LEAFS POSTGAME: The (Other) Blue and White Win At Hockey

Man, Connor McDavid is good. he’s played seventeen fewer games than Mitch Marner and twenty fewer than Dylan Strome, yet he’s only twelve points back of the scoring lead. It would have been really nice if this tank could have started sooner, but with games like tonight, there may be hopes for the lottery balls yet. Needless to say, the Leafs lost again.

This game went downhill almost immediately, with Nikita Kucherov opening the scoring for Tampa Bay just four minutes in. No Leafs skater came close to covering his spot on the right wing; all opting for the left side or being as close to Bernier as possible. This gave Kucherov all the time in the world to rip one top shelf. Things didn’t get much better as the period progressed, as Eric Brewer seemingly forgot that he hasn’t played for the Bolts in a while and tipped Ryan Callahan’s slap pass in.

David Booth gave the Leafs a bit of hope during the second period, wrapping up a nice deke and pass by Peter Holland to score Toronto’s first of the night. It was the only one we saw until the third period, where Vladislav Namestikov and Alex Killorn quickly came in and widened the gap to 4-1. Richard Panik added one more for the Leafs with two and a half minutes to go, but they got.

I’m going to go with Panik, if only for the fact that he scored against his former team, and I think that’s great. He’s proved himself to be more than worth the waiver pickup over the past few months.

This season will be over soon, I promise.

Also, the Bolts wore black and white tonight, so this title is, for once, inaccurate.