Leafs Postgame: Started From The Bottom (Now We There Again)

You knew it was coming. No matter how many pucks James Reimer stopped, no matter how much better Mike Babcock was at executing a system than his predecessors, and no matter how nifty Nazem Kadri’s mittens were, the Leafs simply didn’t have the talent to make a serious run.

Or half of a run. Or a spot away from the bottom of the division. Or a spot away from the bottom of the conference.

Or the bottom of the league. In front of the collective fatherhood of the roster, the Leafs suffered a blowout loss to the Florida Panthers, which, with the help of a few other games, moved the team into a tie for the bottom seed.

The craziest part about this mess of a game was the fact that the Leafs actually got on the board first. Late in the first period, Jake Gardiner sent a breakout pass out for Kadri. While it was a little too hard for him to hold onto, Peter Holland held onto it for him at the blue line, allowing Naz to swoop in and deke out Roberto Luongo. Things actually looked pretty good, if only for a few minutes.

I say a few minutes because it completely fell apart in the second period. A minute after Dion Phaneuf was penalized for sending Quinton Howden into the boards, Brian Campbell sent a stretch pass to Aleksander Barkov for an equalizer. The bleeding didn’t stop there, though; Vincent Trocheck added a second powerplay goal just four minutes later, and Jussi Jokinen added insurance to their lead before the period closed.

By the time the third came around, most people had tuned out; there may have been fewer people still watching the game than there were people in the Sunrise stands. Even still, Rielly Smith expanded on Florida’s efforts with his sixteenth of the year, ending James Reimer’s franchise record-setting “three or fewer” streak of eighteen games. At this point, he checked out as well, as proven by whatever this was by Alex Petrovic.

Some other things happened between the first and final buzzer. Michael Grabner took a puck to the face, which presumably was incredibly painful. Peter Holland fought Aaron Ekblad, which I presume was about a Tinder-related drama. Rich Clune and Shawn Thornton almost fought, which I presume was because Thornton had another one of his late game “say something insane” moments that other teams have been concerned without throughout the year. None of these things I can say for sure, of course. But the presumptions are fun enough to give some entertainment in a time of darkness. Minus the puck to the face. I wouldn’t want a puck to the face.

Columbus’ win over makes them Toronto’s equals in points. Technically, Toronto has fewer Regulation/Overtime Wins, which would be the tiebreaker if every team had played 82 games thus far, but they’ve also played fewer games than the Blue Jackets and Oilers, who also have 43 points. None of this matters, though; the Oilers are expected to get their McSaviour back soon, the Jackets haven’t been half bad of late, and Toronto’s situation will likely get worse before it gets better.

If I had to give a Blue Warrior tonight, it would be to Sam Kadri. He probably got the most positive happiness out of the Father’s Night festivities, and he wore a jersey this year! I suppose it helps that the Habs (his favourite team, minus cheering for his son) are free falling as well, but it’s nice to see him finally join the other dads after previous years of suiting up.

Toronto’s next game is against future Leafs centre Steven Stamkos and the Tampa Bay Lightning. Look for him to be a dominant presence tomorrow night, as every goal gets him closer to working with Auston Matthews on the top powerplay unit in October. Puck drop is tomorrow night at 7:00 PM.