Toronto Maple Leafs Win First Round In Battle Of Ontario

The Toronto Maple Leafs managed to hang on in the dying seconds of last night's game, to preserve a 3-2 win over the hated Ottawa Senators. Despite the Maple Leafs dominating most of the matchup, the Sens managed to make things interesting in the final minutes of play with a shorthanded goal to bring themselves within one. The Ottawa goalie was then pulled, and the pressure was on in the Maple Leafs zone. However, Vesa Toskala once again proved himself as one of the league's elite goalies, and turned away all attempts to tie the game up. The Toronto Maple Leafs escaped with the win thanks to Toskala, but there is no reason the game should have been this close, and the Leafs made a crucial error in the final minutes that gave their arch enemy the chance to come back.

So before I get into what the Maple Leafs did right, I will point out this error. Ron Wilson has been an outstanding coach so far for the Leafs, and Ive had nothing but good things to say about him in my posts. However, now its time to criticize him for something he did very wrong. In the final two and a half minutes, Ottawa took a penalty that put them a man down for almost the rest of the game, while trailing by two goals. By all means, this should have guaranteed a Toronto Maple Leafs victory. When a team must play the final two minutes with only 4 players, and needing two goals to tie, they should have no prayer of coming from behind. However, Ron Wilson and the Maple Leafs decided not to press the attack-while they were on a powerplay! Instead, they opted to hang back in the neutral zone, and play "cautious hockey." When your team has a man advantage over the other team, it does not matter what the score is or how much time is left-you ALWAYS press the attack. If the Maple Leafs would have kept the pressure on in the attacking zone, they would have forced Ottawa to play defence for the rest of the game, thus giving them no chance to score any goals. The fact that they were up a man would have made this much easier to do. By choosing to hang back in the neutral zone, the Toronto Maple Leafs allowed their desperate foes to attack them instead, even though they only had 4 skaters on the ice. The result of this "cautious" play was of course, a shorthanded goal, which set up an intense finish that never should have been. Ron Wilson, the next time the Maple Leafs are closing out the game with a powerplay, press the attack! There will be no chance for a shorthanded goal if the Leafs are shooting the puck on the opposing net. That was a painful mistake that nearly cost us the victory, and I hope the Maple Leafs have learned their lesson. There is no excuse for playing defensively on the powerplay. Period.

Now that we have that out of the way, the Toronto Maple Leafs improved on alot of things in last night's game. For one, they appear to be getting much better at faceoffs. In the early part of the season, the Maple Leafs were a dismal faceoff team, which cost them alot of valuable puck possession. This was not the case last night, and the Leafs dominated in the faceoff circle. They also beat the Senators cleanly to the puck many times, once again showing just how fast they really are. This team is not the old and slow Maple Leafs of the past. They are very quick, and their speed has taken alot of teams by surprise this year. The defensive play of the Leafs was once again outstanding, as it has consistently been in the last few games. Every time the Leafs take the ice, they look like they are getting tougher in their own zone. This is also a welcome change from the Maple Leafs of the past, and Ron Wilson deserves alot of credit for turning this defense around.

There were a couple more noteworthy occurrences in last night's game. Jeff Finger finally got his first start for the Toronto Maple Leafs, after being injured in the preseason. Jonas Frogren was scratched to make room for him, which was a tricky call given how solid Frogren has played. However, Finger showed that he belongs on the Leafs blue line, and his play was great in my opinion. The best play he made all night was a sure goal-saver. With Toskala sprawled out in the crease, the puck came loose from underneath him and slid in the blue paint towards the goal line. Just before it slid across for an Ottawa goal, Finger swept the puck away, and allowed the Leafs to clear it to safety. He wasn't much of an offensive threat, but Jeff Finger is obviously very good at the defensive aspects of the game. Though his contract might be an overpayment, it looks like Finger is going to be crucial in stopping alot of goals for the Maple Leafs this year. Mikhail Grabovski finally got his first goal as a Maple Leaf as well. After coming so close in previous games, he was finally rewarded tonight when he took a great pass from Niklas Hagman, who was set up behind the net. Left wide open, he ripped a shot from an angle that beat the glove hand of Alex Auld, and went in under the crossbar to give the Maple Leafs the second goal of the game. Also scoring for the Leafs was Dominic Moore on a powerplay in the first period, and Alex Ponikarovsky in the 3rd. Overall, a great effort from the Toronto Maple Leafs, despite their failure to press the attack at the end of the game. Ron Wilson is a smart coach though, and I would be very surprised if he did not learn from that mistake.