One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Leafs 5 v. Flyers 2 - Saturday February 24th
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Too often the Leafs find a way to lose games against teams like this year's Flyers. After trading away Forsberg this was a team playing the schedule out with an eye towards next season. However, on Saturday night the good guys were able to overcome any complacency (of course the next two games were a different story) to quite handily put the league's cellar dwellars to the sword. The line of Steen-O'Neill-Stajan were at their best cycling the puck well and creating numerous scoring chances. Steen and O'Neill led the way with a goal and an assist in a game in which the result was never in doubt. The win leaves the Leafs with a 3-0 lead in the season series.

Leafs 4 v. Canadiens 5 - Monday February 26th
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I defy any Leaf fans to tell me that the first two periods of this game did not give them post-traumatic stress flashbacks of the two games in March of last year which effectively killed the Leafs' playoff hopes. Against a team that borders on incompetent 5-on-5 a key to the game is to stay out of the box. When the powerplay is their one weapon and your penalty killing is 26th in the NHL it behooves a team to play disciplined.

Instead, as Raking Leafs notes, the Leafs played the part of the Montreal Canadiens in getting dominated physically while Les Habitants showed that they still possessed a bit of mettle. The third period saw Maurice juggle the lines in an attempt to revive the Leafs' flagging hopes. It worked.

The game returned to the form of the five previous games between the two storied franchises as Toronto asserted their size advantage and dictated the pace of the game. Lo and behold, the Leafs were rewarded as first Jeremy Williams and then Alex Steen tallied to bring the score to 5-4. Unfortunately, the rally ended there as Aebischer shook off the Swiss Goalie Disease to shut the door and a late, blatant high-stick on Mats was missed by all four officials.

Leafs 1 v. Sabres 6 - Tuesday February 27th
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The Leafs are running out of gas. The great stretch to start off the year has petered out into some terrible mix of MASH and Slap Shot.

This game came right out of the Bruin's book 'How to Make Leaf Fans Kick Kittens'. The Leafs came out with jump and drew three penalties in the first period and scored on none of them (Where are thou Tucker?). The Sabres promptly went down the ice and score on a rebound as the normally reliable Devereaux lost his man on the backcheck. Two bad bounces later the Leafs are down 3-0.

Finally, Ponikarovsky scores a goal and the Leafs are coming on! Unfortunately, their hands are still...somewhere in Montreal...so the chances go wanting. Then a boneheaded move by Ponikarovsky (hey, weren't you just the hero?) led to a scrambled play, another crappy bounce, and a 4-1 lead for the Sabres. 4 goals on 11 shots only tells half the story. The Leafs' shitty defensive play tells the other half. McCabe got the Alfie treatment from the home crowd which was a long time coming.

Maurice is hamstrung by the injuries to Wellwood, Tucker, and Peca. It wasn't a problem when the team was giving their all every night but that counted on contributions from guys that have never been counted upon to produce night in and night out. They were bound to hit a wall and they have done that. Unfortunately, Maurice can't institute a similar policy to that long-ago replacement coach. He cannot punish poor performance with a spot in the press box because who will he call upon?

Yanic Perreault our (Leafs) nation turns it's lonely eyes to you.

Leafs 4 v. Flyers 2: Fortuitous Scratch

Game Recap
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I missed this game but it sure sounded like a doozy on the radio. Between the warm-up and the opening face-off Peter Forsberg got trade to the Nashville Predators. Mirtle has a pretty good take on the trade. Not that it affects the Leafs unless they play the Predators in the final. Boy, would I be upset if that happened now.

Anyway, onto the game itself. The Leafs chased Michael Leighton with 3 first period goals off of the sticks of Carlo Colaiacovo, Jeff O'Neill, and Nik 'everybody hates' Antropov. The Leafs got into some penalty trouble and almost managed to let Philly all the way back but a fourth from Mats was enough to deliver the win and move the Leafs into the 8th and final playoff spot.

Considering the Leafs' dads were in attendance as part of a take your dad to work program I would assume that the flight back to Toronto had a lot of 'DAD! did you see when I hit the Flyer?" "DAD! did you see when I made that pass and it was almost a goal?". Maybe their presence inspired them. Well that or a desire to not get a timeout in front of the other kids.

After a long hiatus...

The Final Word

Andrew Raycroft started his 19th straight game, running his record in that span to 11-5-3. He was at his best in the third, when the Flyers outshot Toronto 16-3.

Razor keeps improving as the Leafs move up the table. Is there a way to play the remaining schedule on the road?

