After this nightmare of a finish against the Hurricanes the Leafs continue their 7 game trek with a matchup against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Leafs smoked the Lightning 6-1 in Toronto but the Lightning magically morph into a strong hockey team when they are at home and can hide their big three of Lecavalier, St. Louis, and Richards. It will be interesting to see who draws what matchup but I would guess that the Captain and the Soviet Bloc will draw the duty of shutting down the Quebeckers while the Stajan line will be tasked with slowing down Richards.
And who draws the duties of shutting down the Leafs' offensive machine? A 191st overall draft pick with two games experience that has lived up to Tortorella's 25% rule. I bet he stymies the Leafs good because why wouldn't he?
Al Pacino has a quick word for the boys:
Make it another shit kicking boys!
Go Leafs Go!
Here are the home and road splits for some stats that might be considered either interesting or scary. The Lightning's home powerplay is a thing of terror for the Leafs. Thankfully the road is where the Leafs' PK works best. If Gill and Kubina are asked to kill 13 and 10 minutes worth of penalties respectively then the Lightning will probably win the matchup.
| Road/Home | Maple Leafs | Lightning |
|---|---|---|
| Powerplay | 12.1% - 29th | 24.4% - 5th |
| Penalty Kill | 84.6% - 8th | 84.2% - 13th |
| GF / GA (GP) | 45/45 (16) | 64/47 (18) |
| Record | 7-7-2 | 11-5-2 |
Vesa Toskala's heroics were enough to earn him another Player of the Game nod. Remember to put your guesses for who will score take the first shot, get the first penalty, and score the first goal in the comments. I'll keep a running tally of the results in the right sidebar.
As always, the comment section is a wonderful place to vent and rage between periods or make hopeful predictions that you can tout in the future if they happen to come to pass. Each period and overtime/shootout gets their own section so just reply to the relevant section's main post and question how the team can look so good one night and so bad the next or even from minute to minute within the exact same game. Whatever you want to say all that you need to say it is to set up an account to comment so register and share your thoughts.
