The Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins Sunday Afternoon in an extremely entertaining affair.
The Toronto Maple Leafs got off to a fast start, blew it, and then overcame a pretty bad game by Joseph Woll to pull out their 5th game in a row.
Obviously the highlight of the day was the Matthew Knies goal that was scored with basically no time left on the clock in the second period, but the biggest news was the team's 5th win in a row which was their 8th win in their last nine games, and put them back into first place.
The Leafs will continue with their so far perfect road-trip tonight in San Jose. (stats naturalstattrick.com).
Toronto Maple Leafs Win 5th Game in a Row + Nonsense Rumours + San Jose Game
Can't Play Them Anymore
Though yesterday's game was entertaining, it was also a lucky win. The fourth line of Connor Dewar, David Kampf and Ryan Reaves was pathetic. The Leafs cannot keep running out such terrible players.
David Kampf is the NHL's most expensive fourth liner and he isn't anywhere close to worth the money. He's been on this roster so long that we're used to him, but the Leafs have cap troubles and he's their biggest waste of money.
Ryan Reaves wasn't an NHL player when the Leafs signed him to a humiliating three-year deal, and he sure isn't one now. How they can even get away with playing him at this point is beyond me, but yestreday should be his last game.
And Dewar doesn't escape notice either. The only reason he's on this roster is to make it look like Treliving didn't crap the bed at last year's deadline. He did, and no amount of playing Dewar like he's an actual NHL player will change that.
These guys were outshot 9-2 yesterday, 20-3 in shot-attempts. They were almost 60% worse than the average play of their teammates according to relative expected-goals.
Blue Line
One of the reasons that the Leafs should have zero interest in the too-lazy-to-believe Luke Schenn Rumours is that their blue-line is already old and slow. With Tanev injured, the Leafs had to play Timmins, Myers, OEL and Benoit in the same game. It was not pretty.
Luke Schenn is just another sixth/seventh defenseman, and the Leafs already are well stocked with those. They need to identify actual good players and get those. Having just heard of a player does not make him good, which is the main reason Schenn figures so prominently in Leafs Rumours - he's one of the only guys on other teams everyone knows.
Dumb Rumours
Let's say the Leafs acquired David Savard and Brayden Schenn. That's a failure.
Let's say they trade for Yanni Gourde, Scott Laughton and Colton Parayko - that's also a failure. (This wouldn't be too bad, contracts aside, but none of these guys are stars).
The Leafs do not need to trade for Brock Nelson. They don't need Rasmus Ristolainen and they sure as heck should have no interest in Connor Soucey or Brandon Tanev. (Note, as a secondary addition, all of these players would be fine).
The Leafs need players in their 20s. They need guys with upside. They do not need to mid-range non-star expensive minor-upgrades. They need stars
You could get more by moving Nylander, Marner and Matthews to separate lines than any of the dumb "realistic" upgrades that are going around.
The Leafs have to epitomize the phrase Go Big or Go Home. That's all there is to it.