Toronto Maple Leafs Post-Game: The Resurgence of Tyler Bozak

Cry your heart out, Patrick Roy. 

In yet another game of slightly improved Toronto Maple Leafs hockey, the home team wiped the floor with Patrick Roy’s sad-sack Colorado Avalanche roster in a 5-1 victory.

It’s hard to tell whether the Leafs were consistently better than the Avalanche because they’ve continued to improve their own possession game or because these Avalanche are historically bad at holding on to the puck, but it’s pretty nifty watching the group of mismatched free agents completely wipe the ice with a lineup featuring Matt Duchene, Nathan MacKinnon, Jarome Iginla, and Tyson Barrie. 

Nazem Kadri led the game in shots on goal – although he didn’t manage to score – and Tyler Bozak scored a beautiful hail mary goal from his spot on his ass on the ice during one of the team’s many power plays. Things looked fun for the Leafs tonight, and that’s refreshing. 

The Avalanche actually spent the majority of the game outshooting the Leafs, but looked like a mess doing so. Another messy Avalanche game, and the Leafs capitalized. 

After getting crapped on by his new backup Jonathan Bernier earlier today, Reimer overcame the probable PTSD suffered from a reminder of the 2013 Game 7 by having a pretty impressive game against the Avalanche. 

Granted, the Avalanche didn’t have as many quality scoring chances as the Leafs – there was a surprisingly efficient defensive game being played by the home team – and Reimer’s ability to put himself in a sound position during a screen – but with goaltending out of Bernier looking like Ray Emery on his worst night, Reimer got the job done and walked away with another win. 

There’s the third star player we all know and love. 

The Leafs will take what looked like a pretty impressively played game against the Avalanche and try to beat one of the other teams that honestly may be struggling more than either Colorado or Toronto – the Carolina Hurricanes, who can’t buy a win with the cap space they refuse to use. Toronto’s going on the road to play the conference rival, who they’ll face on on Friday. That’s ample time to rest, and hopefully figure out how to replicate their success from tonight.