...at least they held a lead? What do I even say about this game?

1st period

This was the fun period

One... Kadri is sneaky

Two... look, Brown is doing exactly what he’s supposed to be doing here. It’s just not supposed to work!

Three...which came with bonus Devils penalty after the whistle and spelled the end for Schneider

Four...a result of the penalty above, Marner takes a shot and Bozak manages to bat the rebound in

Soshnikov got hurt on a hit not long after the third goal - one of the officials came over to the bench later to apologize for missing the hit.  He took a couple of shifts after that but did go down the tunnel before the end of the period. He was back on the ice for the second, ready to take more punishment (which he did).

2nd period

Early on in this period I said in chat “this is gonna end in tears”.  Probably the best summary of how it felt.  The Leafs spent an awful lot of time in their own zone in the second period, fighting off a flurry of chances from the Devils. Nothing went in, but it was anything but a dominant period by the Leafs.

Just a small sample of the crazy, but it’s nice to notice when Carrick does good things, since he gets a bit dogpiled when he makes mistakes.

Kadri appeared to have drawn a tripping penalty about four minutes in but then play resumed with no one in the box. According to commentators, rookie official discussed with the rest of the staff and they called it off.

Brown took a stick to the mouth (again, no call) halfway through the period and needed to go to the room,

3rd period

The Leafs appeared to have righted the ship, and despite the official shot clock play was much more even  this period. I was starting to hope I could just recap the first and call it done... but Leafs

Ex-Leaf gets a goal against the Leafs. This might have been PAP’s revenge for Matthews surpassing his team-leading goal total for last season.

Less than three and a half minutes left. We’ve all been here before - attempting to tell ourselves that it’s not enough time to score three goals but knowing deep down that’s a lie...

...yelling “Oh ffs!”

Whether it was skill, lack of skill or divine intervention, the Leafs survived to win this one in regulation but I bet Babcock’s gonna yell.

Game Coverage