First Period

Michael Eyssimont gets away with knocking William Nylander down in "one second later that's interference" style.

Nick Robertson winning a board battle against Tanner Jeannot is not a thing I knew I'd enjoy as much as I just did.

Wow. Ryan Reaves with three clean and bit hits on the Lightning. Including Victor Hedman. That was fun.

The next guy to knock Nylander down gets to go sit for two.

The Leafs power play, even with Morgan Rielly struggles to get setup, but that is the PK of the Lightning more than their own issues. But one of their issues was a bad change to the second unit, when half the first didn't seem to know they were to go off.

Leafs take a tripping call when a flying dive to block a shot goes a little too far. Or not. Hedman scores on the delayed penalty. It was amazing how the team with no Shots on Goal suddenly looked competent with an extra guy on the ice.

1-0 Tampa Bay

Leafs take another penalty defending, but it goes directly to the power play, so the PK gets to take it, and they look good.

Auston Matthews gets a breakaway, and you see why he's not a rush player. Anthony Duclair catches him easily. I feel like Matthews makes up for his lack of straight line speed with some other attributes, though.

Bobby McMann, star of past episodes of Leafs taking dumb penalties, takes an accidental penalty. The suddenly good Leafs PK is still good.

Heh. Lightning take a penalty and for extra special amusement, it's Luke Glendening.

63!!

Tie Game

He hit that puck as hard as Reaves did Hedman.

Great scrum in front of the net by that noted offensive savant, Reaves.

Thoughts

Stay out of the box!

Also, holy, did the Leafs ever dump a lot of guys on their ass in that period. They also played a hell of a lot better than against the Panthers.

Were you wondering if Reaves was making the playoff roster? Wonder no more.

Second Period

Brandon Hagel trips Matthews early to give the Leafs another power play try. The PK is excellent at disrupting the zone entry.

Keefe tries the fourth line against the top line. On purpose.

2-1 Lightning

Keefe told him to fly up to the sun. Was that just stupid, or did Reaves need a trip back to earth?

Leafs come charging back with a long period of offensive pressure.

Stamkos pots an easy one as the Leafs get done on a rush against when Jake McCabe is way out in the parking lot.

3-1 Lightning

Glendening gets another penalty, hilariously for tripping Reaves. If you take a penalty defending Reaves, you should have to retire.

The power play continues its slow climb to its old heights, but no goal this time.

Thoughts

Ugh. So Tampa found a five-on-five game they didn't have in the first. The Leafs started hitting pro forma rather than to get the puck, and then they did a series of stupid things. You have to count Keefe as part of "the Leafs". He did one of the stupid things.

Leafs still the better team overall everywhere but where it counts.

Third Period

Jeannot and Reaves with a staged fight. Yawn. These need to be entirely banned, not just off the faceoff.

Woll with a very timely save on a Kucherov breakaway. Kucherov wanted a penalty on Simon Benoit, which he did not get.

Leafs take a penalty when the holding was very mutual.

Another decent PK, and a good performance from Woll.

It's been a long time since the Leafs looked like they might score. The Lightning are not a team that's easy to come back against.

Nylander with a tip that goes wide is the only likely shot all period, and seconds later, the game is over:

4-1 Leafs

That's that.

Thoughts

The first period was great!

Defensive breakdowns, inattentive lapses. Too many penalties under pressure, and a third period that was by the script of the Lightning. That was the rest of the game.

Woll wasn't going to save the Leafs tonight, but it sure is more palatable to lose while facing 40 shots than it is a lot less. You want to see him exhausted, not just unhappy. But that's how we feel not how you measure him.

The next game is Saturday in Montréal. Won't that be fun?

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