Game In 10: Game 11, Leafs at Sens

by Mislav Jantoljak on October 30, 2011 in Uncategorized - 146 Comments

Battle Of Ontario on the back half of a back to back. Didn’t think much of the first two periods, loved the third. Hate losing against the Sens. The end. Nah, read on.

1 – The Leafs are 7-3-1 and that’s still awesome.

2 – The game saw two fairly early powerplays for the Leafs and just when it seemed our PP was back to its old self, great puck movement by the Leafs sees Kulemin dish a lovely pass to MacArthur, who scores his third goal in his last three games. Later on he lit the lamp again for his fourth goal of the year. Better man movement on the powerplay as well, as Gunnar shifted down low and Mac rotated up high, throwing the PK unit a little out of sorts. Vancouver does a lot of that and with great effect. We don’t dive though.

3 – Has to be said, David Rundblad made a sweet pass on Ottawa’s first PP goal, but what also has to be said is that our defensive coverage on that goal was pretty inexcusable.

4 – The second PP goal by Ottawa was a repeat of last game’s Kunitz goal. We strayed away from being aggressive on the PK (Mike Brown failed to clear the puck on the boards, as well). If we aren’t aggressive and allow pucks to go through on a unit that focuses mainly on blocking shots and not boxing opponents out, it’s not going to give your goalie much of a chance on any redirect/rebound opportunities.

A rethinking of the penalty killing system may be in order here if the results don’t improve soon. “Facing” instead of boxing out and tying up the open man (or men) out front simply doesn’t appear to be working, it’s leaving the Leafs too susceptible in front of goal. Start clearing the crease, start applying greater puck pressure, do something because 50% on the PK tonight, and 72.3% on the season, simply doesn’t cut it.

5 – Mac In The USSR uses the drop pass quite a lot, that’s not news. And although I don’t think they should use it as often as they do, it helps in beating the trap. It forces the defensemen to step up early, then they drop it, which allows the trailing player to hit the zone with speed.

6 – Basically, we gave a really good powerplay (2^nd in the league) chances to get on the board. Call them bad calls (Kuli), dumb penalties (Connolly), it changes nothing.

7 – Phaneuf’s ice time tonight was 28:49. Matt Frattin‘s ice time was 9:52. Deduce what you will – either growing pains or somebody else is due for a chance. We didn’t see much of anything from Lombardi – Bozak – Frattin as a unit tonight.

8 – Not going to lie, for the most part the team looked like they were celebrating the 7-2-1 start last night and got drunk in the process. However, I really liked the jump in the third and we had chances to make it a tie game. Wish the third period was a little longer.

9 – Jonas Gustavsson had a really good game, not much more he could have done on the first two Ottawa goals tonight. Gave us a chance and made 27 saves in the loss. The third goal though, with the score as is…

10 – A thing to keep in mind is that this was a back to back Battle of Ontario. It was a back to back for the Senators as well as they played the Rangers in the MSG yesterday afternoon. They did get a few more hours of rest though.

Last but not least, here is something to make your Halloween party a little more scary. It will surely keep all the cool kids away.

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