Game In 10: Game 14, Leafs vs. Bruins

by Mislav Jantoljak on November 5, 2011 in Uncategorized - 1,244 Comments

Not much to say after a loss like this. Stupid Bruins, how dare they play a normal hockey game? Regardless of the result, here is something every Leafs fan should read.

1 – The Leafs are 9-4-1 and yeah… shit happens.

2 – A sloppy penalty by Crabb and our PK lets us down again, open lanes, not enough aggressiveness and we go down 1-0 from a goal by who else…

3 – Then “The One Who Shall Not Be Named” scored again. Just 34 seconds into the 2^nd period the kid batted the puck out of the air and past Scrivens. Just seconds after, Milan Lucic made it 3-0 and Wilson called a timeout. Not exactly a head scratcher there.

4 – Leafs played a weak first half of the game. Not enough jump at the start of the second period cost us this game. The boys created a huge hole for themselves which killed their legs. And then we continued to play bad hockey.

5 – Unfortunately, even though fortune has nothing to do with it, we don’t match up well against the Bruins. They’re bigger, stronger, and play a good trap which negates the speed advantage. Defensively, there are holes in our game and with their forecheck doing as well as it did tonight, well… also, I don’t know about sitting Schenn against a big, physical team. Sure, hindsight is a powerful tool, but as bad as he’s been he could have added some strength back there.

6 – As much as the Bruins match up well against us, the Habs beat these guys twice in a back to back and they limited them to 3 goals in two games. This is not a high scoring team but our lack of compete and our absolutely horrendous defensive coverage made them look the part.

7 – Seguin (I can say it now, what does it matter) scores a hat trick and immediately after Krejci scores to make it a lot. Stopped counting at Seguin. Then Lucic scored. Ok, somebody do something! Sooooo many turnovers. At least Phaneuf tried to hit people.

8 – The Leafs desperately need somebody in the top six who can bring some jam on the forecheck, somebody like a Brendan Morrow or Dustin Brown. Not saying we’re gonna get those guys, just naming examples of the kind of player we need. With Armstrong out, the entire top 9 is lacking in this area. When the run and gun passing game isn’t clicking (or is getting jammed up), it doesn’t give Wilson much to fall back on in terms of on the fly adjustments.

9 – Even though Scrivens wasn’t to blame at all (at all) for tonight’s loss, I still think not starting Gus tonight doesn’t exactly exude confidence in our backup goalie. And, I wouldn’t blame the guy if he saw it as a slap in the face. It made sense to give Scrivens a taste in a back to back situation but tonight, no reason for it really. I can think of one reason, you were impatient to see what you had in Scrivens because there is some interest in Gus… Then again, if you’re shopping Gus, the smart move isn’t to play Scrivens tonight because nothing says “Gus is a goalie we have no confidence in” like not playing him when he’s expected to play. Ultimately it’s academic, the Leafs were losing tonight no matter who was in net.

10 – However ugly this looks (and it looks really ugly) it’s important to look ahead and respond well – these big losses happen, but how you bounce back from them is usually more important than the loss itself.

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