Morning-after recap: Keepin’ it simple

We’ll keep this one short, because, well, the goalies were the story of last night. After doing the same against the New Jersey Devils and Edmonton Oilers earlier in the season, it was the Leafs’ third 1-0 victory of the season so far. That  Prior to this season, the Leafs last won a game 1-0 against the Pittsburgh Penguins on February 1, 2012, where Clarke MacArthur scored the Leafs’ only goal on… Brent Johnson, if you remember that guy.

First things first: it’s a funny contrast seeing the level of celebration on this goal compared to say, Matthews’ game winner on Sunday night. Guess you never know what’s going to be the winner.

The play begins with Jake Gardiner in his own end, who begins making moves and calling the shots from way back at his own faceoff circle. He finds JVR on the stretch pass, and some great board play to enter the zone finds the Leafs on a kind of 2-on-1-but-not-really rush. A missed shot/pass attempt finds the puck rimmed into the corner, but again, it’s a smart play by Gardiner – here pinching down at the right time to keep the puck in the zone and it’s a slick pass to the stick of JVR a few feet away.

A subtle move, but it’s enough to set up the wrist shot that JVR fires through Luongo for the game’s first and only goal.

A first period-goal, Leafs win 1-0. What more do you want?