I've been trying to come up with a list of positives to take away from this game. Here we go:
- Reimer returns Saturday
- Kessel and Lupul both got on the scoresheet
- The Leafs scored on 50% of their powerplays
- Bobby Ryan could still be a Leaf by Saturday
That's about it for the positives. The Leafs played pretty bad in their own zone tonight. I'm also not sure why Franson continues to sit. He played well on the Leafs road trip last week and is a far better passer than Schenn or Aulie. Defensively his numbers are no worse than Schenn's. Looking at the timeonice data, Schenn was absolutely hammered in Fenwick (-5) and Corsi (-8) tonight. Franson sitting also forced John-Michael Liles over the right side, an area where he seems far from comfortable. Nathan Horton visibly took advantage of this on Boston's second goal.
Up front, Kessel had a few glorious chances that he failed to convert on, but he did make a beauty of a pass to Joffrey Lupul for the Leafs second goal. Nik Kulemin's cold streak continues, and he's a guy who really needs to get it going or risk slipping down the depth chart. He has only one shot in the Leafs last two games and his goalless streak is now up to18 games (yikes!).
In net, Gus was simply average. The Leafs left too many uncovered Bruins open throughout the game due to sloppy defense and Boston was able to take advantage. Anyways, here's the game in six:
