Maple Leafs 5 at Islanders 4 (OT): Nazem "The Dream" Kadri Lights Up Islanders, Captain Phaneuf Saves The Day

The Story

James Reimer made his return to the Leafs' net and while he did have flashes of his pre-injury brilliance, he was shaky overall and was saved by the post on numerous occasions. Nazem Kadri, great teammate, noticed this shakiness early and decided that he was going to single-handedly drive the offence. His hat trick comprised a nice patient toe drag, a lucky wrist shot, and then a ludicrous undressing of Lubomir Visnovsky. The most encouraging part was that Kadri seemed to recognize that he was having a special night and he sought out the puck constantly.

The Leafs' defensive play left a lot to be desired. Cody Franson and Mark Fraser completely embarrassed themselves on the opening goal while the same pairing combined with the top line on the second goal to show why communication is vital. On that one and the third they were essentially running a fire drill. The fourth was kids stuff: don't shoot the puck into shinpads, dump it in the corner. Reimer didn't help on bailing them out on the goals but I probably don't think the goals were as bad as some might.

At the end of the game, the Leafs' fearless leader Dion Phaneuf managed to rescue the two points that the team seemed determined to give away. The end result is that the Leafs have 26 points and will probably need just 28 points from their final 26 games in order to hit the 54 point threshold for the playoffs.

Nazem Kadri's Hat Trick

As Navin - aka Kadri's # 1 Fan - said "this is why the internet exists"

Game In Six Highlights

Toronto Maple Leafs Corsi

The top line had a rough night again as did Kostka and Gunnarsson. The former was getting thrown out for a lot of defensive face-offs while Franson was getting used more often on the offensive end. The latter is a great use of the Leafs' best offensive defenceman at the moment.

Even by Cam's scoring chances the top line was in trouble. On the other hand, the trio of Komarov-Kadri-MacArthur ran roughshod over the Islanders in terms of shots and chances.

New York Islanders Corsi

Sometimes your best players are your best players and it still doesn't matter. That was the case for the Islanders last night. Tavares and Moulson and Visnovsky (undressing aside) had strong nights. Hamonic was leaned on for defensive zone starts which is kind of funny considering the snow angels he was making while Kadri scored his first goal.