this'll be my very first leafs-related post, so some pre-amble.
i'm not going to post about every game i watch, just some of the more notable ones.
as a leaf fan of nearly 20 years now, i tend to catch most of the season, and i won't be overloading
[redacted] with tons of leafs news, just a bit as i see fit.
last night, the leafs rolled into new york city to play the rangers, hot off the heels of a 7-4 flub against the islanders at the ACC.
i'm certain you wonder why i didn't chose to cover this match as well?
i find the islanders insanely boring, and i fear contracting dipietro's boneitis through my television set.
so come on then, hit the jump, and we'll talk about the game that was.
saturday's game was played in new york city at the constantly-in-a-state-of-renovation madison square gardens. it started off with a particularly harmonic version of the national anthems performed by a twangy father and daughter combo that i wasn't a particular fan of, but the rangers were wearing their 'vintage' thirds, so that might be cool?
(image of rangers third being modeled by iconic retired douche bag sean avery from icethetics.com)
so the first started off particularly chippy with ryan callahan boarding mikhail grabovski pretty heavily, which lead to a 'spirited' leaf powerplay (which continues to feature mike kotska for no reason) culminating in no goals scored.
shortly thereafter, a pair of fights broke out in rather quick succession with handle-barred hero mike brown taking on my favourite third-liner in nhl 2k3, arron asham and heavyweight/guy-who-fights-every-game colton orr versus mike rupp.
according to all accounts, punches were thrown, boughts were won, and either or both teams came out energized? i don't know.
what i do know is a few minutes later, on a play featuring none of the individuals now serving fighting majors, grabovski took a pretty slick feed from liles and potted a nice pineapple on the backhand for his third of the season and the game's opening tally.
(nifty little backhand for the goal)
(the grabovski pineapple meme is my favourite.)
did i mention that grabbo's goal there was the first shot the leafs had had so far? no? well it was.
after the leafs goal, the pressure was decidedly upon them with new york heavily dictating the play, and an apparently concussion-symptom free james reimer maintaining the leafs lead.
with just over five minutes to play in the first, the rangers would forget how many players one team is allowed to ice at a time, and the leafs were given a powerplay opportunity late in the period.
thankfully the team was able to convert with james van riemsdyk potting his third of the season on a rebound from a john-michael liles shot from the point, putting the leafs up 2-0.
(another tiny video courtesy the cbc)
shortly after that, tyler bozak shot the puck over the glass and was awarded the nhl's stupidest possible penalty*. some solid penalty killing was somehow performed by the maple leafs and this, combined with a very un-lundqvist-like performance from the rangers netminder, got them out of the first up 2-0 having taken only 3 shots. well, that and reimer robbing nash in tight on a breakaway. that'll help.
(admittedly, nash-y did kinda of shoot in into optimus' glove.)
(or is it? more on that later.)
the second period started with the rangers looking much more energized, and the crowd much louder than the first. around the five minute mark, brad richards, one of new york's many recent, highly sought after, all-star acquisitions goes on to show it's highly unlikely the leafs can sustain a lead while being outshot 14-3 in a period. during a mad-dash around the net, richards backhands the puck home, putting the score at 2-1.
(some top notch defense by AHL champion Mike Kotska there.)
from here it was becoming dismally apparent that the maple leafs were not very likely to hang onto their lead. the rangers poured on pressure fairly consistently, and though there were some quick flashes by the kessel and and grabovski lines particularly on a powerplay for a jeff halpern hooking call, the team failed to score again in the second.
the penalty kill did its job late in the second, though, killing an incredibly stupid touching-the-puck-with-your-hand-during-a-face-off-in-your-zone penalty to grabovski, and a we're-bad-at-line-changes call that was served by clarke macarthur (recently given an 'a' in the absence of lupul and left the game with a lacerated pinky in the third.) that definitely had quasi-new coach randy carlyle with his head in his hands.
