Leafs Beat Ducks in Shootout

 

Photo Courtesy of CBC

Last night the Leafs finally returned to their home rink after a long six game road trip and to start the day Toronto got some positive news as Justin Holl, and Ondrej Kase returned to the lineup from Covid protocol. During the game day skate Jake Muzzin was on the ice with the rest of the healthy scratches getting some extra work in so he could be on track to return very soon.

 

Your starting goalies for this matchup would be John Gibson who heading into this game had won three of his last four starts and Anaheim had collected two convincing wins against Tampa Bay and Boston. For Toronto after getting the game against the Islanders off Jack Campbell would return to the net.

 

The first period saw the game start on the conservative side, but a goal would be scored fairly early in the contest as the Ducks had possession in the Leafs end a shot from the point would hit traffic in front and Pierre Engvall in an attempt to clear the puck would wind up hitting the shin pad of Jason Spezza and the puck would open the scoring on a Leafs own goal. Sam Steele would be credited with the goal giving him five goals on the season.  Although the Leafs were trailing early in this game their gameplan didn’t change they just put their head down and continued working. The Leafs would begin to pile up the chances as Tavares would be stopped in close, Marner and Matthews would see their shots ring off the post. Easily the best scoring chance in the first half of this period came when a TJ Brodie point shot would bounce off the end boards out front to William Nylander who had a wide-open net starring at him, but Gibson would go post to post making a spectacular save keeping the Leafs off the board. Late in period one when it looked as if the Leafs would end into the intermission trailing, they would get a chance to tie the game on the power play as Ilya Mikheyev would draw a holding penalty sending Tory Terry to the box. On this powerplay William Nylander would fire a shot in the slot that Gibson would stop but the rebound would go back to the point too Morgan Rielly who would send the puck over to Mitch Marner who would one time the puck into the net for his 10^th goal of the season and second consecutive powerplay goal. Rielly’s assist on this goal would give him 100 career points on the powerplay making the fifth Leafs Defenseman in franchise history to do so. With the score now tied at ones the Leafs would head back to the man advantage just a few minutes later as Michael Bunting would draw a cross checking minor putting the Ducks a man down. On the powerplay Auston Matthews would send a one timer on goal that Gibson would stop but the rebound would be gathered by Tavares who would be behind the goal where he would centre a pass to William Nylander whose wrist shot would beat the Ducks goalie putting Toronto ahead 2-1. This goal would be Nylander’s 17^th of the season matching his total from last years short season. The first would end with Toronto leading 2-1 and outshooting their opponent 17-5.

Period two would start where the first left off for Toronto as their strong play would continue piling up chance after chance but once again John Gibson would make many high-quality saves. Honestly this guy played phenomenal all game because if it wasn’t for him the score for this game would have been a blowout. Thanks to Gibson the Ducks were still very much in this contest despite being heavily outshot by Toronto with them managing nearly thirty shots halfway through this game. Late in the second period Anaheim would find themselves defending a five on three penalty kill when Hampus Lindholm would slash Auston Matthews and seconds later Jakob Silfverberg would be called for hooking on Mitch Marner. This is likely going to come as a surprise for many Leaf fans, but Toronto has a powerplay that is currently tied for best in the entire league. You would think that would Toronto already 2 for 2 on the powerplay Anaheim would want to play more minutes five on five. The Leafs would capitalize on the two-man advantage scoring on the first Ducks penalty as Auston Matthews would have the puck at the point he would pass to Marner who would send a touch pass into the slot where John Tavares would send a shot passed a sprawling Gibson for his 16^th goal of the season. Sheldon Keefe would call a timeout after going up 3-1 because the Leafs still had a five on four advantage and he wanted to keep his big guns out on the ice. The top powerplay unit would have many chances but the Ducks would do a great job blocking shots and of course their goalie was great. John Tavares would be robbed in front of goal and the Ducks would clear the puck and go on the counterattack when Buddy Robinson and one time Leaf Sam Carrick would breakout on an odd man rush. The Silfverberg penalty would expire, and he would leave the box joining the rush making it a three on one for the Ducks. Robinson would send the puck over to Silfverberg who would fire a beautiful wrist shot on goal that would beat Campbell over his glove for the 3^rd goal of the season for Jakob cutting the Leafs lead to 3-2. Toronto would continue to press the play looking to double their lead once again but were unable to do so and after forty minutes Toronto would still be leading 3-2.

