Leafs Postgame: Tennessee Shootout

Two wins? In a row? Your eyes do not deceive you, Leafs fans. Toronto visited Nashville tonight and kept pace with a far better team, taking the Predators deep into the shootout and coming out the other side with an unexpected 2-1 win.

I could tell you about how boring the first period of tonight’s game was, or how the second period wasn’t much better. Instead, we’ll focus on the shot clock, where Toronto only managed 14 shots on net through the first 40 minutes, but held Nashville to only 12. That sounds pretty good (which it is), but this lovely all-situations Shot Attempts chart from War-on-Ice tells us that the Predators largely carried the play throughout the first and second frames.

In the third period, we’d see a little more back and forth action – and finally some damn goals. First, Shea Weber would put a snapshot past James Reimer on the powerplay just two-and-a-half minutes into the frame. Moments later, both Shawn Matthias and Tyler Bozak would get behind the Predators defence off a quick transition, and Matthias would slide the puck across for Bozak to bury behind Pekka Rinne.

That 1-1 would hold through the rest of the third period and all the way through overtime, which featured a lengthy 4-on-3 opportunity for Nashville after Michael Grabner took a rather weak hooking call. 

In fact, the tie would hold up all the way through the fifth round of the shootout, with Reimer and Rinne trading saves until Peter Holland would finally win it for the good guys.

For the third game in a row, James Reimer gets the Blue Warrior honours. Making the most out of his run of starts with Jonathan Bernier on the mend, Reimer made 21 of 22 saves and was perfect on five shootout attempts. Want to hear the craziest part, though? Reimer now holds a .920 SV% and a 2.33 GAA through ten games, officially making him an above average NHL goaltender! 

Seriously, even if Bernier is ready to go… You have to keep rolling with Reimer, no?

Ew, gross. The Vancouver Canucks visit the Leafs in Toronto this coming Saturday night, and that means we’ll have to put up with their lame team and their lame fans and their lame blogs, too. Tune in to CBC at 7:00pm for Hockey Night in Canada.