Leafs Add too Oilers Misery

 

Well, I am back from a weekend away in Waterloo for a tournament where despite the U16 team I coach going unbeaten in round robin play fell in the semifinal round to the Don Mills Flyers. I am very proud of the team’s performance, and it is something to build off for the remainder of our regular season.

 

Since my last article the Leafs had fallen to the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-3 but then followed it up on the Saturday winning a wild one 5-4 against Chicago. Last night the Leafs were back on the road traveling to Edmonton to battle the Oilers who heading into this matchup had lost their five previous games. With the Leafs still dealing with injuries and the Spezza suspension they received some good news, Travis Dermott who had been absent for the last four games with a minor injury returned to the lineup and joining him would be Ilya Mikheyev who had returned from thumb surgery in the preseason. For the Oilers last night, they would be without Ryan McLeod and head coach Dave Tippet as they entered Covid Protocol. Last night was also supposed to be the first meeting against Zach Hyman but he would miss the game due to an injury.

Jack Campbell after getting some rest Saturday night would return to the net for the visiting Leafs and for the Oilers, they would look too Mikko Koskinen in the hopes of ending the teams losing streak. The first period for this game saw the Leafs get off to a slow start and when you’re playing against the likes of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl that can lead to for a very long and frustrating evening. The Leafs would struggle with early penalties and turnovers as Tavares would be called for tripping giving Edmonton an early opportunity to open the scoring. Toronto however would kill off the man advantage, but it wasn’t all smooth sailing as Edmonton would hit a few posts and cross bars along the way. Edmonton midway through the period would have easily their best chance to grab the 1-0 lead as Jake Muzzin while behind his goal would throw the puck out front in his backhand blindly turning it over and Leon Draisaitl, the leagues leading goal scorer would be staring at a wide-open net only to see his shot go sailing wide. The Oiler chances would continue to pile up, but Jack Campbell would stand tall turning each attempt aside. After surviving the Oilers surge the Leafs would begin to find their game and they would begin too test Koskinen both Michael Bunting and William Nylander would each see their scoring attempts turned aside. Toronto would have an attempt on the powerplay as late in the first period Leon Draisaitl would get called for roughing on Travis Dermott and as we have recently seen Toronto’s powerplay has been dangerous every time it is on the ice. In the final minute with the Leafs top powerplay unit they would be able to light the lamp as after a won faceoff Morgan Rielly would send his point shot on goal that would be stopped by Koskinen but Tavares and Kase would battle for the lose puck. Eventually John Tavares would send a pass over to Matthews who would shovel the puck into the back of the net for his nineteenth goal of the year giving the visiting Leafs the 1-0 lead. With this goal Auston Matthews would see his point streak extend to ten games and the Maple Leafs would head to the intermission with the one goal advantage.

Period two would start just like the first did with Edmonton controlling the play but once again Jack Campbell would shut the door as he would turn aside the chances of Warren Foegel, Darnell Nurse who would show off his great hands only to have Campbell stop him, and finally Connor McDavid would weave his way through traffic but Jack Campbell would use the poke check knocking the puck away and I am sure Johnny Bower was looking down with a smile on his face after seeing that big save. With just over eleven minutes left Toronto’s fourth line would get on the board as Kyle Clifford would skate down the far wing with Wayne Simmonds driving the middle of the ice, Clifford would drop the puck to Rielly who’s shot on goal would be stopped but Simmonds at the top of the crease would slide the puck around Koskinen and into the net for just his fourth goal of the season despite having countless opportunities turned aside. With Toronto now leading 2-0 things would get worse for the struggling Oilers as late in the period as the Leafs would move the puck around the Edmonton zone as Kompf would send the puck to Timothy Liljegren who would send the puck to the far point to TJ Brodie who would wire a slap shot towards the Oilers net that would beat Koskinen after deflecting off the stick of Connor McDavid. This goal would be the first of the season of Brodie and the fiftieth of his career. The Oilers would now be trailing 3-0 and searching for answers going into the second intermission.

 

Period three would start with the Oilers playing with desperation but Campbell would always settle things down by freezing the play. Sadly, Campbell’s bid for a shutout would come to an end as Colton Sceviour and Zach Kassian would team up and finally get the Oilers on the board as Kassian’s shot attempt would be stopped but Sceviour would send the rebound home for his first goal of the season and the Oilers would now trail 3-1 as they now had a spark and plenty of time to climb back into this contest. All hopes of an Oiler comeback would be dashed as just minutes later the Leafs would find themselves once again leading by three as William Nylander would take the puck around the Oilers goal but then he would feed Morgan Rielly with a beautiful backhand pass whose wrist shot would find the back of the net beating Koskinen top shelf on the blocker side for his fourth goal of the season. Toronto now playing with a 4-1 lead would then begin to grind the game down, but the scoring was not finished as Ryan Nugent-Hopkins would turn the puck over at his blueline losing the puck to Ondrej Kase who would set up Auston Matthews who was walking into the middle of the ice and his wrist shot would beat Koskinen blocker side and with Auston’s second of the game and twentieth of the season the Leafs advantage would grow to 5-1. After this during the next shift someone from the crowd would throw an Oilers jersey on the ice, I have said it before, and I will say it again and in fact this will be the last time I mention it but throwing a jersey on the ice is so disrespectful to the players currently on the team and to everyone who has worn the sweater in the past. I get being frustrated but throwing a jersey now is just someone idiot looking for attention.

 

Toronto would go on and win this game 5-1 and now have some time off as Thursday’s game in Calgary was postponed due to the Flames dealing with a covid outbreak but one positive if there is one is that the seventeen members of the organization show no signs of symptoms which means that hopefully they are in the clear sooner rather then later. So, Toronto’s next game action potentially comes on Saturday night in Vancouver who are also dealing with covid issues as they have four members in protocol.

Lastly, on my facebook page I will be posting updates of international games that team Canada is taking part in because we have World Junior Pre-Tournament games starting, there is a women’s game tonight in fact between Canada and USA and finally Canada’s Spengler Cup team coached by Claude Julien is over in Russia for a quick tournament known as the Channel 1 Cup so follow me on facebook as I will be posting score results for all of this action. Christmas time means there’s loads of hockey to watch and for someone like me, well I can’t complain.

Thanks, as always for reading.