One thing I want to talk about for a moment is surprise, surprise some unnecessary criticism that Tavares is getting from a specific Toronto reporter. I am not going to mention his name because when I tell you he is a writer for the Toronto Sun newspaper you’ll be able to fill in the blank. Anyway, this writer has criticized the production of John Tavares since his first day with the team, just for the record John Tavares in his Leafs debut managed 88 points and flirted with a 50-goal season managing 47 goals. So far this season in 38 games Tavares has 38 points. To this writer and to any fan thinking that Toronto’s captain isn’t producing enough, and I know they’re out there John this season averages at least one point every game and in three and a half seasons John Tavares has collected a total of 241 points and we know that this season is far from over, so lets just take another deep breath and relax because his production has been and will continue to be just fine.

 In the final frame the Leafs would try and play a shutdown period and for the most part they were doing a great job because despite playing a defensive period they would once again outshoot their opponent and spend most of the third in the Ducks zone. Shortly after the ten-minute point in the third with flow of play in the Leafs favour the Anaheim Ducks would manage to tie this game when Kevin Shattenkirk would send a wrist shot into traffic that would be deflected into the net by Vinni Lettieri for his 5^th goal of the season. Regulation would expire with the score still tied meaning the Ducks would steal a point and overtime would be needed to decide a winner. The overtime would be exciting with Toronto having the bulk of possession and the chances, Matthews would have two great chances to end the game, but both would be turned aside. The best chance in overtime came when the Ducks would turn the puck over to Tavares who would pass to Nylander for a breakaway, but Nylander’s wrist shot would end up in the glove of Gibson. The five-minute overtime expires with a winner still undecided, and these two teams would head to the shootout.

The shootout would see Jason Spezza score giving the Leafs the early advantage as his backhand shot would find the back of the net. Anaheim’s first shooter would be youngster Trevor Zegras whose shootout attempt would trickle through the pads of Jack Campbell. The next Leafs shooter would be Auston Matthews who would come in off the wing on his forehand and his quick shot would beat Gibson on the blocker side. This goal would turn out to be the winner as both final shooters for Toronto and Anaheim would be stopped and the Leafs would win this game 4-3. This win would be the 20^th win of the season for Jack Campbell a first for his career and this was his 40^th win as a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Now I know what you readers and fans are likely thinking here is yet another blown lead by the Leafs. Although yes, their 3-1 lead was erased last nights game was entirely different compared to the games on the road trip where leads were blown. The games on the road saw Toronto start the games full of energy but as the game would go on, they would let their foot off the gas allowing their opponent back into the game. Last night however right from the opening faceoff untill the horn at the end of overtime the Leafs were by far the better team and got the win they so rightly deserved win. Also, I want to point out that in this current stretch that the Leafs are on despite many blown leads Toronto has still managed a record of 4-2-1 in this current segment of games. One question I do have is that for example if a team like Tampa managed a winning record through seven games despite blowing leads every fan and talking head would just go on about how Tampa is showing why they are back-to-back champions because good teams overcome adversity and find ways to win. So, I ask why is it ok for other teams to win games despite blowing leads but when Toronto does it every talking head on TSN or Sportsnet acts as if the sky is falling? This Leafs team has a record of 6-2-1 in January alone has it been perfect? No, no team in this league is completely perfect but every fan that watches this team and is concerned about what’s been happing honestly take a deep breath and relax Toronto is sitting 3^rd in the Atlantic Division with a four-point lead on Boston who lost in overtime last night they are having another positive season so as fans lets just sit back and enjoy it. Toronto’s next action comes Saturday night when they are on the road for a showdown in Motown when they meet the up-and-coming Detroit Red Wings.

Lastly, I wanted to close this article talking about an important topic. Yesterday was Bell Lets Talk day in support of spreading awareness for mental health and ending the stigma that comes along with it. Anyone who reads this I want you to know that if you’re dealing with anxiety or depression or maybe even feel angry most of the time if something is bothering you it is ok to ask someone for help. I know that especially with this pandemic going on for two years I have had some tough days and when I do, I usually end up texting a friend to just talk and sometimes just that simple text makes me feel much better. So again, if there is something on your mind reach out to someone because there is always someone willing to listen and talk you through things. Understand that help is out there and it’s ok to ask for it, and please know that tomorrow is always a new day and a fresh start.

 

Thanks as always for reading and I really hope that anyone who reads this and sees that I have had difficult days I hope this motivates anyone seeing this to get help if you are struggling with anything.  


Follow my blog on Instagram at boyerfromthebenchblog