Leafs Win-less In Vancouver

 

 

Last night the Maple Leafs were looking to rebound from their 3-1 loss on Thursday and split the two-game series in Vancouver. Thatcher Demko would once again get the start in goal for the host Canucks, with Freddie Andersen in net for Toronto.

 

The Leafs would see a repeat of Thursday night as it would be Vancouver opening the scoring as Brock Boeser would find the back of the net on the power play as Auston Mathews served a high sticking minor. The score would be levelled at the 15-minute mark of the opening frame as Alex Kerfoot would send a touch pass over to Captain, John Tavares, who beat Demko blocker side for his 8th goal of the season. This goal sparked Toronto for the remainder of the period, the Leafs would force Vancouver to defend, as Toronto was cycling the puck getting chance after chance. Thatcher Demko managed to keep the door closed and the score tied 1-1 as the teams headed into first intermission.

 

The second period saw momentum swing completely in the Canucks favour as the home team came out controlling the play. Andersen was holding the fort as he made save after save to keep the game tied. In what seemingly came against the flow of play as Jason Spezza led the Leafs on the rush with Jimmy Vesey on the opposite wing and defence man TJ Brodie jumped into the play. The go-ahead goal would come thanks to Jimmy Vesey after finishing a beautiful passing play between him, Spezza, and Brodie. This would be Vesey's 5th goal of the season, and the 9th point in the last five games from the teams bottom six forwards. This goal did not slow down Vancouver as they went right back to applying pressure to the Leafs, but thanks to the solid play in goal by Andersen, the Leafs would have the lead after 40 minutes of play.

 

The Maple Leafs had a record of 13-1-1 when leading after two periods and Vancouver was yet to have won a game when trailing at the start of period three, so statistics seemed to be in favour of the Maple Leafs. Toronto came out strong, getting the first nine shots of the period and everything seemed smooth sailing until the halfway mark of the frame when Toronto took a penalty and found themselves short handed once again. This time William Nylander would be sent to the sin bin for a delay of game penalty. Just like the Mathews penalty, this one to Nylander would come back to bite the Leafs as Bo Horvat would deflect a point shot from Brock Boeser. This would lead us to seeing the game tied once again, this time at 2's.

 

The Horvat goal seemed to take the wind out of the visiting Maple Leafs and they began trying to force the play, leading to turnovers and failed stretch passes in what I like to call "hope hockey". Now for those wondering, "hope hockey" to me is when players abandon their game plan and start trying to make low percentage plays. A perfect example of this would have been when Mitch Marner tried to  skate 1 on 4 against Vancouver and turned over the puck, or the numerous hail mary passes up the ice that would lead to icing and a face off in Toronto's end. If you keep the game simple, your game will be successful. Vancouver would score the final two goals of the contest and leave with a well earned 4-2 win, sweeping this two-game series. For the Leafs it was the first time this season they have suffered consecutive regulation losses. They will need to quickly hit the reset button as they return home for a three-game set against the visiting Winnipeg Jets, who will also be looking for redemption after falling 7-1 to Montreal Saturday night.
 

Every team goes through ups and downs in the season, and Leaf fans, now it's our turn. Toronto has too much skill and fire power to be quiet for long. We will see how much of that fire power they will bring Tuesday night.