Morning after recap: Did we lose to the Flyers again? (Yes)

While a 4-2 loss was definitely not the outcome we wanted, it may have been the outcome the Leafs deserved. So learn from past mistakes and do better next time, right? The Leafs had some good along with the bad last night, but Frederik Andersen couldn’t quite win this one.

Check out the goals with us below…at least there were several to go through.

It took almost ten minutes for anything at all to happen in this game, but when something finally did happen, it only took about two seconds.

Patrick Marleau slid a skate out of place and got thrown out of the faceoff, leaving Zach Hyman to take the defensive zone draw against Sean Couturier (not ideal). Couturier won it easily and sent the puck straight back to Claude Giroux, who fired it off into the Leafs’ net.

The best thing about this was definitely Mike Babcock’s reaction (complete with sarcastic clapping).

Twenty-seven seconds after the Giroux tally, Patrick Marleau gets one right back. This is the kind of goal that all the commentators say Brian Elliott will “want back,” as if there are some shots that goalies are totally fine with allowing past them. But yeah, if we’re being honest, I’m not sure how Elliott let this one get by.

It looked like he wasn’t quite ready for Marleau to shoot (even though he had plenty of time), so maybe he thought it was going to be a pass to Connor Brown and hadn’t decided where to commit. Elliott didn’t even realize the puck had gone in until he saw Brown celebrating, so I’m not sure where his head was at on this play.

Love to see JVR in front of the net on the power play, just doing his thing. As soon as the puck left Rielly’s stick, the Flyers in front of the net parted, leaving van Riemsdyk all alone in front of Elliott to tip in the shot. He’s got 15 goals on the season now, tied for ninth in the NHL (six of those have been on the power play).

While it was immediately clear that Travis Konecny’s shot was deflected past Andersen, everyone was a little confused as to exactly how that happened. The puck appeared to hit Dominic Moore, and then some combination of Taylor Leier and Roman Polak. The goal was ruled Leier’s, but credit where credit is due–Polak did a great job screening the goalie on this one.

This is the kind of play that makes you cringe as a Leafs fan…but then on the replay you just have to sit back for a moment and admire that pass from Claude Giroux.

Nikita Zaitsev thinks he has him pinned up against the boards, but Giroux gives himself just enough space to send the puck backwards between his own legs (and Zaitsev’s) to a waiting Couturier. As Giroux himself said after the game, no one really expects Sean Couturier to be the one streaking on a breakaway, but when you’ve got someone setting you up that perfectly, you don’t need to be fast.

Meh.

The Buds will be back in action on Thursday in Minnesota (hopefully with a better outcome), so we will see y’all then!