Good Teams Get Lucky

-

Game 12: Canucks vs. Leafs
Simon B

The Leafs just faced a slumping Canucks team for two nights in a row. After the first game, I thought that Vancouver would come out flying in the second game on Saturday. However, the Leafs trampled the Canucks again. While my roots are anchored firmly in Leafs Nation, I truly hope that Vancouver won't put in a flat effort for a third straight game when we see them on Monday.

    Coach Keefe had to make a few changes after Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman announced Saturday that Wayne Simmonds will be out for 6 weeks (20 games) with a broken wrist. Toronto went with the “seven defensemen and 11 forwards” strategy. At last, Rasmus Sandin got his first start of the season, with Travis Dermott still out with injury, and Alex Barabanov got his first start in just under two weeks.

The Game

The game started out at a fairly quick pace. Andersen had to make some really sharp saves early to keep things scoreless. Just as the game started I said "Rielly needs a goal, he hasn't had one since opening night". Well, about seven minutes in, the Leafs were buzzing in Canucks zone and Mitch Marner shot one from the point. A long rebound came out and Morgan Rielly jumped in from the point to bury the rebound and put the Leafs up by one. In the last two games, the Leafs normally had a good response shift (keeping the pressure after they scored). But in this one, the Canucks really picked up the pace. Andersen stood on his head (meaning he was really good) and made some amazing saves including one where he sprawled his left pad out to stop a really dangerous two on one. The Canucks outplayed the Leafs immensely in that first frame, allowing only four shots on the net. Our boys in blue were really lucky Vancouver didn't get at least one or two before intermission.

    In 2021 so far, statistics show that the Leafs shine in the second period, scoring more than in the first or third. Last night was a different story, though. As soon as the puck dropped to start the second, it felt as if Vancouver was going to score at any moment. To be honest, they probably would've if it hadn’t been for Andersen keeping Toronto's lead intact. To make things even harder for Freddy, Auston Matthews took a cross-checking penalty to put Vancouver up a man. On the ensuing power play, Elias Petterson showed off his wicked shot and sniped one past Andersen to get the Canucks a well-deserved tying goal. Ok, the Leafs allowed a goal; that should have shaken them up and got them skating a bit harder, right?

Wrong. Vancouver kept the pressure on for the rest of the second period, squeezing Toronto down to a measly three shots in the entire second period. Andersen once again got the better of the Canucks offense and the game remained tied 1-1 at the end of the period.

By the time the third period began, Vancouver had out-shot the Leafs 27-7. That stat alone shows how Vancouver dominated the first 40 minutes of the game. But then everything changed! The Leafs had a power play at the beginning of the third and they generated a ton of chances on the man advantage. This was the game’s big momentum swing. Even if they didn't score on the power play, Toronto was suddenly playing with a lot more urgency Halfway into the period, the Leafs had a beautiful set play off a faceoff win that finished with Auston Matthews ripping home his 11th goal of the year to give the Leafs the lead. I thought to myself, "They can't take their foot off the gas, they need another goal". Before I could even finish that thought, Alex Kerfoot put in a loose puck in front to make it 3-1. In just 11 seconds, the Leafs went from being tied 1-1 to being up 3-1. Vancouver went of one final push by pulling their goalie with 2:20 to go in the game but the Leafs held on to win 3-1

The Wrap

They say you need to be good to be lucky and lucky to be good. Well, this just shows that good teams have bounces go their way a lot of the time. Let's be honest, the Leafs had no business winning that game. It's not often that you win a game in which you only shot on net 7 times in the entire first two periods, but good teams find a way. For Toronto, it was 11 seconds of brilliance. I think losing Wayne Simmonds is going to hurt this team a good deal. But if they can find a temporary replacement who will take care of all the physical duties Simmonds usually handles, they should do just fine. They've got their biggest test of the season coming up on Wednesday against Montreal. Even though Toronto is first in the league at the moment, they need to prove that they can beat truly great teams like the Habs. If you have any other sports topics you'd like to read about, let me know in the comments or send me a message in the "Contact me" section in the sidebar!

    Thanks for reading! I'd love your comments and questions.

    Please share with friends and take a moment to subscribe (head to the sidebar and sign up under the "subscribe" section) so you can read all my post-game pieces on the Leafs as well as my takes on the big news in Toronto sports and more. It would mean a lot.

#Leafs4ever #MapleLeafs #AustonMatthews #MorganRielly #AlexKerfoot #VancouverCanucks #EliasPetterson #LeafsCanucks

Location: Toronto, ON, Canada

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Leafland Right Now

-
Image
 Simon B Only this team can have such a drastic turnaround in a few days. We went from fans calling for Sheldon Keefe to be fired to suddenly beating two of the top teams in the league in back-to-back days with travel. Not forgetting that they lost netminder Ilya Samsonov halfway through the matchup against Boston. Now they have the challenge of facing a team that only a few weeks ago, started their west coast road trip misery; the Vegas Golden Knights. Looking at this turnaround through the eyes of a fan is something easy to do. But how do the Leafs see themselves internally? Many interviews given by the players have been pretty bland and cliche however, there are certain things that aren't said in interviews that can give hints as to why this team is such an up-and-down group over the first month of the season Brass Uncertainty All the pressure is on Kyle Dubas and his expiring contract come the season's end. I can easily see this affecting the way he has made roster moves an...
Read more

On the Road Again

-
Image
  Simon B I think the fans gave Toronto a nice boost in their three-game series win over the Oakland Athletics. It wasn't always pretty and there were a lot of controversies, but good teams usually find a way and Toronto did just that. I might write a post later on about the lack of starting pitching depth or the atrocious umpiring that we saw in Saturday's game depending on how the Boston series goes.  For now, the Jays are hitting the road for three games against the Red Sox then it's down to Houston for the weekend to face the Astros. Who to Look for Bo Bichette: Bichette has had a relatively slow start to the season offensively. Like most hitters, he's very streaky but there's reason to think that in this upcoming series against Boston, he could breakthrough.  I have to give credit where it's due, the probable starter on Tuesday, Nathan Eovaldi has mixed his pitches very well but from past experience, he's a fastball dominant pitcher. Eovaldi pounds the ...
Read more

First AL East Battle of 2022

-
Image
  Simon B The Blue Jays opened the 2022 season with a series win over the Texas Rangers. This was the first opening day at Rogers Center for the Jays since the 2019 season and a lot has changed since then. While that opening series told us a lot about what this team can do, they played a team that just isn't going to be playing at the level the Jays are looking to be at this year.  However, they get to play the Yankees for four games this week and I think this series will give us a good early look at how most specifically the pitching staff will fair against a top-class offense. Bullpen Limitations The Jays pitchers had to cover 27 innings and only 8.2 innings were played by starting pitchers with Kevin Gausman going 5 decent innings on Saturday for his first start with Toronto.  That said, the bullpen was the biggest question mark coming into this year and they definitely got some work in and it wasn't very glamorous against a lineup that, with all due respect, doesn't c...
Read more