On a day where the Blue Jays fell to the most derided city in America, the Leafs journeyed to the most mocked city in Canada.

The Jets decided to honour three famous Jets from the previous Winnipeg NHL franchise: Ulf Nilsson, Anders Hedberg, and Bobby Hull. Bobby Hull is a garbage human. So far as I know the other two were reasonably decent men and good hockey players.

First Period

Mitch Marner started with a wholly unnecessary penalty, and the Jets set up an extensive, and dangerous-looking, cycle. The Jets came out gunning, and the Leafs didn’t look ready. Andersen was left kicking out big, scary rebounds, time and again.

Despite getting absolutely run for the first seven minutes, the Leafs struck first. The JVR-Bozak-Marner line had one of the first good, sustained Leaf shifts. Bozak stripped the puck from a Jet and threw it to Marner, who made a smooth pass to JVR as the latter snuck into the slot. JVR fired a shot that forced a bad Hutchinson rebound, and Connor Carrick streaked in to bury it.

The goal seemed to spark the Leafs, who began clawing back in the shot clock. The Leafs struggled with what, in the early going, seems to be their weakness: getting out of the defensive zone. Once in the Jets’ zone, the Leafs looked like they might score every time they touched the puck.

The Leafs struck again on an excellent Morgan Rielly pinch. Rielly found the puck in the corner and whipped it to a waiting Nazem Kadri. Bang bang.

The trend of the period seemed to continue: the Jets would get the cycle up in the Leafs end, and the Leafs would look lost; then the puck would go the other way and the Leafs would look spectacularly dangerous. To some extent this is inherent—everybody looks better playing offence—but it was almost as pronounced as I’ve ever seen it. The Jets missed a lot of shots, which led to the shot counter looking even, but the Leafs were under siege at times. Perhaps the best to be said is most of the shots were from distance, and that the Leafs (as per Steve Burtch) had more scoring chances.

The truth is, this was a bad period for two Leafs’ heroes. The Matthews line looked lost, and Jake Gardiner, star of my heart, made a couple of unfortunate errors. The Leafs got crushed in Corsi—59-41 at 5v5—but squared up 50-50 in Fenwick. The Buds earned the two goals they got, but they were lucky the Jets didn’t have any of their own. Hold that thought.

Second Period

The Leafs came out with a bit more jump in this one.

The Leafs got a powerplay, and then Matthias completed an extremely rare feat by being the first player I can remember who took a penalty on his own breakaway. But Matthias unquestionably grabbed Matthews’ stick as he tried to streak away, giving the Leafs a 5-on-3.

Matthews and Nylander had an idea what to do with the 5-on-3. Matthews threw to a wide-open Nylander, who finished the play with the calm precision of a surgeon.

Even, better, the Leafs scored immediately after, as Nylander and Kadri streaked in again for a glorious goal eight seconds after goal #3, just before the end o the second penalty. 4-0 Leafs, halfway through the second. Things were so wonderful.

The nicest thing about these Leafs (and believe me, things are about to get less nice): almost every offensive play is sharp. I think the biggest pleasant surprise is how ready our young forwards were to strike right from the get go, because we’ve gone from one of the least dangerous offences in the NHL to what looks like one of the deadliest.

Zach Hyman was obligated to take a penalty holding up Tyler Myers, which the Leafs killed with a spectacular save by Frederik Andersen.

Unfortunately, shortly thereafter, Gardiner got caught on an awkward pinch. Carrick did his best with the resulting two-on-one, but Mark Scheifele played it perfectly and left Tyler Myers shooting at a nearly open net. 4-1.

The period ended without further incident. The trend of the first period continued: the Leafs showed a hyper-potent offensive and an absolutely moribund d-zone game, especially the kid line of Hyman-Matthews-Nylander. But the Leafs were about to enter the third period up 4-1. Surely everything would be fine.

Third Period

The Jets came out firing again, and this time, they were rewarded quickly. Patrick Laine has a shot on him, folks, and he showed it. 4-2.

The Leafs’ habit of getting pinned in their own zone only got worse. Marner made a noble block that unfortunately rolled right to Mark Scheifele, who buried it. So with 14 minutes left, suddenly we were back to a one goal game: 4-3.

[shot of Fulemin breathing into a paper bag]

After that I spend most of the third period screaming at the screen, so forgive me if this forthcoming section is a bit short. So far as I can tell the Leafs mostly hung on for dear life, except for the usual fireworks from Marner, who has yet to be informed he is too small for the NHL.

Rielly took a penalty with a minute to go because this team hates me and my blood pressure. And of course, because Lord Voldemort designed it so, Carrick missed a clear, giving it right to Nikolaj Ehlers. Ehlers threw beautifully to Patrick Laine. 4-4, and overtime.

Overtime

You know how it had to end. Nylander sprung Matthews on a break, but Hutchinson made the save. The puck came back the other way and Laine sniped one over Andersen’s shoulder. 5-4 final, with a hat trick for #2.

Thoughts

-Look, the Leafs played absolutely garbage defence on this one. They were unlucky on some of the goals, but this is unlucky in the specific instance, not the general one. They deserved to get scored on and eventually they did.

-The possession split at 5v5 finished 56-44 for the Jets. This was an accurate depiction of the flow of play.

-The Matthews line did not have a good night at EV. In the Jets’ zone, they looked fearsome. In their own they looked bewildered. Look, I don’t like saying it, but these kids do have a lot to learn. On the upside, Nylander reminded everyone that he too is offensively brilliant.

-Jake Gardiner did not have a good night period. As usual he put up possession numbers near the high-end of the team, and normally I think those fairly represent his contributions. Tonight he just straight up made awful giveaways taking bad pinches. I’m going to do something unusual and claim the eye test over the numbers.

-We were all high on Zaitsev, and we all still should be, but he couldn’t get the puck out. The struggle wasn’t unique to him, but it was noticeable with him.

-I didn’t think Andersen looked as terrible as everyone else seems to, but five goals is five goals, and he looked bad on the winner. Having said that, the Leafs let a lot of passes zoom east-west in the d-zone, with predictable results for the scoreboard.

-The fourth line played well. Martin-Holland-Brown is a very nice group to be able to put out in a depth role. They were the only forward line to keep their heads above water in possession.

-Martin Marincin had an absolutely awful possession game. This is so at odds with his usual look that I can’t help noticing it. Playing on his backhand is a struggle, I think. (Also, yes, Hunwick’s possession numbers were still the worst on the team, because he’s Matt Hunwick.)

-Laine played extremely well, and he earned that hat trick full-bore. Let’s give credit where it’s due: dude has a shot. He’s going to do damage in this league.

-Having said that, I think the best Jets forward overall, even more than Laine, was Scheifele. He made several great plays, and a couple of them ended behind Andersen. The Jets have an excellent group of young forwards to build around; if they can avoid screwing up the Trouba thing, they’re going to be a very good team, very soon.

-Ah well. Take the point, remember it’s a rebuilding team in October, and go get ‘em in Minnesota tomorrow.

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