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Not a good first half of a back to back for the Maple Leafs, to put it lightly.

leafs-wings-quick-stats2Credit where it’s due, this was a well played/coached game by the Red Wings. Mike Babcock’s team effectively clamped down on the neutral zone, causing turnovers and giving the Leafs’ top guns nothing off the rush (line #1 for its part packed up its bags nice and early).

The start was okay from the Leafs. They were about even with the Wings in shots and in the possession battle over the first 10 minutes, were exiting their own zone fairly well and showing a decent amount of jump.

One thing went against them, this time Roman Polak falling behind the net leading to the opening Wings goal, and the Leafs folded, very much like the way the Pittsburgh game played out (jersey toss and all).

The Leafs got caught twice by Zetterberg off of dump in plays, where the Wings captain managed to read the bounce but a Leaf D (Gardiner, Polak) could not locate the puck quickly enough, before Zetterberg did Zetterberg-y things with the puck to set up Nyquist and Franzen respectively.

Line three had its moments, and tried to get a rally going with a good first shift to the third period, catching the Wings off guard for Mike Santorelli’s first as a Maple Leaf and Toronto’s lone goal of the night.

The effort quickly returned to disappointing. On home ice, with a game against these same guys the next night, fans would be right to expect more of a pushback than what took place. Instead, a jersey was thrown and boos were heard: the Leafs are now 1-3-0 with two really underwhelming efforts on home ice in four games at the ACC. The Leafs were outshot 2:1 in the third period despite a multi-goal deficit — there were reverse score effects going on there indicating this game was given up on.

We’ll leave the analysis short for this one other than to say the defence pairings seem badly out of whack. The idea that Cody Franson and Dion Phaneuf should be on a pairing together at 5v5 is patently crazy. The lack of mobility has been clearly hazardous even in 5v4 situations, so it’s bizarre to think we even needed to find out if the pair would get lit up by top opposition lines at evens.

Rielly and Gardiner together might not be the best dynamic, either. There’s a decent collection of individual pieces on the backend, one could argue, but the combinations still seem to be all wrong.

Line 1 will continue to tantalize when they’re on, but there’s just too many nights when they’re not, and even when they’re on they’re not good enough in the two-way sense. Switching Lupul for JvR is at least one easy move that might mix things up a little, one would think. Lupul shifting down to line four when Kozun left the game gave that line a bit of a lift for a few shifts thanks to his efforts at recovering pucks on the forecheck, the sort of thing the top line could use.

None of this is really all that revelatory; we’ve been talking about these same things in this space for quite a while now.

Just before you think “this game review couldn’t have gotten any more debbie-downer,” there was an unfortunate incident in this game that may leave Brandon Kozun out of hockey action for a while, if the injury turns out half as bad as it looked. He will be a definite loss on the penalty kill, primarily (the fourth line with he, Holland and Panik hasn’t been up to anything). Let’s hope he’s okay, because it’d be quite sad if, after fighting tooth and nail for a roster spot, his efforts at holding down an NHL job are derailed by a serious injury.

With Kozun definitely out for tomorrow, it looks like one of Carter Ashton or Matt Frattin will get a chance to re-enter the lineup.

Let’s see what the Leafs have in store for us versus these same Red Wings tomorrow.

Toronto Maple Leafs vs Detroit Red Wings Shot Chart

toronto-maple-leafs-vs-detroit-red-wings
courtesy hockeystats.ca

Toronto Maple Leafs vs Detroit Red Wings Boxscore

NO.PLAYERPOSGAP+/-PIMSHITSFO%PP TOISH TOITOI
3D. PhaneufD0000441-1:444:2021:02
4C. FransonD000-1013-1:442:3518:52
18R. PanikR0000001-0:000:009:46
19J. LupulL000-2020100%1:070:0019:20
21J. van RiemsdykL00000300%2:141:5015:14
24P. HollandC000021160%0:000:3511:48
25M. SantorelliC101-102114%0:000:0013:02
26D. WinnikC000-10020%0:005:3517:11
42T. BozakC000002048%2:101:1916:30
43N. KadriC000-221040%1:180:0212:45
44M. RiellyD0000011-1:441:2519:23
46R. PolakD000-3232-0:004:5319:26
47L. KomarovC011-101420%0:004:4414:59
50S. PercyD000-1012-0:003:2719:40
51J. GardinerD000-1001-1:440:3022:12
67B. KozunR000-2002-0:002:125:32
71D. ClarksonR0110212100%1:140:0014:10
81P. KesselR0000010-2:210:0017:08
NO.PLAYEREVPPSHSAVES - SHOTSSV%PIMTOI
34J. Reimer (L) 2-1-026 - 3005-May0 - 031 - 350.886060:00:00
Toronto Maple Leafs vs Detroit Red Wings Boxscore

Toronto Maple Leafs vs Detroit Red Wings Possession

PlayerAll SituationsEven Strength
#NamePositionCorsi ForCorsi AgainstCorsiCorsi For%Zone Start%Corsi ForCorsi AgainstCorsiCorsi For%Zone Start%
3DION PHANEUFD2123-24836171705038
4CODY FRANSOND1324-113533919-103225
18RICHARD PANIKR511-63125511-63125
19JOFFREY LUPULR1024-142910824-16250
21JAMES VAN RIEMSDYKL181266064131125457
24PETER HOLLANDC714-73320711-43920
25MIKE SANTORELLIC1113-246601113-24660
26DANIEL WINNIKC529-24150418-14180
34JAMES REIMERG4866-1842394053-134340
42TYLER BOZAKC191455844161245756
43NAZEM KADRIC919-103229619-132417
44MORGAN RIELLYD201645662171435560
46ROMAN POLAKD1325-1234181217-54133
47LEO KOMAROVC14122544013676867
50STUART PERCYD725-182220520-152014
51JAKE GARDINERD221935458201915155
67BRANDON KOZUNR46-24010034-143100
71DAVID CLARKSONR161155971141135667
81PHIL KESSELC221755658181715150
Toronto Maple Leafs vs Detroit Red Wings Possession

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