Leafs Postgame – Is It Over Yet?

There isn’t a non-playoff team out there that’s hurt their draft stock more than the Columbus Blue Jackets. To put things in perspective, the Blue Jackets have gone 9-0-1 in their last ten games, and they’re still 10 points behind the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. They’re a good team that suffered through significant injury problems and fell behind the pack, but my God did they apparently not want a high draft pick. Columbus is legitimately the hottest team in the entire league.

And that’s hella good news for a supposed-to-be-tanking Toronto team that’s been slowly creeping closer to the Carolina Hurricanes in the standings.

All Columbus, all the time. That’s pretty much how this game turned out, with the Blue Jackets jumping out to a three-goal lead by the time the first period ended. Artem Anisimov, Boone Jenner and Scott Hartnell would all score in the final ten minutes of the frame.

It was after the third Columbus goal that I show some excellent hockey IQ, recognizing that this was an awful game and flipping channels to watch a bit of the Blue Jays game. And you know what? They would eventually let me down too, which I suppose I deserve.

Early in the second period, Ryan Murray would put another puck past Leafs goaltender James Reimer. In his final appearance of the season, Reimer would be pulled after allowing four goals on 20 shots.

Jonathan Bernier would fare somewhat better, only allowing one more goal from Jeremy Morin late in the second period. Bernier would allow the one goal on 13 shots, though I doubt we were seeing full effort from the Blue Jackets.

Both teams would go through the motions in the third period, and Columbus would take the 5-0 victory.

Nazem Kadri had five shots on goal and seemed to push the play in the right direction whenever he was on the ice (even though he received just third line minutes). That’s not saying much in a 5-0 loss, but seriously, I don’t have a lot to choose from here.

The Leafs will play their final game of the 2014-2015 season on Saturday night, when the host the Montreal Canadiens in Toronto. Tune in to CBC at 7:00pm. Or don’t. Whatever.