Saturday’s FTB: Jesus, Freddie Take The Wheel

A quick TL;DR of last night’s hockey games as far as the Leafs are concerned.

Toronto wins. That's good!
Buffalo wins. That's bad.
Tampa Bay loses. That's good!
Boston wins. That's bad.
Ottawa loses. That's good!
Detroit lost in overtime. Also they contain potassium benzoate.

— User Who Wishes They Would Ban Nazis (@99Goldenhawk) November 25, 2017

Sure the Leafs’ win was ugly (you can read Fulemin’s recap here) and they probably deserved to win if Jesus Freddie (so named because that was said by Fulemin every five minutes, it seemed) hadn’t absolved the players in front of him for their sinful defense. Seriously, Frederik Andersen won the Leafs that game. Then again they probably should have won the previous game, and Freddie might have lost us some games earlier in the year. So... balance?

Also, there’s a conspiracy theory that the Leafs only allowed it to be a one goal game so the goal Patrick Marleau scored would be another game winner.

Patrick Marleau of the @MapleLeafs scored his 102nd career game-winning goal to pass Jarome Iginla for seventh on the NHL’s all-time list. #NHLStats #TORvsCAR pic.twitter.com/zQOClbKlwl

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) November 25, 2017

ONTO THE LINKS!

The surprising rise of Andreas Borgman – and what it says about where the NHL is headed | by Mirtle at The Athletic

TLN read a Rosie DiManno article so you didn’t have to... Canucks Legend Mats Sundin Thinks Auston Matthews “Will Be a Great Leafs Captain” | by The Leafs Nation

Maple Leafs by the numbers: #23 Shack, Ponikarovsky, or Gill? | by Elseldo

NHL Fines and Suspensions: How do they work? | by Katya

Shenzhen trip ends in a close loss for Markham Thunder 1-0 | by nafio

AROUND THE NHL

Scoring is up, and increased effectiveness on offensive zone faceoff wins is one reason why | by Dellow at The Athletic

The Vegas Golden Knights won a crazy game 5-4 thanks to a Jonathan Marchessault OT goal, and I have a serious player crush on him and hope the Leafs somehow sign him. The game also included this ugly hit that I hope leads to a suspension:

David Perron isn't on the Vegas bench at the moment. He took this shot from Timo Meier earlier. pic.twitter.com/x8Xqgbhz8n

— Ryan Quigley (@RP_Quigs) November 25, 2017

Meanwhile, in Ottawa, let’s check in with how they’re doing since they swung that blockbuster three-way trade to get Du-

Matt Duchene as a @Senators:

7GP, 0G, 0A, -10
Team: 2-4-1

Kyle Turris as a @PredsNHL:

6GP, 2G, 3A, +2
Team: 5-1-0

Ouch.

— Brad Boutilier (@bjtb) November 25, 2017

...oh.

Well, let’s not kick those who are already down. Let’s talk about superstar Connor McDavid playing against the Buffalo Sabres, I’m sure he-

35% Corsi! Trailing most of the game! Buffalo!

— Travis Yost (@travisyost) November 25, 2017

...oh. Well, at least with the news coming out that McDavid has been playing sick and lost 10 pounds the last week or so means the Edmonton media will probably let up on their criti-

Super frustrating. McDavid had Lucic going hard to net, great chance to throw tricky backhander on goal and held it until he was out of scoring chance zone.

— David Staples (@dstaples) November 25, 2017

...oh.

You know what? How about we just enjoy our Saturday, eh? Leafs are taking on the Washington Capitals, Marlies are back in game action, even Keaton Middleton has four points in his last two games and 14 points in 19 games!

GO LEAFS GO!

What was the most unlikely thing to happen in hockey last night?