Corsi and Fenwick | EV Face Offs | H2H Time On Ice
Game Summary | Event Summary | Scoring Chances
The Toronto Maple Leafs won in Buffalo for the first time under Ron Wilson as James Reimer took over for Jean-Sebastien Giguere and backstopped the team to a 2-1 win. Phil Kessel scored again to give him five points in his last five games and Joey Crabb potted a beautiful short-handed goal which stood up as the game winner. James Reimer stopped 14 of 15 saves to pick up his eighth win of the season. His stats continue to look damn good:
- Only Mike Komisarek, Jay Rosehill, and Tim Brent were on the negative side of the Corsi ledger. Considering the other two moves Burke has made you have to think he's at least trying to shed the Haboteur's pricey contract.
- Keith Aulie and Dion Phaneuf held the Sabres without a scoring chance the entire game.
- The Means of Production line allowed only one scoring chance and had 7 (Mikhail Grabovski) and 8 (Nikolai Kulemin, Clarke MacArthur) of their own.
- Tyler Myers was given the match up against that line. Doesn't look like he did too well.
- This was the second game I've noticed where a team has played their top defenceman against Grabbo and co. rather than Kessel.
- Joffrey Lupul picked up another point and played a spirited game. The Leafs are 2-0-0 since they decided that Lupul was enough to replace Kris Versteeg.
So the Leafs move to within 6 points of the final playoff spot. They have one game left against each Carolina and Atlanta and two against Buffalo who have two games in hand. They also only have eleven days until the trade deadline and the beginning of the toughest month of hockey. Brian Burke's refusal to rule out the playoffs seems to have galvanized the team but it is still a massive, massive ask. I trust he won't do anything we'll regret like not move Tomas Kaberle in order to give it a go since we all know what'll happen if the playoffs stop looking like a long shot...
