Game 66 Scoring Chances: Blues 6 vs. Maple Leafs 1

Through the first fourteen minutes the Leafs were being badly out-chanced by St. Louis, as Toronto didn’t have an ES chance, but the game was still scoreless.

That didn’t last, as St. Louis got three goals in just under five minutes, breaking the game open and building a lead the Leafs would never challenge. Toronto were out-chanced 8-0 at ES in the first, one of their worst periods of the season. While the last forty minutes were better in terms of chances, St. Louis continued to pile on the goals, easily pulling away for the win.

You can see just how terrible that first period was, as the Leafs were down 7-0 in chances when the Blues scored the second goal, and never managed to get the game back to a close score state.

Player-by-Player data:

Positives of a night like this were few and far between, as only one player managed to avoid a negative chance differential at ES Close. That was Zach Sill, who played just five ES minutes in the whole game. Nazem Kadri and Richard Panik both were -2 ES Close, but were some of the few Leafs who had decent results after that, with Panik joining Sill as the only forwards above even at ES. The top line was terrible, generating almost nothing, with Van Riemsdyk the worst forward, -6 at ES overall. Peter Holland, along with Lupul and Booth, had decent offensive output, but were easily the worst defensive line, with Holland and Lupul each on for eight Blues chances at ES.

The Erixon-Brewer pairing which started the game together looked like they would be trouble, and so it proved, as they were the two worst Leaf players in terms of chances. Erixon, who had the easiest proportion of zone starts on the defence, was a -8 in just 12 ES minutes. Brewer wasn’t much better, finishing at -7. Roman Polak was poor early, -3 at ES Close, but after that second goal was not on for another Blues chances, as was the only defenceman to finish above even at ES overall. Morgan Reilly, like Polak, recovered after a poor start, while Phaneuf and Gardiner both ended up at -3.

Cumulative numbers this season:

I’ve mentioned it a couple of times, but the way that James Van Riemsdyk had managed to avoid the harsh spotlight of the media is really surprising. While the focus of criticism has been Phaneuf and Kessel, JVR has been one of the Leafs‘ worst forwards, well behind his line-mates on the top trio. In terms of ES chances against per minute, I have JVR as the worst regular on the team, and this season when he hasn’t produced goals he’s contributed very little to the team.