Flat Footed
Game 20: Flames vs. Leafs
Simon B
We've officially hit the dog days of the regular season. Usually, it's around mid-November that the novelty of the new season wears off. Now that we've gotten used to the new pandemic season, it's pretty safe to bet that the players have gotten into the swing of things as well. Monday night's game is one of those games where as a player it's much more difficult to get psyched up for. Monday night after a big game Saturday and on top of all that, no fans.
To make matters worse for the Maple Leafs, they are now injury-plagued. Top-four defenseman Jake Muzzin got a high-stick to the face on Saturday and will be out for a while. Joe Thornton was out of the lineup (no reason specified so I'm presuming it's load management). Zach Hyman blocked a shot with his foot last game and injured it doing so and worst of all, Freddy Andersen had a nagging lower-body injury.
Sheldon Keefe really had to mix and match his lines up a lot. John Tavares was moved up to the top line with Marner and Matthews. Alex Baravanov, Nic Petan, and Pierre Engvall were all three slotted into the lineup. Finally, Miachel Hutchinson got his second start in three games.
The Game
Early in the game, the Leafs are looking really sloppy and Calgary was getting the bulk of the chances. The Matthews line didn't look in sync and you could tell that the bottom three lines were still figuring out how to work with the new combinations. Hutchinson was pretty good in his last start (the 7-3 win against Ottawa) but he was really shaky in this one. Calgary's Rasmus Andersson took a pretty weak shot from the point that trickled through Hutchinson's pads and Sam Benett was able to tap into the loose puck to give the Flames the 1-0 lead. Toronto did get a few power plays after the first goal though. On the man advantages, they absolutely dominated the Flames. Playing keep-away for almost all the full two minutes each time. However, Flames goaltender David Rittich made some huge saves to keep the game in Calgary's favor. At the end of the period, the Leafs weren't looking as crisp as we've seen this season. Especially on the breakout, there were a lot of times where a pass didn't connect properly and they either lost possession or had to regroup a couple times back in their own zone. The few chances that they did get though were really good ones but once again Rittich stood tall in his net and, the Flames took the 1-0 lead to the dressing room.
After killing a penalty off in the first couple of minutes, the Leafs then got a power play of their own. This was already their third of the game. Calgary was playing a dangerous game giving Toronto all these man-advantages. But sometimes playing with fire doesn't always burn you. The Leafs looked completely out of sorts on the power play getting only one shot and once again struggling on entering the zone and getting set up. Then Marner took a penalty to give the Flames the man advantage. On that penalty (and the one before), Ilya Mikheyev had short-handed breakaways where he was able to show off some awesome speed to separate him from the defenseman. But Mikheyev's issue is that he will do everything right until he's up against the goalie and him rare;y scores. If Mikheyev can get his scoring touch on point, he could be a lethal weapon for the Leafs but unfortunately, he's not there yet. That Mikheyev miss proved to be costly because on the next rush by the Flames, Matthew Tkachuk tipped in a Mark Giordano point shot to double the Flames lead. I don't have much to comment on here. The only thing was that Tkachuk wasn't given much pushback in front of the net and that made it easier for him to tip in.
After that goal, you could start to tell that the Leafs just didn't have it. They really could've used a Jake Muzzin or a Wayne Simmonds to lay a big hit or start a fight to get some life back onto the bench but since those two guys are out, they needed to be able to find their own energy but they really couldn't do that. Rittich did need to make a few really good saves. Especially on a 5 on 3 opportunities the Leafs had but failed to do any damage on. The period ended 2-0.
Mikko Lehtonen took a tripping penalty to start the period. The officiating was once again consistently inconsistent and I thought that that trip wasn't really a trip at all. But the ref made his decision and the Leafs are now down a man. Sean Monahan was able to bury a rebound and the Flames were now up by three. When that third goal went in, I had that really familiar feeling that tells me "yup they're not winning tonight." The problem I had watching this game was that they were creating chances and doing mostly the right things but they weren't finishing at all. Even at the end of the game with the goalie pulled, they couldn't get any momentum and the game ended 3-0 with a really unenergetic performance by Toronto.
The Wrap
Now I did say that the Leafs couldn't finish their plays off but that was hugely in part to the Flames goaltender David Rittich making some really nice saves to keep the Flames ahead. The Flames top goalie, Jacob Markstrom, was out with injury as well and they only found out about the injury a couple hours before puck drop. So Rittich had to get ready on short notice but he did quite well.
Next up: A rematch against the Flames in Toronto
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