Toronto Maple Leafs: Dominant Leafs Fall in Vancouver
It wasn’t the result that the Toronto Maple Leafs wanted to finish their stretch of Western Canada, but it is the one they got.
To lose in the shootout is no dishonour, it’s a lottery, but it should never have got there for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Granted, the Vancouver Canucks started the much better team and the Leafs evidently struggling with the time difference were yet to wake up. Bo Horvat almost took the lead for the Canucks, when the Leafs who were implementing their high press strategy got caught on the break.
Leading to an excellent save from Freddie Andersen. Daniel Sedin exacting revenge on Ontario side, and mainly a certain Nazem Kadri, getting the first of the night.
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Sven Baertschi made it two for the Canucks in the 2nd on a quick breakaway, with Toronto dominating possession, just not being able to convert in the attacking zone. The Leafs clawed one back on the powerplay.
I’d like to point out here that I do enjoy Reilly and Zaitsev on the PP. Defensively too frail together but on the PP it works incredibly well. JVR latching onto the rebound off a Nikita Zaitsev snapshot.
Auston Matthews then latched onto a pass given behind the net from Zach Hyman, Wristing it into the top of the net. 2-2 with half of the 3rd period to play. Toronto absolutely dominated the 2nd and 3rd periods of this game, eventually falling to the Canucks in the shootout.
Dominating shots 15-10 in the 2nd, followed up by 11-4 in the 3rd and 7-1 in OT, it was an encouraging yet demoralising game for Leafs Nation. Many feeling the West Coasters should have been put to bed.
A special mention must be made to Ryan Miller, the struggling Canucks goaltender turned up massively last night making 38 saves. As we know with hockey a goalie and win or lose a game, that was clear in the Rogers Arena on Saturday.
What can we take away from the game?
-Offense is getting better and better. Unfortunately just came up short last night but the signs are there, that when we get some puck luck we put teams away.
-Caution must be shown when going forward. Too many times were there giveaways allowing a fast team chances on Andersen. When high pressuring is implemented up the ice, we need to make sure that there are safety nets in place.
-Kadri didn’t get the career threatening injury that some people were hinting might happen. This was never going to be the case after the head of NHL player safety spoke to the Canucks pre-game.
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