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Leafs Postgame: Another Tight Loss to the Bolts

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Scott Maxwell
5 years ago
I’m going to be completely honest with you here, I missed most of this game, aside from the last 13 minutes of the third period, so I’m not going to waste your time with a ton of insight on updates. Instead, I’ll just react to the goals.

1st Period

Excellent pressure from Mitch Marner on this play, and that pressure leads to an almost breakaway chance for him that he converts into an easy goal. Good start to the game for the Leafs.

2nd Period

Yeah, this is the kind of play that someone with 40+ goals makes when his team is playing game 81 and has 19 points on the second best team in the league. Rielly could’ve covered it better, but rarely are you going to see a player blow the zone on a PK like that.

3rd Period

Yeah, this was a weird one. It looks like it hit Rosen on the way in, although I can’t find an angle that definitively shows that. Freddie could’ve maybe played that better, but it was a knuckle puck, so you can’t really fault him. Just a bad bounce.
Yeah, I’m not reacting to the empty net goal. You shouldn’t be surprised that Nikita Kucherov scored in an empty net.

Based on the spreadsheets, the Lightning got off to a pretty good start before the Leafs started to swing things back in their favour later on. All in all, a solid game against the best team in the league that they finished on the wrong side of the score sheet.

Who Wore the Crown?

After every Leaf game, we’re recognizing one Leaf player who best exemplified what it means to play hockey the “Toronto Way”: with heart and soul, above all else. Who wore the Crown is brought to you by Crown Royal, passionate fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs. 
Today, it goes to #31 for his stellar play in net. His 26 saves were what kept the Leafs in the game, especially early on when the Lightning were pressing. It’s that kind of play that will be essential come playoff time, and it’s good to see him get his game back together just in time for it.
Up next, the Leafs finish the regular season off in Montreal on Saturday, with Bob Cole calling his final game for Hockey Night in Canada. Also, we could kick the Habs out of the playoffs, so let’s do it lol.

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