Leafs Postgame – Make It Eleven

At some point, something’s gotta give. The Leafs once again outshot and outchanced an opponent, but left the ice tonight with nothing to show for it. Well, that’s not entirely true. They leave New Jersey with an impressive 11-game losing streak, after dropping tonight’s contest against the Devils by a score of 4-1.

And so help me Hockey Gods, if I hear another person try to tell me it’s a “winless streak” and not a “losing streak”, I’m going to drop hockey forever. 

The Leafs came out strong to begin the game, keeping the play in the offensive zone, cycling well, and putting some pucks on net. In fact, fans at the Prudential Center let out a bit of a sarcastic cheer when the Devils were finally able to clear to puck out or their end after about two or three minutes of pressure.

And that’s about it. That’s where all the good stuff ends.

Despite being dramatically outshot (34-17 in total), the Devils would capitalize on the few solid scoring chances they got. Tuomo Ruutu would put New Jersey ahead by one in the first, and Patrick Elias and Steve Bernier would add to their own markers in the second to put the Devils up 3-0 after forty minutes.

And hey, let’s take a second to give credit where credit is due – that Elias goal was the 400th of his career. Congratulations guy, that’s damn impressive.

In the third, Toronto would capitalize on a power play when a slick Phil Kessel shot bounced off two posts behind Cory Schneider before Tyler Bozak would bury the puck to pull the Leafs within two. Desperate to tie things up, the Leafs would gamble early and pull James Reimer with over two minutes left in the game. He wouldn’t even make it to the bench before Jaromir Jagr would bury an empty netter and seal a 4-1 Devils victory.

To be honest, the most interesting part of this game was when the Leafs announced they had traded Carter Ashton and David Broll to the Tampa Bay Lightning early in the first period.

I’m going to give it to David Booth, who didn’t record a point, and finished -1. Seriously though, Booth actually showed off his wheels tonight and hustled hard to create several scoring opportunities. He lead the Leafs with seven shots tonight.

What are you up to tomorrow night? Because the Leafs are playing again, and going for that twelfth straight loss against the Edmonton Oilers at 7:00pm on CBC.