Leafs give away the first period and ultimately the game to the Islanders

First Period

Maxim Tsyplakov scored before half the fans had made it through the beer line.

Bo Horvat made it 2-0 on the second Shot on Goal

Craig Berube wisely called a timeout. And not long after the mixed up defence pairs were back to the former standard arrangement with Conor Timmins and Simon Benoit as the third pair and Chris Tanev and Jake McCabe reunited.

Joe Woll had to make a tough stop on Mat Barzal.

William Nylander got one back:

The Islanders got a rush against on a blocked shot and Woll gave up a huge rebound and in it went.

Tanev has a question:

My answer:

Playing like shit. David Kämpf filling in for Matthews was the only line not outshot.

After one it was 3-1 Islanders.

Second Period

The second period started with a totally new defence pair arrangement featuring Oliver Ekman-Larsson with Timmins and McCabe back with Benoit. The point seemed to be Morgan Rielly with Chris Tanev.

William Nylander and Mitch Marner changed spots as well.

David Kämpf has a totally different game on a line like this.

Lineblender got to the third line finally and Max Pacioretty swapped with Bobby McMann.

Mitch Marner with an excellent defensive shift. His game is elevating all the time this season.

After two it was 3-2 Islanders. So were the Leafs better or did they just score?

Some of both. The Islanders still outshot them (who doesn't?) but they did spend that 20 minutes keeping the "oh shit" moments to a minimum and keeping the Expected Goals down a little.

Third Period

There seemed to be even more new defence pairs in the third, and I lost track.

Isaiah George with his first ever NHL goal at about the five-minute mark may have put this game out of reach for the Leafs.

When I watched Easton Cowan on the Knights last year, the first player that made me go, oh, I want him was George. Some of the forwards were fun, but George was a guy that looked like a real player.

Sorry.

Horvat with another, and that seemed to be the end the end of the Leafs.

McMann said, "Not so fast".

Leafs pulled Woll very early (which means they still have a stats department that has a voice).

Islanders get the ENG, which was, of course, the most likely event, but the Leafs were already losing.

Final score was 6-3 Islanders and the third period might even have been worse in some ways than the other two even though it featured some seriously good scoring chances.

What went wrong? The entire first period, getting outshot, letting every blocked shot for turn into a rush chance against for the first half of the game, and just general suckitude.

To get to the end result you want, you have to take the path that leads there. The Leafs wandered off somewhere else that was actually fun a lot of the time.

The next game is Monday afternoon at home to the Jets. See you then, unless like most people, you're at work.

Every so often I watch Mitch Marner pouring it out on the ice, and I wonder if he'll have this in the playoffs. There's no reason the answer should be no.