Toronto Maple Leafs In Depth Post Game: vs Blues

The Toronto Maple Leafs lost 2-1 to the Blues in last night’s game.

Even though the Leafs failed to get the extra point in overtime, it was a good game, at least from a goaltending perspective. Frederik Andersen allowed 17 goals over his previous three games, so only allowing one 5v5 goal is a huge improvement.

You could argue that having Andersen play such a good game is more important than the extra point. All in All, he made 38 saves. The Leafs didn’t exactly play great, but it wasn’t a totally horrible game either.

The Good

Andersen’s performance, obviously. Also, Mitch Marner wasn’t injured after blocking a shot with his hand. I maintain players should block less shots – I don’t think the slight reward for blocking shots is worth the risk of injury. I’d also bet anything that if someone did the math, it would show blocked shots to be far less effective than people think.

Another good thing was that Morgan Rielly scored a goal. It’s just his second of the season. Of course he is hurt by having a third-pairing rookie for a partner on the top pairing.

That’s really all there is in this game for positives. It was a boring game (in that it didn’t feature 11 goals, which seems to be the norm lately) and the Leafs should consider themselves lucky to get a point in it, considering the first period.

Going back to last Saturday, the Toronto Maple Leafs have played four games and come away with six of eight possible points. Blown leads against Boston and the Islanders, a lucky victory against the Stars and a fair result against the Blues.

It’s nice to pick up points by having good luck, but if you start to make decisions based on the fact you’re winning when you don’t deserve to be, you’ll quickly find yourself in trouble.

The Bad

The Leafs weren’t crushed by any means, but St. Louis did have more shot attempts and more shots. The Toronto Maple Leafs didn’t play terribly, but they certainly weren’t great and they were lucky to get even one point. The first period – usually a good one for the Leafs, was their worst last night. For the second and third periods they may have been the better team.

Either way, it was one of those games were you can’t say they deserved to win, but the point for a tie doesn’t feel totally unearned either. Next up, the Sabres tomorrow.

Stats from Corsica.hockey.