The Toronto Maple Leafs might have lost the game, but who cares?
Sure, the Toronto Maple Leafs blew a three-goal lead, and you hate to see that, but in my opinion this was one of their best games of the season.
The Leafs got a great game from Ilya Samsonov - especially good since he suffered an injury scare prior to the game.
They also played great defense against a top team despite missing Marner and Jarnkrok (among others) and both Nick Robertson and Timothy Liljegren continuted their development towards -dare we say it? - becoming star players (or at least cementing their roles in the lineup).
So overall, who cares about a shootout loss and a point in the standings that doesn't really matter when everything else was positive?
The Toronto Maple Leafs Should Be Really Happy About Loss to Carolina
What I liked about this game was that the Leafs were trash in the first period, but they didn't quit. Instead, they came out and played a great second period.
Since Marner is out, and they're going against a top team, you can forgive the bad first period. The fact that they regrouped and scored three times in a row in the second is way more important than anything else that happened.
And while scoring chances were 9-2 Carolina after one, that only means that Samsonov had a chance to be impressive, which just adds to the positives of this game.
Now you hate to blow leads, and whether it's the Leafs letting Carolina dominate after they had a 3-0 or lead, or letting in those two goals at the end of the game, without Marner and Jarkrok those things are going to happen. Those are two of the Leafs best defensive players and two of the main penalty killers on what is already a bad penalty killing team.
When you are missing a top-ten player alive from your lineup, and you're facing one of the best teams in the league, you should be pretty happy about winning the 5v5 minutes and getting a point against Carolina.
Robertson scored, Liljegren had an assist and both players were on the ice for 2 x 5v5 goals and none against. (stats naturalstatrick.com).
The Leafs might not have been able to add any star players to their lineup at the Trade Deadline, but one thing they haven't been able to do over the last five years is draft and develop players outside the top of the draft into usefull support players.
Robertson, McMann and Liljegren are changing that, and they all seem to be coming into their own at the exact right time.