Ben Scrivens won't be picking up any bar tabs for awhile because the rest of the Leafs owe him big time. Much like the game against Columbus last Thursday, the Leafs had no business leaving the rink with 2 points tonight. They were outshot 40-22, the worst differential for them this season, and hemmed into their own zone for a good 15 minutes each period. St. Louis absolutely dominated play, but due to yet another stellar performance by Ben Scrivens they only left with a charity point. This now makes 2 games stolen by Scrivens in 3 starts and rights the ship that many thought would sink like the S.S. Gustavsson.
Despite scoring 2 goals, the Leafs looked dreadful for most of the game and were only kept afloat by going 2 for 3 on the powerplay and doing holding the Blues to just 1 goal on 5 PP attempts of their own. For a team that's relied on fantastic 5on5 play this season, it was nice to see the special teams pick up the slack for a change. Tyler Bozak picked up 2 assists on the night bringing his total up to 7 for the season as he still searches for goal #1. Joffrey Lupul got one too, moving him into a tie for fourth in the league for points.
Thank goodness Bozak and Lupul were on tonight because Phil Kessel slumped yet again, failing to score on 23 of his 24 shifts in the game; a lowly 4.2% conversion rate. In fact Kessel averages a full 25:55 of icetime in between goals. The Leafs can't have Phil taking off entire periods if they wish to continue winning games.
The Leafs are getting pretty lucky in the early season with some of their wins, but they'll take the extra cushion for later in the season when Lady Luck might be wearing some other team's sweater. I'll take the win, but I'm not happen about it.
