The Toronto Maple Leafs made a statement today. They said, "We'd like to profusely apologize for winning last Saturday's game against Ottawa. This team is committed to a certain style of play, and on Saturday, the game got away from us. We want to show fans that we really can give 100% each night, put our best foot forward, and ensure that this team is good enough to make the postseason draft lottery."

Someone must've told the Leafs that losing by a touchdown gets you -2 points in the standings, because the Leafs were working hard to put Saturday night behind them, and seem committed to taking this tank one game at a time.

Your goal-by-goal recap, written out into words which, when read aloud, may summon C'thullu and bring about the destruction of your life, if not all life as we know it.

  • 1st goal: Gardiner makes a routine behind-the-net pass to Luke Schenn, who fails to handle the puck in his feet, panics, and rather than sending it back around the net, shoves it up the boards, which takes a bad bounce off a Bruin, right out into the slot, and gets sealed away. A nation of Leafs fans let out an exasperated "here we go."
  • 2nd goal: An odd bounce off the endboards sits right behind the net, Liles loses sight of the puck, Reimer loses sight of the puck, Gregory Campbell actually goes to find the puck, and Reimer lets in a soft wraparound. It's fun to blame Liles, but if Reimer doesn't have sight of the puck and he's not moving his head, he should be on the other post already, looking over the same shoulder. It does no good to be on the right post looking over your right shoulder when you and your defensemen can't see the puck that should be right there.
  • 3rd goal: Nice tip.
  • 4th goal (PPG): Phaneuf stares at the puck, Marchand slides backwards, and a nice cross crease pass leads to a sharp angle shot and goal. To Phaneuf's credit, it's easy to just assume Marchand is right behind you when you hear that nose breathing. Reimer out, Jonas in. Can't wait to see who our goalie is next year.
  • 5th goal: Jonas goes to play the puck, goes between his legs, straight to the Bruins, who put it away. Sportsnet manages to blame the Leafs' skaters, supposedly for "not getting back to support Jonas," but it might as well have been for "not assuming complete and total failure by every player on the ice."
  • 6th goal (PPG): Puck moves up to the blue line, Komisarek is pushing Lucic away from the screen, which is great, until the puck is crossed over, and Lucic is now a brand new screen. Oh well.
  • 7th goal: Gustavsson gets beat short side by an uncovered Brian Rolston. Yeah, read that again. (Gus cuts across, ends up being too deep)
  • 8th goal: Keith Aucoin beats Jimmy Howard on a goal assisted by Alex Semin and Marcus Johanssen. Oh, sorry, I stopped watching that shitshow.
I guess it's hard to sit around saying "the Leafs need to improve their draft pick" and then also say "no, no, don't lose that badly!" but man, this was a rough game to watch. Bruins sweep the season series, 6-0. If you want to find someone who actually played "okay", I nominate Mike Komisarek - that's how crazy this game was. He was on ice for the Gustavsson puck-up, and was victimized by the blueline movement while effectively clearing the screen, but other than that, it wasn't really an awful game from him. And no, I don't care that he got the crap kicked out of him by Lucic. Again.


Phil Kessel played 0 shifts in which Zdeno Chara was not on ice for at least 1 second of the shift. Jake Gardiner led the Leafs in ice time. The Leafs had more PIM (14) than shots on goal (13). The Leafs got credited with more hits than the Bruins did, but the headlines will still talk about the group's lack of grit. The Leafs are faced with a must-lose game tomorrow, as they play against the Islanders, who have 3 fewer points and a game in hand.

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