Leafs Postgame: Zzzzzzzzzzz

I’d love to sit here and tell you that tonight’s game was fun to watch.  The Battle of Ontario.  Phaneuf, Michalek, and Greening playing their old teams.  Something.

Nope, can’t do it.  Tonight’s game was a snoozefest with little to no drama.  The play was largely controlled, the Leafs never really asserted their will, and the Sens took the lead early in the game without ever looking back.

I guess that’s what you get when you pit the 22nd best team in the league against the 30th best team in the league.

I won’t bore you with too many details here.  Basically, the Sens scored early in the first period, and on the whole, the Sens looked like the more dangerous team at even strength.

In the second period the Sens got another early goal, this time in the opening minute of the second frame.  The Leafs got handed plenty of powerplays, but really didn’t do anything of consequence with them.  So entering the third, it was 2-0 Sens with the Leafs showing little signs of life.

And then there was the third goal.  Yep, the Sens scored sometime in the first four minutes of the third period.  But I didn’t see it, because I was making a sandwich.

Then late in the period Jake Gardiner made an errant pass at the blueline that led to a Mark Strone goal on a 2-on-1.  It was an ugly, lazy play late in a lifeless game.  What more can you expect?

The good thing is that was all she wrote.  It was a boring game with a boring ending.

But hey, I’m not complaining.  The Leafs lost and the tank is in fine form.

Frankly, I can’t say that he played particularly well tonight.  And I haven’t even looked at his underlying numbers to see how he did in that department.  What I can tell you though is that watching Jake Gardiner skate with the puck is poetry in motion, and he did plenty of skating with the puck tonight.  Right or wrong, he was one of the few things about this game that pleased me in even the slightest of ways.  So he’s your Blue Warrior.

The Leafs get right back at it tomorrow night.  They’re in Detroit to face the Red Wings.  The game can be seen at 7:30PM Eastern on Sportsnet.