Holtby Stands Tall

 

After being shutdown for three weeks and the NHL rescheduling a few of their games the Vancouver Canucks were back in action last night as the Toronto Maple Leafs were in town for the first of two games. There was some good news on the injury front at least at the start of the game as Auston Matthews who missed Toronto’s game against Winnipeg due to a nagging wrist injury he was back in the lineup and William Nylander who was in Covid Protocol for 9 days was also available to return. As the headline suggests Braden Holtby would be starting for the Canucks and the Leafs would look to Jack Campbell who had lost his last two starts. Going into this game the media all expected Toronto to walk over the Canucks due to their three-week shutdown but as we all know anything can happen in hockey. The Leafs as expected got off to a great start using their speed and skill to generate chances and it paid off as just under four minutes into the game the Leafs would light the lamp first as John Tavares would pass to William Nylander coming down the Left Wing and he would score his 14^th goal of the year beating Holtby glove side to put the visiting Leafs ahead 1-0. This goal would be Nylander’s 100^th goal of his career. After this goal Holtby started to settle down despite being under pressure from Toronto’s offense he managed to keep the game close helping kill off a Leaf power play in the process and the teams would head to the locker rooms with the Leafs ahead 1-0.

 

Period number two started much like the first Toronto once again controlling the play and everything was looking good the Leafs continued to collect chance after chance only to see Holtby turn Toronto’s chances away. With the Maple Leafs in control of this game the positives could not last forever as Alex Edler who had served a penalty in the first period for slashing would once again be penalized as he would be given a 5-minute major and a game misconduct for kneeing Toronto’s Zach Hyman injuring him on the play. Some good news out of that situation is that Hyman was able to leave the ice on his own power and did not need assistance to the dressing room. Also, John Tavares after the game mentioned that Zach was optimistic after the game and did not think the injury would be as serious as fans had originally feared. So, with the Canucks down to 5 defense men and the Leafs heading to a 5-minute power play this would be a key point in the game but knowing the Leafs like we fans do we know that they never make things easy on us. For four minutes of this power play it looked as if Toronto was going to remain scoreless on the man advantage with Holtby making so many huge saves but with 19 seconds left the power play would come through as Tavares and Nylander would team up collecting assists on the 33^rd goal of the season for Auston Matthews as he would send the puck into the roof of the net and Toronto’s lead would double to 2-0. Vancouver however would find their way back into the game as just minutes later Bo Horvat would come streaking down the wing and fire a shot that would beat Jack Campbell on the blocker side and the Leafs lead would shrink to 2-1 thanks to Horvat’s 15^th goal of the season. With the Canucks in the game that goal along with Holtby’s strong play in goal their confidence would continue to grow, and Toronto would head into the second intermission holding onto a 2-1 lead.

 

Period three should be called the Braden Holtby show as he continued to stand on his head, he looked like the goalie that won the Stanley Cup a few years ago with the Washington Capitals he was amazing there is no other way to describe his play. Matthews, Marner, Tavares would all see great chances turned aside but the best save from Holtby came when he would absolutely rob Wayne Simmonds when Holtby would make a pad save while on his back made a pad save to keep the game close. Midway through this third period the Canucks would tie the score at two as a shot by Jalen Chatfield would be stopped by Campbell, but the rebound would go right to Nils Hoglander and he would shovel the rebound into the goal collecting his 8^th goal of the season. With the game now level both teams would battle for the go-ahead goal but both goalies would stand tall. In the final minute of play it looked as if the Leafs may have won the game as Auston Matthews would take a shot that would ring off the cross bar and with Holtby scrambling it looked as if the rebound from Marner entered the net with Marner even showing the official where the puck was but after a review the on-ice call of no goal would stand, and the teams would need to play an overtime session.

It would not take long for the bonus point to be awarded as with a little over one minute played Bo Horvat would once again come skating down the left wing and collect his second goal of the game with a shot that would once again beat Jack Campbell on the blocker side and Vancouver would come away with the Overtime victory.

 

Now I am going to take some time to give my thoughts on the game and some things I read and heard after the game last night. I completely understand that fans and reporters are entitled to their opinion but when I hear people compare last night’s loss to the “David Ayers” game I find that absolutely embarrassing. The loss to David Ayers last year was entirely different that game the Leafs after the Engvall goal stopped playing the team stopped skating they were totally shutdown by a perfectly played defensive game by Carolina. Last night the Maple Leafs were the better team the entire game they outshot their opponents the Leafs had plenty of high-quality chances with Matthews collecting 14 of them alone and when people like Gord Stellick come on and say “this game was the worst loss of the season” I think his evaluations on a team and its play or lack thereof exposed itself because for fans that do not Stellick was Leafs GM from April of 88 to August of 89. The teams record with Stellick at the helm is 28 wins 46 losses and 6 ties. With that record the team finished 10^th in the conference giving up a total of 342 goals. I am no expert and have never claimed to be one but if you cannot see that Toronto lost this game on a weak goal that Campbell himself knows he should have stopped I do not know what to tell you. Jack Campbell when called upon this season has done a great job in goal winning 11 straight starts if anyone is forgetting but sometimes in hockey you are not going to always get the expected result. A perfect example of this would be last season in the playoff bubble when the Montreal Canadiens who were the 23^rd best team in the league eliminated the powerhouse Pittsburgh Penguins why? Because Carey Price played out of his mind and the Penguins were unable to solve him. You can go back even further to the playoff runs when the Leafs would rely on Curtis Joseph. Those Leafs teams dealt with weak defensive pairs those teams would be outshot on a regular basis but won games because Joseph stood on his head and made saves, he had no business making. My point to all of this is sometimes the better team does not get the win.

 

Toronto last night played a great game they controlled the play the power play managed to find the score sheet and hopefully that starts producing more and more. Toronto’s goaltending picked up another point in the standings now having a total of 33 points from backup netminders. Toronto gained a point in the standings now holding a 4-point lead on the second place Winnipeg Jets. Should the Leafs have won last night? Sure, you play to win every game, but Toronto earned a point from a solid performance and now tomorrow night these teams meet again, and I am willing to bet we see another solid performance by Toronto. So, to the Maple Leaf fans that are writing this team off because they have lost their last four games take a deep breath and back away from the edge of the cliff this team will get on track because the additions of Nick Foligno and Ben Hutton will likely be available on Thursday when the team travels to Winnipeg for their three-game set giving Toronto even more options to help the team be successful.