Frederik Andersen has no time for your Corsi charts.

(But we low-key should, that was a bad game)

The Danish King stole an ugly game for the Leafs tonight, helping them pull to 32-19-5 on the season, good enough for a nice 69 points through 56 games.

To answer the oft-asked question of “Which team will forget to start on time tonight?”, the answer tonight was apparently both teams. Shots were just 2-2 over halfway through the first period, with not much going on, save for this terrible gaffe by our otherwise-golden boy William Nylander:

Luckily, Freddie was up to the task.

And then later in the period:

JVR notches is 21st on the season in very non-JVR fashion. As in, he the puck to score the goal. And boy, what a shot it was to beat Pekka Rinne and open the score.

That’s all the first period would write, with the Leafs outshooting the Preds 11-8 and leading 1-0 after 20.

Things started to get a little lopsided in this period. With the Preds out-chancing the Leafs and on the power play, things were looking like they were about to go south for the Leafs.

Fortunately, however, this happened:

Folks… THAT’S KAPPY. Kasperi Kapanen notches his 4th goal in his 13th game of the season on a gorgeous effort, and just like that the Leafs are up 2-0.

After several Vezina-calibre saves by Frederik Andersen (what else is new?), however, the Preds would ultimately get on the board late in the period. Colton Sissons would pick up a puck that hit JVR and landed in the slot to put the Preds back to within one.

Despite being handily out-possessed and outshot 27-21, the Leafs would leave the second frame up 2-1.

Sadly, the lead would not last much longer.

Just 25 seconds into the third, Viktor Arvidsson tucks the puck through Frederik Andersen’s five-hole to tie things up at 2:

Sigh.

Much of the third period would be controlled completely by the Preds, who continued to pull away and dominate the buds. After a long period with the Leafs hemmed in their own zone, JVR would streak in on a breakaway, but didn’t have enough gas in the tank to get a good shot off on Pekka Rinne.

With the period winding down, Freddie Andersen would once again be sensational, saving the game with yet another jaw-dropping stop to keep the game tied and bring things to overtime.

With overtime solving nothing, we would go to the shootout.

And what a duel it was. Both teams would go back and forth seven times, with Tyler Bozak and Ryan Ellis potting goals while Freddie Andersen and Pekka Rinne stood tall the rest of the way, until…

He got the first goal, and the last as well. James van Riemsdyk seals the deal and, along with Frederik Andersen’s heroic effort, steals a game that the Leafs very much deserved to lose.

All the important stuff, y’know.

Catch the Buds back in action on Saturday night against the Senators. That may be three days from now, but with the Buds being All Day, it’ll feel like no time at all.