What the Leafs need to do is call it a learning experience and keep moving.
Remember last year when this was the only silver lining to practically every game? Yeah, I do too but only because I dredge through the memories during therapy so that I can begin to move on from last year's mess. The bottom line is that these games happen. I don't think it was helped by the two three day breaks between the last couple of games. Ron Wilson predicted that it could be a problem to have a hot team bumped out of their rhythm and it seems that his worries were well founded.
Granted, the Leafs dropped two one-goal games so they could have gone either way. However, the powerplay seemed off in both games against the reps of the Empire State (podcast spoiler: Chemmy has a great story about the Nutmeg State). In both games the Leafs had a ridiculous amount of shots blocked. A few of those were goal-bound. The scales could have tipped the Leafs' way and we could be talking about a 6-0-0 team. Then again, it could have gone the other way in some of the first four games.
So all we can do is chalk it up to being one of those nights and hope the team responds or the game could get ugly in Philadelphia.
Corsi and Fenwick | EV Face-Offs | H2H Time On Ice
Game Summary | Event Summary | Blueshirt Banter Recap
Ten Things I May Or May Not Think Or That Happened:
- Despite an uneven and sluggish effort this game was lost on the powerplay. The Leafs played 9:19 up a man and managed only five shots. Any way you cut it, it's not a good performance.
- Colby Armstrong's goal will buy him a lot of leeway. Good to see something tangible go up on the old stats sheet.
- The General is right: Ron Wilson should never have changed the line-up. The only reason Chemmy came up with was if the plan had always been to have Brett Lebda start the year before Carl Gunnarsson. Even then, why keep Gunnar in the press box?
- The New York Rangers blocked 30 shots. That's an obscene number of blocks. On the other side, the Leafs only had to block 12.
- Dion Phaneuf and Tomas Kaberle led the way for the Leafs with five and four shots blocked respectively. I would guess most of those were PP point shots that did not get through. That's a problem.
- By my count, the Leafs have played four good games and two bad ones (Pittsburgh and NYR II). I can live with that ratio for the rest of the year.
- The Oilers are last in the Western Conference again. This is solely about early schadenfreude.
- Looking at the Rangers' line-up for that game makes tonight's loss much more disappointing. That was a team ripe for the picking but the Leafs got outworked. Plain and simple and Fredrik Sjostrom noted it in-between periods.
- Mike Komisarek only played 12 minutes and it was mostly against scrubs. As each game passes, the outcry over his play will increase. I'm not really sure what is going on to be honest. If it was his shoulder they'd keep him out. If it's about learning the systems properly then it's taking a while. If it's mental then we're boned.
- Does it even have to be said that in isolation this game is nothing to worry about? Didn't think so.
