The Toronto Maple Leafs took on the Ottawa Senators tonight in their second game of the season. Was it a better effort than the first game vs the Canadiens? Let's find out!

FIRST PERIOD

Tavares line starts.

It’s Andersen v Anderson.

Ron Hainsey with the first shot, as you expect.

Freddie with a good save/no it’s a miss on Dzingel? off a pass from Duchene while the Leafs are kind of, huh, you guys transitioned and are way down there now. Matthews’ line looking not so smart on that one.

Melnyk’s boy Boro blows a skate, slides into Anderson, and might be hurt, OH NO!

Hyman gets a puck on net, and whoa, almost got it in. Tavares was just not quite in the lucky spot for that.

Marleau with a chance after “Duchene won the draw” which we’ll hear a tonne. Who led the league in faceoffs the year the Avs were epically bad?

Kadri line forechecking. And not geting scoring chances. Someone should write that up. /thinking_face_emoji

Dzingel has another chance, and Freddie has it. Put Dzingel in your fantasy pool, kids, he’ll get minutes with good players.

Leafs on the PK. Kappy on the PK, getting it done. I always relax when I see him out there.

Boedker gets a nice rush at the net, but it’s only Leafs on the other wing. Leafs are letting a lot of speed come at them.

Penalty killed!

Ennis is 29 today and as fast as a 28 year old!

Naz with a drive up the left wing, and he’s got Johnsson out there, and some things like offence almost happen. Naz is 28 today too, by the way, and he’s as good as he was at 27. Par Lindholm turned 27 yesterday, and he’s as fast as a 26 year old!

Anderson with a good save on Tavares, his line has all the jump tonight.

Marner keeping the offence going. Good cycle.

This game will be won or lost by Anderso(e)n. So far Ottawa’s has been great.

Naz with a d-zone faceoff and bing-bang-boom, and Dylan DeMelo scores on a shot that just goes through Freddie. Bit of a screen, but that’s on Freddie. First goal in 88 games for this DeMelo guy. 1-0 Bad guys.

Gardiner with a fanned shot makes a turnover by accident. Mmmmm cherry. With Nylander out, someone has to fan on it.

The rest of the period plays out uneventfully.

SECOND PERIOD

The second period is underway and less than 30 seconds in, Rielly ties it up!

Less than a minute later, Auston Matthews gets a feed in the slot from Marleau and makes no mistake, 2-1 Leafs!

Two minutes after that, Thomas Chabot dances around the Leafs and cleans up his own rebound... poop. 2-2 tie game.

Less than a minute after THAT, Connor Brown with a poorly advised turnover in the offensive zone that leads to a partial break for Tierney, who sneaks one by Andersen that he maybe should have had... 3-2 Sens.

Matthews line has good zone time and Ennis feeds Marleau for a great chance that Anderson stopped. That line’s been a lot better tonight.

Mitch fucking Marner is probably the most fun Leafs player to watch, and he delivers on the PP with a great move on Anderson. A nifty feed sprung Marner on a partial break and he made no mistake, 3-3!

THIRD PERIOD

Thomas freaking Chabot. Less than two minutes into the period, he made another nice play on a rush to dance through Ozhiganov and sniped it past Andersen to make it 4-3. Is October Freddie back? I hope not...

When Lindholm comes out of the box the Leafs have a 3 on 2, with Lindholm feeding Brown for a nifty tip that Anderson just squeezed his arm to make the stop.

Andersen had to make a good chance after the Sens establish zone control and create a few good chances, the last coming from Chabot again off a point shot.

Not long after Ennis fights through a mini scramble in front of the net but can’t find anywhere to get it by Anderson. The Tavares line jumps on next and create a couple of good chances of their own but can’t get a good clean shot from any of it. Still 4-3 Sens.

Off an icing Marner got stoned again off a Gardiner point shot/slap pass. Leafs buzzing but can’t buy the tying goal.

With just over 3 minutes left the Leafs pull Andersen to have the extra skater. They can’t quite create a clear chance but tire out the defenders, who are forced to ice the puck after looking gassed. Instead, Babcock calls a timeout probably to rest his top players who were all out there the entire time too. Off the faceoff they get a weak shot on net but Anderson covers it up.

And the Sens get an empty net goal from Mark Stone. All those feeling sorry for them emotions have gone away, now I hat the Sens again. Hat them. Leafs fall 5-3.

FINAL IMPRESSIONS

While it wasn’t a great game by the Leafs, they played like the clearly better team. In the end it came down to their team making more plays, getting better bounces, and their goalie being better than ours. Call it karmic justice for how bad they played the first game where they won.

I mean, they had 65% CF where their worst period was 59%, and they doubled the Sens in scoring chances and high danger scoring chances.

Did greedy Nylander earn an extra $500k in AAV after this game? Or will he greedily hold out for more? In the end, I think we can all agree that this loss was greedy Nylander’s fault.