Senators Stun The Leafs

 

The losing streak continues for the Leafs, Last night saw the latest installment in the Battle of Ontario as the slumping Leafs traveled to Ottawa to play the team living in the North Division’s basement the Senators, however on this occasion Toronto would wear their Green and White St Pats jersey’s hoping the luck of the Irish would help them out of this current losing streak. Michael Hutchinson would get the call-in goal and it would be surprise starter Joey Daccord in goal for Ottawa after scheduled starter Matt Murray sustained an injury in warm up.

 

The excitement started early as Leaf forward William Nylander would go streaking in and end up crashing into Daccord for his first shot of the game. I am sure fans watching at home thought Toronto was going to come out and play with some purpose, but it would be Ottawa with an entirely different plan as they also were looking to rebound after losing three games to Connor McDavid and the Oilers.

 

 Turnovers have been a concern for Toronto during this rough patch and they would cost the Leafs as Travis Boyd who was already out of the defensive zone would pass the puck back into the Leafs end instead of moving the puck forward like you are supposed to. Due to this questionable play Ottawa’s Brady Tkachuck would pick up the lose puck and let a weak shot go and it would sneak through Hutchinson for the early 1-0 lead. Things would go from bad to worse as just seven seconds later Ryan Dzingel would slide the puck along the ice through the 5 hole of Hutchinson and just like that Ottawa was up 2-0. Coach Keefe would then change goalies and after facing only 3 shots Hutchinson would head to the bench and Freddie Andersen would come into the game in relief.

Before I go any further, I want to talk about the play of Hutchinson last night. Now as you know I have praised the play of Michael this season my second article for this blog was titled Michael Clutchinson because he played a great game against the Oilers and deserved the praise. Now I know that like me you readers watched last night and could see that Toronto did not start well at all but still to me there is no excuse for those two Sens goals to go in. The job of a backup goalie is to give your team a chance by keeping them in games. Look at back up goalies in previous years for the Maple Leafs whether it was Curtis McElhinny in recent years or Glenn Healy and Corey Schawb backing up Curtis Joseph in the 2000’s those goalies weren’t in goal often but when they were asked to start they battled and worked hard for every save because those goalies new opportunities to play were few and far between and if they wanted to stay in the league or receive an opportunity to play elsewhere those backups needed to treat their starts like a must win game. Last night with Hutchinson letting in two soft goals on three shots, it is starts like this that cause Leaf fans to grow tired of him because when a team does not have a reliable backup your chances at success are that much more difficult.

With Andersen now in goal the Leaf coaches were looking to get their Leafs going and it seemed to work as Toronto would cut Ottawa’s lead in half as Zach Hyman would put in a lose puck after a scramble in front of the Ottawa goal. I would also like to mention that on this Hyman goal, his 9^th Auston Matthews would collect an assist on this goal moving him into 5^th in league scoring joining Leaf legends Darryl Sittler, Doug Gilmour, and Mats Sundin who had reached the top five in points during the season.

Period number two would start much like the opening frame and once again we would see Ottawa playing a more complete game. Ottawa would extend their lead 3-1 while on the power play as Hyman was serving a boarding minor but Drake Batherson would score his 10^th of the season after receiving a beautiful saucer pass from German World Juniors stud Tim Stützle. This pass was so nice that Batherson did not celebrate his just pointed at the young prospect and even in his post-game interview said the play was so nice it should have been Tim’s goal.

Just a minute later Ottawa would light the lamp again and once again it was Drake Batherson getting credit for Ottawa’s fourth goal after capitalizing on a chance after Toronto failed to clear the puck from their end.

 

Ottawa would see the third period start with a 4-1 lead and it seemed like now Toronto felt like it was time to start playing and they started to pile up the scoring chances. Ilya Mikheyev would score his 5^th goal of the season midway through the period but just like the game before there was a coach’s challenge and officials would overturn the goal due to apparent goalie interference. With the goal off the board Toronto continued to press for offense and it would pay off as with 5 minutes left and the goalie pulled Zach Hyman would score his second of the contest once again cutting the Senators lead in half with plenty of time left. The Leafs now with a little bit of hope would see the gap close to just one goal when after a won Leaf face off and Andersen once again on the bench John Tavares would get credit for his 9^th on the season after yet another scramble in front of Ottawa’s Joey Daccord. Despite the late push sadly the Leafs would see time run out and they would fall to Ottawa by a score of 4-3 giving Joey Daccord his first career win in the National Hockey League.

 

The Leafs now have a break lasting four days before they start a Back-to-back set against the Calgary Flames on Friday night. For me I think this break is a perfect opportunity to not only hit the reset button and regroup but the team really needs to I think look in the mirror and go back to what was working and get this Leaf team back on track and back in the win column. Although there does seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel as both Wayne Simmonds and Jack Campbell have both been skating regularly at Leaf practice so hopefully both can return and give Toronto a much-needed lift.