Leafs Postgame: Freddy wasn’t ready

If y’all thought that Kings game was nerve-wracking, you may not have been ready for this one. (Spoiler: not as happy of an ending.) Let’s try and put this one behind us, shall we?

Look, Corsi!

(This actually doesn’t look as lopsided as things started to feel in the third period…)

Two opposition goals in the first three minutes….. not really how you want to start against a team that keeps earning the title “offensively-challenged”. (According to the broadcast, Carolina had only scored five first period goals in their whole season until tonight.)

Auston Matthews gets #8 on the year, and now he is third in the league for goals (second at even-strength). He just hops on the ice and BAM people are watching again. Or maybe they were watching for Leo Komarov’s hit to clear up some space. Either way!

Freddy made this amazing glove save on Noah Hanifin…

….and then one got tipped past him and the Hurricanes were up by two goals again.

Overall, not really the best start for Andersen this season.

How about some love for that fourth line? It might have been a demotion for Mitch Marner, but I think his new linemates probably have not been complaining. Marner wasn’t even right there for this one, and Matt Martin’s primary on Dominic Moore’s goal was the 100th of his career!

And look, Zach Hyman scored, too! Tied it up, even.

Martin left the bench briefly, and that’s when lines started getting weird. At first it was just Brown and Marner bouncing around, but it only got weirder after Martin came back. We even got some time with Matthews centering Marleau and Marner late in the the second, which I think I could get on board with.

When the Leafs went on the power play, Bozak and Kadri got kicked out of the face-off (we’re still not sure exactly what happened there), and after a moment of confusion, the officials confirmed a penalty for Naz and went with two whole minutes of 4-on-4. It was pretty fun, though, even without a goal.

But really, what was with that penalty?

This period was just a mess of lines for the Leafs. We got JVR with Marner and Marleau, Kadri centering Moore and Martin, maybe? And other fun things that didn’t get goals on the board, unfortunately.

Six = most goals Carolina has scored in a single game this season.

Six = number of goals the Leafs keep giving up in losses.

Goals are great, but they’re less great when the Leafs get less of them than the other team.

It was just a rough third period, okay? Anyway, 7-3-0 is better than most of the league!

See you Saturday. Philly’s in town.