Saturday, November 12, 2011

Leafs lose the latest Battle of Ontario skirmish


On a night when three former Maple Leafs and one ex-Marlie are honoured as part of the Hall of Fame weekend, the Leafs and Senators play one hell of a boring game. That guaranteed that Doug Gilmour would get the biggest cheer of the night. It's hard to say if the 5-2 score was indicative of the game considering it was such a poorly played game. This was a game the Leafs should have won with the Senators coming into Toronto having lost 5 straight games.

Good - The Senators didn't get a shot on Ben Scrivens until 13 minutes into the game. However, the Leafs had only 4 shots up to that point. The Leafs also won 33 out of 52 face offs so at least this is no longer a problem area.

Bad - Although the Leafs out shot Ottawa 33-24, the Senators out hit the Leafs 36-20. Clearly Ottawa was the hungrier team tonight. This is looking like another November swoon.

Good - The Lupul-Bozak-Kessel line continues to generate offense scoring both of the Toronto goals.

Bad - It's been a while since anyone not named Lupul, Bozak or Kessel has scored a goal. Well unless you count the goal Clarke MaArthur scored into the Leafs' empty net. Secondary scoring has disappeared and so have the wins. Oh, and Tyler Seguin had another two goals tonight and is only 4 points behind Kessel but who's counting?

Good - Jake Gardner continue to shine on the defense. Ron Wilson gave him 22 minutes of ice time and although he does make mistakes out there his speed seems to always compensate.

Bad - I may be pointing out the obvious as well as sounding repetitive but special teams were terrible. How can this be so broken?

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