(found this one at pensionplanpuppets.com - i'll call it the randy face-palm)
despite being outplayed again, the leafs made it into the dressing room, with the lead, but being out shot 11-6 in the period, 25-11 at that point in the game, and trailing largely in possession and hit stats. nope, that doesn't sound unsustainable at all.
(this song can often be used to describe periods of elation for fellow leaf fans)
(this is how i can often be viewed by fellow leaf fans.)
come third period time, it was definitely appropriate to begin drinking somewhat more heavily. the leafs appeared to be hanging with the rangers (despite their lead) the way that drunk guy at a party appears to be hanging on to conciousness. unfortunately, all that came collapsing down (kind of like the leafs in the defensive-zone) with marc staal's goal at 7:36 of the third to tie the game.
(you can almost hear the life force being sucked from the leafs as the puck hits the twine.)
following this let down, coach carlyle did the logical thing, parading orr and brown around the ice quickly to let the rangers know the leafs mean business. there was some hitting, and a bit of shoving. shortly thereafter the grabovski line had a quick bit of sustained pressure, but none of that really seemed to stop the leafs from collapsing down low in their own zone again, this time leaving one of the more dangerous players in the game, marian gaborik, alone in front for the tip. great shot by staal there, and pass by richards, each picking up their second point.
(really nice looking puck movement there from the rangers. i like that their d's shots get tipped, and don't break their forwards' arms.)
this goal ended up being the eventual game winner.
the leafs did end up having some chances, and kessel kept shooting up a storm, continuing to lead the league in shots, but still without his first goal (a point you will read in papers a lot monday morning.)
brian boyle, who had been running roughshod over the leafs all night ended up picking up a goal late in the game to make it 4-2, deflecting a del zotto point shot with his arm, much to the protestations of fellow tough guy colton orr from the bench. gaborik picked up an empty netter the first time the leafs pulled their goalie with 2 minutes left, down by 2. they would again with under a minute left, but the rangers didn't convert, winding up with a 5-2 victory.
the leafs definitely seemed out of step on this one, playing one of the better teams in the league (though they handled pittsburgh much better). however, this is to be expected when facing a team with 220 million dollars in pay roll and three of the best players in the league playing together on a top line, an all-world goalie, and a very competent and young defense corps.
there were some positives in the game for the leafs:
-phil kessel keeps playing insanely well despite no goals.
-reimer seems to be back in top form, none of the goals were his fault, and he turned away 30 of 34 shots for a .902 save percentage
-dion liked hitting rick nash. a lot.
(is it still a headshot if you hit the dude with your own head?)
there were also quite a few negatives for the leafs:
-phil kessel still has no goals. yes, he is playing incredibly well, and they'll come, but it would be nice if they'd come now.
-with joffrey lupul out, somebody needs to step up and provide the offense. mustering three shots on goal is unaccepted and will rarely provide a 2-0.
-mike kostka (paired with dion phaneuf, 'cause...) played over thirty minutes last night. yes, the guy in his fifth game in the nhl as a 27 year old minute played over thirty minutes as a top line defender against rick nash, brad richards and marian gaborik. yeah. *randy face-palm* nothing against the guy, he seems nice, and i bet he'd fit in fine on the 3rd pairing, but jeeze. he finished the game at a -4
all told it wasn't really a great game start to finish for the leafs, but new york is indeed an odds on favourite to win the cup (apparently), while the leafs are higher in odds to draft first over all. they don't play again until tuesday when they face the sabres in buffalo. i'd expect a pretty similar lineup to tonight's for that game, so hopefully the team can get some production from the kessel-bozak line and the kadri-whoevertheyputhimwithline to augment what they get from grabovski. here's hoping they have a more sound game defensively as well, and don't make vanek et al look like richards and co. i understand that jake gardiner being out throws the pairings into limbo, but i'd prefer to see gunnarson getting top line minutes with phaneuf, and not kostka.
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