Game 37 Scoring Chances: Lightning 3 vs. Maple Leafs 2

The second half of Toronto’s trip to Florida saw the Leafs have a solid start, given they were playing a back-to-back.

They were narrowly out-chanced in the first ten minutes, but in a familiar story, led 2-0. Tampa rallied from that deficit, getting a resounding thirteen of the next fourteen chances and getting level on the scoreboard. With the game tied, Toronto found their game again, and finished near even in chances for the period. Things fell apart in the final frame, as Tampa Bay out-chanced the Leafs 7-2 in the lead-up to Stamkos’ go-ahead goal. Toronto managed only three chances in the last nine minutes as they tried to chase down the game, and only one of those came at even strength, as they dropped a second straight.

Through two periods, the Leafs were actually in good shape at ES Close, as their weakest period of play came while they were 2-0 ahead. However, the third was terrible, and they ended up with their worst ES chance showing since the game against Detroit that Reimer miraculously won.

Player-by Player data:

The top line had a decent game, trading chances with the Lightning, and while they ended up in the negative, Kessel and Bozak were the most effective Leafs at generating chances. Joffrey Lupul was less effective, ending up the worst forward at ES Close, a -5. The second line wasn’t great, as Kadri and Van Riemsdyk also ended up as negatives, but without the top pair’s offense. Peter Holland was -6 at ES overall, the worst forward on the team, though this may be down to usage, as he, along with Clarkson and David Booth, didn’t get a single offensive zone start. Booth had one of his better games, as he played more ES minutes than the likes of JVR and Kadri, and while he ended up -3, he was even at ES Close after a good shift. Smith and Ashton were both positives in their limited minutes, some of the only forwards to manage that.

Morgan Rielly and Roman Polak both ended up -2 at ES overall, but that’s actually not a bad performance, given that they were buried in zone starts, as like Holland they didn’t have an OZone start all game. Franson and Phaneuf, who also got a lot of tough minutes, both responded poorly, with among their worst games of the year. Phaneuf was a -5 at ES close, and a team low -9 overall, and Franson’s -6 wasn’t much better. Jake Gardiner had a bad game as well, as despite some of the softest zone starts on the team, he was almost as bad as Phaneuf, on for 13 Lightning ES chances, and a -7. Holzer ended up the best defender in terms of the chance numbers, although that may be due to an easy 60% OZone start number.

Cumulative numbers this season:

Gardiner’s struggles this year have been really concerning, as his numbers are not too far ahead of Polak, despite the Czech’s much harder minutes. Clarkson, who started the season excellently, has gradually drifted down, and is now under 50% at ES Close.