results, which (as much as people don't wanna hear it) has been happening a lot with this team. Making this game even more important was that they rebounded after a brutal effort in their last game, which was against New Jersey on Tuesday.
Jake McCabe came back and the difference was felt immediately. I thought signing McCabe was idiotic because he's been inconsistent in his career, and his age made the contract a high risk when you consider the age of the Leafs other three name-brand defenseman. However, I was totally wrong, at least to date.
McCabe has been, along with Tanev, the Leafs best defenseman. Maybe Tanev just takes a lot of the heat or something, but in some ways I'd say McCabe has been ever better. The difference between him in the lineup and him out of the lineup is like night and day for the Leafs.
Moving OEL away from the top pairing also did wonders for his game, and it was likely his best game since the first week or two of the season.
The Leafs have now won back-to-back games, and will play the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday and the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday.