Today's edition features another round of the Battle of Ontario with the Leafs facing off against The Sens, on the road, sort of.
The Buds headed into Ottawa to cap off a fairly eventful week on their schedule.
Starting the week of in Florida, the Leafs downed the Panthers by a score of 3-0 (continuing their shutout ways) before heading into Tampa Bay and playing a much better Lightning team (better than who? well, the leafs and the panthers I'd wager). The Leafs laid a bit of a stinker in this one, with Scrivens pulled late in the game and the team ultimately falling by a score of 4-2. Two nights later, they were back home in Toronto, facing the Ruff-less Sabres, who they trounced 3-1 on the back of a big 2 goal night from JVR.
tap, tap, tap-a-roo
The Ottawa Senators record was one win better than the Leafs, as they beat most of the Atlantic Division this week, dropping the Isles, Rangers and Devils since we saw them last.
This made for many questions heading into the evening:
-how will each team respond to their litany of injuries?
-why in the hell is this Alfredsson guy still playing ? (yea, yea, great player, whatever)
-which Ben Scrivens will show up ? Back to back shutouts Ben Scrivens, or four goals on 16 shots Ben Scrivens?
I know you're clearly very excited to find out, as there's certainly no way for you to have gleaned this knowledge before, so hit the jump and let's see what happened
seen above:a brief list of the issues with Ottawaaaaa and the Sens
Leafs v. Senators Feb.23.2013
Over their short, pathetic, existence (I'm talking about the team that started playing in 1992 and stole the name of a team that was founded in the 19th century) the Ottawa Senators have had a rather firmly entrenched inferiority complex tied to their bigger older brothers to the southwest. Their most recent attempt at coping with it was cute, and laughable. Tired of being driven out of their own home rink by Leafs fans who've purchased tickets to the game (typically from seasons tickets holders) Senators management sent emails to seasons tickets holders offering them discounts on later ticket purchases... should they not sell their Leaf tickets off to Leafs fans. In addition to this, their was a bit of ballyhoo about "outlawing" Leafs jerseys in Scotiabank Place, and an outright ban on individuals who sold their tickets to Leaf fans. Funny, but really kinda sad. Feel better guys, you've been to a cup final once in the last 25 years.
That said, discussion of this complex and fascinating concept dominated the pre-show. Eventually the puck was dropped. Ugh.
Your starting goaltenders for this game: Ben "Scrambly" Scrivens for the Maple Leafs and Ben "Not Scrivens" Bishop for the Senators.
here the senators consider a new defensive system in which they play with 3 netminders
The Leafs were out James Reimer, Matt Frattin, and Joffrey Lupul who are still injured. Colton Orr and David Steckel were scratches. Jake Gardiner still inexplicably plays for the Marlies.
The Senators were down Jason Spezza, Erik Karlsson and probably a few other guys, but who cares? It's Ottawa.
Things started out pretty well for the Leafs as they struck early on to grab the lead, with Mikhail Grabovski grabbing the puck from a maze of feet in front of the net and sniping home his 5th of the year after some hard work in the Ottawa zone.
nice to see grabbo getting some o-zone time. funny how
goal scorers get goals when that happens.
Unfortunately for Eugene Melnyk and Ottawa's super-intelligent Ownership/Management team, some Leaf fans did manage to get in. Funny how that works, eh?
this should totally be banned.
From this point on, this game kind of became (actually, it sort of already was, evidenced by the goal) a bit of a shit-show. Very sloppy, pretty slow, no particularly good flow... The first period was a pretty dismal affair to be honest, and I'm glad I had beer to assist me in watching it.
Anyway, at the 10:52 mark of the first, the Senators pulled even when Mika Zibanejad got just free enough from Carl Gunnarson to get his stick on a Colin Greening wrist-shot. It was a pretty sloppy rush, handled pretty sloppily. Not very fun, to be honest.
dat defense
Ottawa picked up some momentum from that point on, but the Leafs managed to hang on, getting a couple decent saves from Scrivens to head into the dressing room knotted up at a score of 1-1. The Senators outshot the Buds 14-8 in the first frame (Leafs, outshot? never!) and neither team had a man advantage.
As per usual, CBC wheeled Don Cherry out of Cryostasis long enough to illustrate how far his dementia had progressed, then through him back in the linen closet 'til next week. I feel bad for Ron Maclean and having to deal with this. Then I realize he gets paid good money to talk about hockey and babysit a near-geriatric person. Good deal.
Don finds television sets disturbing some times.
Eventually the second period started up, y'know after the ice was cleaned and the teams switched sides and whatnot. The Leafs came out with a little more foot speed in the second than they had in the first, and definitely manufactured some scoring oppurtunities, particularly during a wide-open stretch of play early in the period where the teams skated for over 8 (!!) minutes without a whistle. The Leafs took the sole penalty of the stanza with Nikolai Kulemin going to the box for tripping near the seven-minute mark. The Leafs penalty kill handled this with little issue though, allowing just 2 shots. This is an area of improvement over last year that's going somewhat unheralded and is certainly leading to the team staying out of their more prolonged slumps.
The teams slowed down the pace a little bit after enjoying a bit of a track meet in the middle of the second, and just when it seemed as though they might be heading the the third still tied at two, tragedy struck, and the Leafs made a stupid play. On a rush with just under a minute left in the period, Erik Gryba directed a hard shot at Leaf 'tender Scrivens, which he stopped. Good ol' Bartleby the Scrivener decided however that the best course of action from here would be to not cover the puck, but bat it out in the direction of the players closing in on him. This leads to a puck that bounces off of Korbinian Holzer (germans help you tank!) and I guess Eric "don't-call-me-Peter-Bondra" Condra, 'cause he gets credit for the goal. That jerkwad Colin Greening got a point on this too. Watch out for him later.
A+ defense, boys.
There was much deliberation as to whether or not this was a good goal, and the war room was called, and the ref got to use his microphone, and they counted the goal. It was a "good" goal though, I mean, not in that it was nice to watch, but it was perfectly legal. Leaf players are allowed to score on themselves any time! So anyway, the teams headed to the dressing rooms after 40 minutes with the Senators leading 2-1 on the scoresheet. The Leafs did manage to outshoot the Sens on the period, 11-10, bringing the total for the game up to 24-19.
During the intermission on Satellite Hot Stove, resident hockey expert PJ Stock blamed the Matt Cook/Erik Karlsson incident on the officials, because they missed a puck going out of play a few seconds before on the same shift. Oh, PJ Stock. Never change.
Stock-er wouldn't have gotten beaten up if the refs noticed that offside 3 shifts ago.
oooh, man. ugly bruins third and weird random caps jersey. i'm a bad dude.
So mostly because it's in the rulebook, and not just to sell more beers and commercials for said beer (hey, you need beer to watch the leafs) there was a third period. By this point in time it appeared as though maybe the Leafs had become motivated. Their forecheck was running along at a pretty high clip, and a good amount of sustained pressure by the Grabovski line early in the period lead to an Eric Gryba holding minor.
This put the Leafs up on their first man-advantage of the game, and they would capitalize as Clarke MacArthur would put home the rebound on a Mike Kostka (ugh, still on the PP) point shot to tie the game up. Nazem Kadri would draw an assist for his nice pass to Kostka as well. The game was tied at 2 with just over half the third left.
hell yes, that's the punjabi broadcast. so what?
The energy provided by MacArthur's goal got the Leafs skating for a bit, and for a small while it looked as though the game would at least head to over-time, wherein the Leafs would attain at least a point. The two teams played a pretty quick, spirited period with rushes and hits at almost every turn. Kadri seemed to be in the middle of most plays, and had a couple of very viable scoring opportunities. Late in the third, Nazem even managed to start a scrum that somehow lead to Chris Neil getting a penalty, and the Leafs getting a powerplay with 6 minutes left to play - great chance to put the game away and deprive Ottawa of the loser point.
i think they gave neil a penalty 'cause smith's headfake was dumb.
The Leafs maintained decent possession for a small period of time in Ottawa's end on the power play, but weren't able to generate much in the way of scoring chances. That's alright, everyone thinks. Overtime is just around the corner.
Ha! With the score still tied at 2, and just under a minute left in the game, Ottawa entered the zone and lobbed a soft shot that Scrivens gloved, and attempted to play. For some reason though, as he skated out of the net to put the puck down, the referee blew the whistle, giving the Senators a faceoff in the Leafs end with under a minute to go. Well, that's fine - we have 2 of the top faceoff men in the league, right? What's the worst that can happen?
well damn, this is the worst that can happen.
Now what happens? Well Grabovski loses the draw pretty cleanly to Zibanejad, who drops it back to Patrick Wiercioch, who fires it on the net. Scrambles Scrivens gloves it, but bobbles it in his hands. It sure does look like he's got possesion of it, but there's no quick whistle this time. The puck squirts free to Colin Greening (AGAIN?!) [hey, this guy went to Cornell with Scrivens?] who obviously puts it home. It was kind of a greasy goal, but it shouldn't have came to that.
There's less than 30 seconds left in the game after this. The Leafs pulled Scrivens and had a couple of super brief chances, including a faceoff with 3 seconds left, but where unable to convert.
Ottawa ultimately ended up with the victory, beating the Leafs 3-2.
For what seems like the umpteenth time in a row, the Leafs were outshot, 11-9 in the third and 35-28 over the course of the game.
Ben Scrivens stopped 32 of 34 shots for a .914 SV% in his outing, Ben Bishop turned away 26 of 28 for a .929 SV% in his win.
Dion Phaneuf lead all players in ice-time in the game with 26:17 TOI (he finished the game even with one shot.) Clarke MacArthur lead the Leafs in shots with 5, one of which hit the back of the net.
Mark Methot lead the SNES with 25:28 TOI, and Eric Gryba lead them in shots with 5.
The line of Greening, Zibanejad and Condra was on the ice for each Ottawa goal, and combined for seven points on the night.
Toronto now sits tied with Boston (who has played 5 fewer games!) for 6th in the East, at 22 points, 2 behind 5th place Ottawa, and 3 ahead of 8th place Philadelphia. Unfortunately, this was not a game to lose in regulation, as the Senators are down several key players and are almost certainly an inferior team. The team's possession and special teams numbers need improving if they're going to compete night-in, night-out. Hopefully the impending return of Lupul, Gardiner and Frattin can improve the team's below average powerplay numbers and reverse some of the trend of the team being outshot consistently.
Unfortunately though, it's unlikely we'll see any of the players returning to the lineup before March, as such the Leafs are essentially without them for the week ahead. Let's take a look at that.
The Week Ahead:
The Leafs did and didn't do themselves any favours this week. They stayed well ahead of bottom feeders like the Panthers, but weren't able to distance themselves from divisional rivals close to them in the standings. The defeat of Buffalo does, in its way, mitigate some of the odour of losing to Ottawa, but a split in Florida leaves them with only a .500 record on the week. As the playoff race starts to solidify, a more consistent effort is going to be necessary. Tied with Boston who has played 5 less games is not a good position to be in. This essentially puts the Leafs in a race with the Flyers who are 2 points back with one more game played and the Rangers, who are 3 points back with 2 fewer games played. Basically, the Leafs need to turn sustain a patch of good performances that hopefully translate to wins, instead of poor performances that lead to losses or fluke wins.
So where does this leave us in the week ahead?
Well come Monday the Buds get to dust themselves off and try again, this time against the Flyers in Philadelphia. The Leafs have shown early success against the Flyers this year, having beaten them in their sole encounter. Getting a 'W' in this game would do well to start distancing themselves from Philadelphia.
On Wednesday, the Eastern Conference leading (!!) Montreal Canadiens will be in town. Montreal is pretty hot right now, obviously, but Toronto has had their number so far this year, beating them twice (once in very dominant fashion). I'd hope this trend continues for the time being.
The very next night, the Leafs head down to Long Island to take on the DiPietro-less Islanders. The Islanders are a garbage team that is essentially a bunch of refuse Garth Snow has found and taped together with stick tape... That said, they always give the Leafs trouble. Managing to win this one would be a step in the right direction of exercising those demons.
Oh - then there's no game on Saturday, because that happens sometimes and it's weird. So the Weekly Leaflet next week will likely be a more condensed "what happened" kind of deal.
Either way, I'd like to say the Leafs should pick up 3 wins and have caught the Habs or something... But, I don't really see that happening the way some numbers are trending. We'll see where we end up next week.
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