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Leafs Survive Late Scare In Captain's Return |
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The Leafs were able to avoid some last minute shenanigan's in their 5-3 win over a Koochless Tampa on Hockey Night in Canada last night. The final score was quite frankly not indicative of the overall game. The Leafs were pretty comfortable most of the game until the final 5 minutes where they were beginning to show signs of frustration. The OEL crosscheck followed by the Cirelli retaliation crosscheck was a lot of nonsense game management.
Return of the Matt's - Auston Matthews and Matthew Knies returned to the lineup. Matthews returning from his mysterious German vacation to find a Bavarian witch doctor to fix his "upper body injury." Oh the upper body injury...was it shoulder strain? Wrist soreness? Mustache retrograde? We'll likely never know, but I would assume it something to do with his shooting.
Before exiting the lineup for treatment, Matthews spent the last 2-3 games passing up clear shots, refusing to take one timers and not using his curl and fire that is how he has scored the majority of his goals throughout his career. While he didn't score tonight, the second I saw him close on a defenseman, curl the puck through his legs and let fly a blistering wrister, I sighed with relief. That was a good sign that whatever they did has worked at least enough for him to be doing what he does best.
Knies' return was also successful as the sophomore continued where he left off with some strong play and scoring in the Berube zone.
Don't you put that Evil on me Ricky Bobby - Nic Robertson who has been a source of consternation, speculation and drama that can really only happen in a few markets around this league for a player of his stature finally scored again. To say he needed that would be an understatement and the look on his face like he just knocked out a 60 year old Mike Tyson was glorious. Andrei Vasilevskiy will want that one back, but it was nice to see him score. His future with this team is still up in the air in my opinion, but any depth scoring is much appreciated for this team.
Unlucky Puck - Ironically while being called a "warrior" and a guy who plays the hard way for the 600 games of his career by the broadcasters quoting Berube about Jake McCabe...he took a nasty shot right to the dome. McCabe has really found his game playing with Chris Tanev the majority of the season as their shutdown pair. They have been arguably the best defensive defense pairing in the NHL this season. He was able to get off the ice and wasn't bleeding. Berube said it wasn't serious and will not miss time, so that is some good news.
The Missouri Woll - Joseph Woll had another strong night including what I think was the most pivotal moment in the game when he stopped Eyssimont on a breakaway with a sick glove lunge. He made 38 saves and continues his impressive play. The tandem sits 3rd and 5th in sv% in the league and...I mean...it's just nice you know?
Big Man, Big Assist - Big congrats to Victor Hedman on taking the franchise lead in assists for the Lightning. He added his 589 and 590th assists to pass Martin St. Louis. While Nikita Kucherov will pass Hedman in assists sooner rather than later because he's a mad man, I think it's extremely impressive that he leads a franchise with players like St. Louis, Kucherov, Stamkos, Lecavalier, Brad Richards and Point. At his age, Hedman likely doesn't have another Norris in him with the evolution of a lot of the young defensive talent in the league, but he's still one of the most unique defensemen to grace the NHL with his size and skill and will find himself as a first ballot HOFer.
Andrei VasiLeaky - The Leafs continued to scorch Vasilevskiy. While Vasilevskiy hasn't been the Vezina level goalie he has been in the past since his injury, he's had some extremely strong performances this season behind a defense that isn't that deep. The Leafs have put up 8 goals on him this season accounting for %17 of the goals he's let in this year. It might be recency bias, but I can't remember a "classic" Vasilevskiy before against the Leafs.
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