Here are the box score stats. As I write this, War On Ice isn't working, but here's the link.
Look, I would have loved to have seen the Leafs beat the Habs. Regardless of any Connor McDavid race, it's always better to beat Montreal than it is to… you know, do the other thing. On the other hand, the bigger picture is one point brighter now that the Leafs don't have to deal with the repercussions of a silly shootout victory.
Honestly, this wasn't the worst effort we've seen from the Blue & White recently. The first period saw Jonathan Bernier make several good saves, and the Leafs get on the board early with a goal from Daniel Winnik. It wasn't a beauty, and the Habs answered back just a couple minutes later, but hey, not getting shut out by Carey Price is an accomplishment unto itself for a team that has struggled to score, lately.
Later on in the first period, David Clarkson was ejected for a hit on Sergei Gonchar, which, as far as I can tell, was borderline at most, but don't tell Habs' fans that. Of course, seeing less of David Clarkson means seeing more of other players, so it's not much of a loss, really.
The following two periods weren't without chances and excitement, but with the goalies playing very well at both ends, the score remained knotted at 1 until the shootout round. Richard Panik hit the post in overtime, but posts don't count for much, and to be honest, it's a good thing, at least at this point.
Let's Go Draft Pick!
CLAPCLAP CLAPCLAPCLAP
From the CBC via the Canadian Press:
"It was probably our best 65 minutes in two weeks," said Winnik. "We checked hard all night and didn't give them much offensively and we created quite a lot of chances.
"It sucks this time of year to be having moral victories, but I think I'd count that as one."
It's funny that Winnik mentions "moral victories", because I was just wrote about how most of us here are basically cheering for the opposite of moral victories, but I guess we can't really expect players to be so pragmatic in public interviews.
Moving on.