03/18/2010 - New Jersey at Toronto - Postgame Report

Sorry for the delay, nonexistent crowds - had to turn off my computer to install 2 gigs of RAM. Now it's in there, and my Photoshop should be working nicely now. And so it is! Marvelous improvement. I love it.

Well. The game had its interesting moments, but up until the final five minutes of the second period, I found it to be a rather dull game. Unfortunately, it became more lively when the Devils scored courtesy of Clarkson, but I suppose it turned out alright in the end. The youth of the Toronto squad was reflected in their seeming difficulty in restraining a more experienced and inarguably more skilled New Jersey team (with names like Parise, Kovalchuk, Langenbrunner, and Elias, can you really contest that claim?), but New Jersey's difficulty in scoring even with that high-end talent should be taken as a positive.

Again, I found myself impressed with the play of a very young Leafs team. Obviously, I'm biased (as the website might indicate to the more astute reader), but personally I enjoy the thought that this inexperienced group of young players can keep up with some of the league's best. Granted, the Devils didn't really show up for the first half of the game, but still.

I'd say the first period was the best of any the Leafs played in this game.  The Leafs came out strong and fast against a Devils team that seemed bewildered and unenthusiastic about the game they were playing, and it showed when the Leafs dominated the play and maintained consistent control of the puck in the Devils zone. Getting quality scoring chances is another matter, but I figure that more chances will come as these younger players mesh as a team and develop individually.

New Jersey was kept to only five shots in the first period, and only one seemed to be difficult for Jean-Sebastien Giguere to handle.

Goals

TORONTO - #81 Phil Kessel (27); Assisted by #3 Dion Phaneuf (16) and #39 John Mitchell (11)

A powerful shot from Dion Phaneuf as he swept down the side rebounded away from Yann Danis and ended up directly on Phil Kessel's stick. Kessel was left staring at a wide open net, and he won't miss those shots often.

 After fifteen minutes of mostly unenthusiastic play from the Devils, strong motivation was found in the quality play of David Clarkson. Clearly visible all over the ice, Clarkson gave his team a much needed shot of energy with his play down low and by scoring the only goal the Devils would get all night (with the exception of one shootout marker, of course). I don't think it's too out of line to credit Clarkson with perking his team up and getting them moving; he certainly made the game much more interesting than it had been previously.

A particularly telling stat about this period: for the first thirty minutes of the game, the Devils only managed seven shots on net. They equaled that amount of shots in the last ten minutes of the second period.

Goals

NEW JERSEY - #23 David Clarkson (9); Assisted by #22 Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond (1) and #6 Andy Greene (31)
After a scrum along the boards, Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond gained control of the puck and threw it to the slot. A driving Clarkson received the pass and fired the puck past a reaching Garnet Exelby and caught Giguere over the glove hand.

The third period was mostly controlled by the Devils - they got more shots, and more chances, and generally maintained and extended the pressure that they had shown signs of at the end of the second on a younger Leafs squad that looked quite hard pressed to contain them at times.While there was some sloppy play at times by the Leafs, strong play by Giguere bailed them out time and time again during this period. 

There was also a particularly strange penalty called on Nikolai Kulemin - well, one of two strange penalties. While the first could be forgiven, the second was more perplexing. Kulemin skated into the crease area and rather comically sent three Devils players crashing to the ground around him; no infraction was visible in the replays, and I'm rather curious what exactly Kulemin did in the eyes of the referee aside from being strong enough to bowl over three hardened athletes without any visible effort.


I recognize that I may have some blue-tinted glasses on, but I like to think the tint is very mild. I'll call out penalties my own team commits when they commit them, but I didn't see any penalty on that play.

Goals
  
No goals scored this period.

The overtime period was a good showing by the Leafs - physical, pushing the zone, and generally controlling the play. The Leafs started with a power play in overtime - albeit only for a few seconds - but they never really lost control of the flow of play. The last minute of overtime was particularly energetic, with the Leafs managing a few good opportunities, even if it isn't reflected in the shot count.

The shootout was a bit of an unusual thing for the Leafs - all three of the Leafs shooters scored. Kessel, Kulemin, and John Mitchell all managed goals to put the game away, while Zach Parise scored a marker for the Devils. Giguere stopped the second Devil attempt to help win the game for his team.

 Overall, it was a fairly interesting contest, if just because I was watching it with significantly more focus towards commentary than usual. I must concede that particular joy is most likely not a common feeling - I don't know too many places that write up post-game reports like this that aren't newspapers.

In general, I'm happy with the play of the Leafs in this game, but there were definitely moments where they looked like the young and nearly last-place team that they are. The first period was excellent, the second and large parts of the third were not. If this Leafs team wants to make any sort of consistent improvement, even in this forgettable season, they will need to learn how to play the full sixty minutes.

Also, they desperately need to improve on the power play - whatever the cause behind the recent decline, it must be cured or the Leafs won't be going anywhere. Granted, this season is already lost, but if they hope to get out of lottery position by the end of the season, special teams are a pretty integral part of any successful team. At least the penalty kill is doing well, and only promises to improve with the return of Fredrik Sjostrom.

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The next game will take place at 7:00 PM on Saturday, March 20th, 2010. It will feature the Montreal Canadiens against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Air Canada Centre. The game can be watched on CBC(HD), ,NHLN-US(HD), and RDS(HD).

• Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblanc scored his first point of the season, an assist, on the first and only New Jersey goal. He has played in 18 games this season.
• Phil Kessel has scored 5 goals over the last 5 games, but only 6 over the past 10. Still, extended over an 82 game season, that 10-game scoring pace would net him 49 goals.
• Mikhail Grabovski saw his point streak end tonight at 5 games. Over that stretch, he scored five points.
• Dion Phaneuf scored his fourth point as a Leaf, and it took 14 games to do so. He has not scored a goal since January 30th, when he was still a Flame.
• The three stars of the game, according to NHL.com, were:

1. Jean-Sebastien Giguere (TOR)
2. Phil Kessel (TOR)
3. Yann Danis (NJ)