Leafs Play Well: But Come Up Short Against Cane’s Hot Goalie

by Mitch. Mitchell...Toronto Maple Leafs came up with probably their best team effort of the season, in the 2-0 loss but could not put the puck behind The Cane’s goalie Cam Ward.

Leafs controlled most of the play during the game and each line played very solid hockey.

The M Line of May, Mitchell and Mayers, played very strong and kept pressure on the Cane’s defence on each shift with their solid fore-checking.

Toskala came up with a very solid effort in quite some time and could not be faulted for the two goals that got behind him.

The delay of game call by the official on Kaberle was very marginal at best.

His two minutes resulted in the first Cane’s goal- a shot from the blue line.

The Cane’s second goal came with only seconds left in the second period leaving the Leafs to try and over come a 2-0 deficit going into the third period.

With the exception of two or three hic’cups and a failed tripping call on Antropov by the officials Leafs could have won this one.

Ron Wilson should be happy with his team effort, if not the outcome: I do believe Wilson’s big problems are lack of break-out patterns as well as PP-PK.

Leafs- Suffer N.M.F. In 2-0 Loss To Nashville

by Mitch  Mitchell…

The Leafs suffered their fourth loss in a row at the hands of the Nashville Predators mostly because of a season problem called (N.M.F.)

In plain hockey language they were not moving their feet and this has been the case in most games this season.

As mentioned in a previous article of mine, if you as a player(s) are going to stand around not moving their feet, you will begin to clutch and grab or whatever ending in playing a man short.

The Leafs do not seem to be very creative in setting up plays or finishing off plays therefore they give the puck away on most occasions and then end up chasing the opposition continually.

Toskala I thought played a much better game against a pretty good Nashville team although from my point of view I thought the to pucks that went in were stopable.

The Leafs have been having trouble all year making the big break out plays,that is just not happening.

I did think that Luke Schenn played very well on the blue-line and made some very good moves coming out of his own end the penalty at the end of the game was  a maybe by the ref.

The league cannot fine me or suspend me for commenting about the officiating for the most part of this season the officiating has been terrible at best.

We do have to admit the Leaf injury list is hurting at this time, but this game was not too bad and one goal by the Leafs early in the third would have been big.

I do honestly believe that the Leaf players are playing scared at this time not knowing what is in the future for them.They are fighting the puck and running around a little: A sure sign of nervousness.