At least I think it's the Monster and Kessel show. Big ups to my boy Mickey Grabs and congrats to Jonas Gustavsson on his sixth straight win after stopping 19 of 20 shots (0.950).
PPP:
The Leafs coughed up the first goal after a stupid bench minor for too many men. They were caught flatfooted on some good puck movement by the Thrashers and a screened shot got through Luke Schenn and Gustavsson. However, the Buds replied quickly as Nikolai Kulemin powered his way out of the Leafs' zone and created a 2-on-1 with Phil Kessel. Kessel once against lost control of the puck on a deke but managed to flip it up over Ondrej Pavelec's pad. After that lucky bounce Pavelec slammed the door shut with a little bit of help from four goal posts.
This game was far from a goaltender's duel but when called upon Gustavsson made the necessary saves. Ron Wilson didn't sound too impressed with his play as the Leafs did do a pretty good job of limiting the Thrashers opportunities. When they did get through their shots were devoured by the Monster. The game winning goal came early in overtime as good pressure on the boards in the Thrashers' zone led to a turnover at the blueline. Phaneuf patiently waited before throwing the puck towards a streaking Mikhail Grabovski who neatly deflected it past Pavelec.
The win gives the Leafs' 8 in their last 12 games but thanks to some useless teams the didn't pick up as many points as they could have tonight. It's still a big ask but they are providing some hope. Speaking of hope, the Monster picked up his sixth straight win. During that streak (warning: small sample size) he has a 2.00 1.92 GAA and .925SV%. Glove tap to Hungry Leafs Fan for tweeting those stats.
Corsi and Fenwick | Head-to-Head TOI | EV Face-Offs | Shift Charts
Game Summary | Event Summary | Birdwatcher's Anonymous
A few other observations:
- The too many men penalty that led to the Thrashers' only goal was rightly chalked up to laziness by Greg Millen and Joe Bowen. Guys have to go hard to get off the ice. The lollygagging is frustrating on its own let alone when it costs the team a goal.
- The Leafs # 1 unit of Dion Phaneuf, Francois Beauchemin, Nikolai Kulemin, Mikhail Grabovski, and Phil Kessel was a combined + 9.
- One of the rare night's that Tyler Bozak got dominated in the face-off circle. He was 5-for-17 for 29%. Yikes.
- Ron Wilson is starting to depend on the top line to take more and more defensive zone face-offs. I think it is because they are the one group that is able to create offence off of the rush.
- No surprise in the Corsi as Dion and Beauchemin were far and away the best at +12 and +13 respectively. That number reflects that they play with the top line and that they are the team's two most aggressive in terms of pinching./
