Same Old Story: Maple Leafs Lose To Hurricanes
It was the same old story for the Maple Leafs last night. Another bad start, another power-play goal against, another game where they outshot the opposition badly, another good effort, but another loss. The Leafs dropped their fourth in a row, 4-2 to the last-place Carolina Hurricanes.
Some quick thoughts on the game:
- Tyler Bozak played well in his first game since being recalled. He was able to create some scoring chances working alonside Phil Kessel and Nikolai Kulemin. Bozak picked up an assist (his second in two NHL games) on Nikolai Kulemin’s beauty.
- Kulemin continues his solid play. He’s showing a lot more creativity and you can tell he’s trying to make more plays offensively in his new role.
- Kessel also made a nice little play to set up Kulemin’s goal, although he’s probably unhappy that he didn’t break out of his slump on a few glorious scoring chances.
- The “top line” looked pretty good, and it will be interesting to see if they can continue to build chemistry. Although, who knows how long this line will actually stay together.
- Niklas Hagman also failed to break out of his slump, as he rung one off the post when the game was tied 2-2 in the third.
- Lee Stempniak scored the other Leafs’ goal after some good work on the forecheck.
- The Leafs outshot the Canes 40-17, including 15-5 in the third period.
- Curtis Joseph received a nice ovation from the home crowd after announcing his retirement earlier in the day.
Next up for the Maple Leafs are the Flyers at home on Thursday. The Leafs could recall Jay Rosehill, as per Darren Dreger.
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