Leafs 4 v. Flyers 1: Harder Than It Had To Be

Game Recap

Andrew Raycroft is having quite a run of results. Monday morning, his excellent work last week (3-0-0, 1.67 GAA, .943 SV%) led to him being recognized by the league as the week's number two star. Monday night, he took another step towards rehabilitating his status as a top goaltender with a 40 save performance to steal a 4-1 decision for the Leafs. The score is not indicative of a game where the Flyers controlled the majority of play. It is at the same time reassuring that Raycroft stole his first game as a Leaf and worrisome that he had to do it against the NHL's worst team.

To be fair, the first two periods hinged mostly on penalties. In the first period the Leafs were skating hard and moving the puck well. Those two generally add up to penalties against and the Flyers spent much of the first period shorthanded. Unfortunately, the Leafs' powerplay did not capitalize although I suspect it was mostly done out of pity and the fact that Antero Niittymaki travelled back in time to get his February 2006 self in net. The Leafs left the period with a 1-0 lead on a Bates Battaglia goal on a beautiful play where he held off Hatcher (now on pace to be -930) as he came around the net and spun and fired a shot into the top corner.

The second period was literally the opposite of the first. The team in orange and black (wasn't Hallowe'en last week?) were clearly berated into realizing that they play in the NHL during the intermission. They caught the Leafs off-guard with their 'effort' and 'determination', two things that cellar dwellars are not supposed to show on the road, and the Leafs promptly got into penalty trouble. As is becoming usual, the penalty kill was once again spectacular. Hal Gill did an incredible job of using his long reach and big body to cut off any cross ice pass while Mike Peca continued to dislay an almost nonchalant ease while winning faceoffs and clearing the puck. The Leafs have now killed 30 of the last 31 shorthanded opportunities against and have moved into the top 10. For a team that finished last year 24th on the PK this is a massive improvement. Raycroft did a wonderful job in stopping 16 of 17 shots but Ben Eager was able to bury one when a bad line change resulted in him being sent in alone.

Rather than fold now that the momentum was clearly in the Flyers' favour the Leafs decided to get back in the fight. The third period was much more evenly matched but it eventually turned on a powerplay. The newly re-united trio of Sundin, Ponikarovsky, and Antropov created the winner after Sundin won his third straight offensive zone faceoff. Bryan McCabe took a page out of Ian White's book and threw a hard wrist shot between two Flyers that resulted in a rebound. Mats and Poni scrambled it in front until the lanky Kazakh (his official title) Nik Antropov was able to use his size and reach to crash the scrum and bury the winner. Is nii-ice.

The not-so weak Ukranian Ponikarovsky scored a third to ice the game after White muscled the puck into the neutral zone. Poni carried the puck over the blueline before rifling a shot past Niittymaki's glove and into the top corner. Tomas Kaberle finished the scoring with an empty netter that capped off a nice series of unselfish passes from O'Neill to Stajan to Steen who passed up a chance at a goal.

While Raycroft and the kids (Steen, Stajan, White, Bell, Wellwood) have garnered a lot of the attention this season one of the more unheralded stories has been that of Bates Battaglia. His goal last night was not only his fourth of the season but it also displayed his physical strengths. He held off Hatcher while still being able to control the puck while completing a nice spin move and fired a hard shot into the net. He has shown a willingness to crash and bang each shift this season and Maurice has rewarded him more ice-time and promotions up the lines. Last night he skated most of his time with Mike Peca. Battaglia has been a good example to the youngsters of the effort that is necessary on every shift and may be the Leafs' most underrated addition along with Hal Gill.

And with a renewed focus on the man of the hour...

The Final Word

His teammates launched a season-high 41 shots at goalie Andrew Raycroft last night at the Air Canada Centre, but came away with only one goal in a 4-1 loss to the oronto Maple Leafs. The critical difference? The Flyers' hideous power play, which is 7 for 87 this season. It was a one-goal game with five minutes to play and the Flyers had already failed seven times with the man advantage.
Tim Panaccio, Philadelphia Inquirer, highlights the importance of the Leafs rejuvenated penalty kill to last night's victory.

The Leafs can be thankful for Andrew Raycroft and the way he pulled out a win last night with some spectacular goaltending. They can also be thankful the 26-year-old from Belleville possesses a stone-hard resolve to better himself.
Mark Zwolinski, Toronto Star, noting that despite some bad numbers against the sens that Raycroft maintained belief in his abilities.