Game 9 Scoring Chances and Zone Entries: Rangers 3 vs. Maple Leafs 1

Toronto managed to fix its penalty killing against the Rangers, but it didn’t lead to a better result.

A Mats Zuccarello hat-trick, highlighted by a huge goal early in the third that killed the momentum the Leafs had built in the second, left them with another defeat, their eighth in nine games.

The Leafs narrowly won the possession battle, but that may be largely down to chasing the game for such a long period of time, especially in the second period. The Leafs were pretty much even in chances, and led while the game was close, thanks to their strong middle frame. The Leafs also won the neutral zone battle, but it was a hollow victory, as they struggled to enter the Rangers’ zone with control, and the Rangers ended up with a clear advantage in controlled entries on the evening.

Team	Chances	1st	2nd	3rd	ES	ESClose	ESCh%	NZEnt%	ContEnt	OppContEnt
Tor	19	6	8	5	18	14	52.9%	52.6%	28.9%	38.3%
Nyr	16	6	1	9	16	7	47.1%	47.4%	-	-

After falling behind in the first, the Leafs responded really well, dominating the second period, out-chancing the Rangers 8-1 in the frame. However, they were a real disappointment in the third period, as the Rangers carried the play and had most of the chances, even after they opened up a two goal lead. Toronto had only two chances in the last fifteen minutes of the game, with one being the goal they scored with six men on the ice.

Period	Time	ST	SO	Team	How	State	T1	T2	T3	T4	T5	T6	O1	O2	O3	O4	O5	O6
1	19:00	0	0	NYR	Zuccarello from Brassard	ES	3	26	42	45	47	51	5	16	30	36	61	93
1	17:36	0	0	Tor	Holland deflects Rielly shot wide	ES	2	15	23	24	44	45	5	26	28	30	93	96
1	16:09	0	0	NYR	Brassard from loose puck	ES	2	19	26	42	44	45	16	18	22	30	36	61
1	13:30	0	0	NYR	Nash drives wide	ES	19	26	42	44	45	51	8	16	27	30	36	61
1	13:22	0	0	Tor	Bozak wide from loose puck	ES	2	19	26	42	44	45	8	21	27	30	36	61
1	13:20	0	0	Tor	Winnik from Bozak	ES	2	19	26	42	44	45	8	21	27	30	36	61
1	12:51	0	0	Tor	Kadri drives	ES	21	43	45	46	47	52	5	19	20	21	30	93
1	11:12	0	0	NYR	Moore from Etem	ES	3	15	23	24	45	51	8	26	27	28	30	96
1	10:19	0	0	NYR	GOAL! Zuccarello from Brassard	ES	2	21	43	44	45	47	16	18	22	30	36	61
1	07:27	0	1	Tor	Kadri from faceoff	ES	3	21	43	45	47	51	5	19	20	21	30	93
1	03:43	0	1	NYR	Brassard wide from Zuccarello	ES	2	19	26	42	44	45	5	16	30	36	61	93
1	02:02	0	1	Tor	Froese drives	ES	3	25	40	45	51	56	18	22	26	28	30	96
2	18:27	0	1	Tor	Clune drives	ES	3	25	40	45	52	56	5	19	20	21	30	93
2	16:35	0	1	Tor	Lupul from Polak	ES	2	19	26	42	45	46	18	22	26	28	30	96
2	16:25	0	1	Tor	Van Riemsdyk wraparound	ES	2	21	43	44	45	47	8	16	27	30	36	61
2	07:54	0	1	Tor	Winnik from loose puck	ES	19	26	42	45	51	52	10	18	22	28	30	96
2	07:50	0	1	Tor	Bozak wide from rebound	ES	19	26	42	45	46	52	10	18	22	28	30	96
2	02:05	0	1	Tor	Bozak from Van Riemsdyk	ES	19	26	42	45	46	52	8	19	20	21	30	93
2	02:03	0	1	Tor	Bozak from rebound	ES	19	26	42	45	46	52	8	19	20	21	30	93
2	01:01	0	1	NYR	Stoll deflects Klein shot	ES	2	15	23	24	44	45	8	26	27	28	30	61
2	00:03	0	1	Tor	Van Riemsdyk wide from Kadri	ES	3	21	43	45	47	51	16	22	24	27	30	36
3	19:12	0	1	Tor	Lupul wide from faceoff	ES	2	19	26	42	44	45	5	26	28	30	93	96
3	16:28	0	1	NYR	Kreider drives	ES	3	19	26	42	45	46	18	19	20	21	22	30
3	15:45	0	1	Tor	Matthias wide from loose puck	ES	15	23	24	44	45	51	18	20	22	26	28	30
3	15:12	0	1	Tor	Grabner deflects Froese shot wide	ES	2	25	40	44	45	56	5	26	28	30	93	96
3	14:26	0	1	NYR	GOAL! Zuccarello from Brassard	ES	2	21	43	44	45	47	8	16	27	30	36	61
3	13:36	0	2	NYR	Lindberg drives wide	ES	3	19	23	24	45	51	13	19	22	24	30	93
3	12:21	0	2	NYR	Nash from Zuccarello	ES	2	21	24	45	46	47	8	16	27	30	36	61
3	07:52	0	2	NYR	McDonagh from Fast	ES	3	21	43	45	47	51	8	19	20	21	27	30
3	05:34	0	2	NYR	Kreider from Stepan	ES	3	15	23	45	51	56	18	19	20	21	22	30
3	04:02	0	2	Tor	Lupul drives	ES	3	19	26	42	45	51	5	16	30	36	61	93
3	03:42	0	2	NYR	Brassard drives	ES	3	15	26	42	45	51	5	16	30	36	93	96
3	03:33	0	2	NYR	Boyle from Zuccarello	ES	3	15	26	45	51	56	16	18	22	30	36	96
3	02:55	0	2	NYR	Etem from Klein	ES	21	23	44	45	46	56	8	26	27	28	30	96
3	01:51	0	2	Tor	GOAL! Lupul deflects Phaneuf shot	EN	3	19	21	42	43	44	5	19	26	27	28	30

