And John Mitchell dekes you out of your jock. What a move by Phil Kessel, I was already lamenting the miss when I realised he had not shot, and a new move from Nikolai Kulemin! The game wasn't the greatest, decent effort, and a late penalty looked set to derail things until Jean-Sebastien Giguere made one of the saves of the year. Somehow, the Leafs went 3-for-3 in the shootout which I am pretty sure has never happened before. Can we play Yann Danis every shootout?

Anyway, instant reaction folks and one night of complimenting John Mitchell instead of cursing his mother for not leaping tummy first down the stairs.

Corsi and Fenwick | Head-to-Head TOI | EV Face-Offs | Shift Charts
Game Summary | Event Summary | In Lou We Trust Recap

A few quick observations:

  • The Leafs were a terrible 39% in face-off circle. Face-offs lead to puck possession which leads to shots which lead to goals so they are vitally important. Only Tyler Bozak showed any skill last night and the encouraging thing is that he has done it consistently this year.
  • Mikhail Grabovski and Christian Hanson were terrible which is par for the course. They went 1-6 and 2-6 respectively.
  • Garnett Exelby played only 8:18 last night with all of it coming at even-strength.
  • Nikolai Kulemin led the team with 6 hits while Viktor Stalberg picked up 5. Those hits are coming as a result of some excellent forechecking that has seen both use their speed to harass the opposition.
  • The New Jersey Devils ran out Colin White and Mike Mottau for 10 defensive zone face-offs compared to one offensive zone face-offs. I think you can tell who makes up their shutdown pair.
  • On the flip side, Andy Greene and Paul Martin were leaned on for the offensive zone face-offs.
  • The Leafs' top line looks like it was run out as much as they could be for offensive zone face-offs.
  • In terms of Corsi, Dion Phaneuf, Francois Beauchemin, and Phil Kessel killed it.
  • Former Maple Leaf Martin Skoula was -11
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