Maple Leafs Player Data

Player	ESChF	ESChA	ESCh%	ESTOI	ZS%	NZ%	ContEnt	OppContEnt
Clune	3	0	100.0%	08:40	0.0%	45.8%	27.3%	15.4%
Grabner	3	0	100.0%	08:29	0.0%	50.0%	16.7%	16.7%
Lupul	9	5	64.3%	17:37	80.0%	57.4%	31.4%	53.8%
Bozak	9	6	60.0%	17:39	80.0%	55.2%	37.5%	57.7%
Kadri	4	3	57.1%	15:59	76.5%	51.0%	38.5%	36.0%
Winnik	9	7	56.3%	15:45	66.7%	56.9%	27.3%	52.0%
Froese	3	3	50.0%	12:12	0.0%	52.6%	20.0%	27.8%
Van Riemsdyk	4	5	44.4%	16:43	65.0%	51.0%	48.0%	37.5%
Komarov	4	5	44.4%	14:04	60.0%	47.6%	40.0%	36.4%
Holland	2	4	33.3%	11:42	0.0%	51.5%	11.8%	25.0%
Parenteau	2	5	28.6%	11:24	0.0%	52.8%	10.5%	29.4%
Matthias	2	5	28.6%	12:51	0.0%	51.3%	15.0%	36.8%
Marincin	6	0	100.0%	12:12	44.4%	46.3%	47.4%	18.2%
Polak	5	3	62.5%	14:51	40.0%	49.0%	45.8%	32.0%
Hunwick	7	6	53.8%	20:03	62.5%	55.7%	17.6%	51.9%
Rielly	7	7	50.0%	20:27	78.6%	54.7%	17.1%	51.7%
Gardiner	6	8	42.9%	19:59	22.2%	54.0%	29.4%	37.9%
Phaneuf	5	8	38.5%	20:34	50.0%	53.1%	29.4%	33.3%

Tyler Bozak returned, playing mostly with Joffrey Lupul and Daniel Winnik. They had a strong performance in chances, and won the neutral zone battle, but you can see that they had a lot of trouble preventing the Rangers from entering with control. A lot of that trouble came against the Zuccarello line, as that trio were strong all night.

Rich Clune, in his Leaf debut, had a solid start, as he and Michael Grabner weren’t on for a chance against at ES, despite not getting any offensive zone starts. They didn’t do a lot offensively, but were also able to prevent controlled entries better than any line.

The top line, headed by Nazem Kadri, were decent, about even in chances and one of the few lines that were able to consistently enter the Rangers’ zone with control.

Martin Marincin had another excellent game from chances, though that was partly down to not playing a lot in the third period. He and Roman Polak were easily the best pairing at controlling the neutral zone.

This was a big contrast with the pairing of Matt Hunwick and Morgan Rielly; given a lot of minutes against the Rangers’ top line, they struggled in zone entries, though they were able to keep the chances pretty even. Jake Gardiner returned, and wasn’t particularly impressive, finishing below even in chance differential.