FIRST PERIOD NOTES;
The Leafs start Colton Orr and Jamal Mayers, and Vancouver puts their skill players on, Sedin, Samuelsson, and Burrows. That’s what Scotty Bowman would do when enforcers were put on the ice. His best players, would easily skate circles around the fighters, who couldn’t keep up with them. Stajan, Stalberg and Hagman have a decent shift, applying some pressure on the Canucks. Bad penalty taken by John Mitchell of the Leafs, for tripping. It breaks up the Toronto momentum, having outshot Vancouver 7-1 to that point. The Maple Leafs take another bad penalty, Ian White gets 4 minutes for a high stick. Stempniak shoots wide on a breakaway, while short handed. That is incredible. Toronto takes yet another penalty, this time it’s Luke Schenn for interference. The Canucks take advantage of the power play on a goalmouth scramble, putting a loose rebound in the net. It was Komisarek’s stick that actually put the puck in the net. The teams that are lacking in skill are most often the ones that get a lot of minor penalties called against them, because they can’t keep up with the better skating of their opponents. The Leafs take…guess what?…yep……..another penalty…… for clearing the puck over the glass. Rickard Wallin gets nailed for delay of game. The Maple Leafs get burned again. Ryan Kesler beats MacDonald with a solid shot quite easily. MacDonald was too far back in his net. Toronto finish the period with 10 penalty minutes to none for Vancouver. That tells you everything you need to know!!!
SECOND PERIOD NOTES;
Blake, Ponikarovsky and Grabovski with a decent first shift. Guess what…Leafs with another penalty..this time it’s Matt Stajan for hooking. Canucks get a penalty to Willie Mitchell, who saved a goal in the process. Vancouver kills off the penalty without too much trouble. Toronto having trouble coping with Vancouver’s speed. Shane O’Brien takes a minor penalty. The Canucks kill it off. Henrik Sedin gets called for holding. Hagman scores on the power play, as he shoots through the screen set by Stajan. Stajan missed a scoring chance right after the goal. Luke Schenn gets filled in, in a fight with Tanner Glass. Beauchemin and Komisarek both guilty of turnovers in their own zone.
THIRD PERIOD NOTES;
Hagman, and Wallin with a good first shift to start the period.Michael Grabner playing well for “Van City”, along with Mason Raymond. Joey MacDonald with a good save off a Leafs giveaway. Luongo with a nice save off a Canucks own zone turnover. Vancouver are standing still for some reason , instead of moving their feet, with their superior speed. Wayne Primeau takes a bad penalty for boarding. Canucks have completely stopped skating in the third period,allowing the blue and white to forcheck at will. For whatever reason, Vancouver has quit on this game. I guess they’re saving themselves for the Sunday match with Edmonton. Good pressure by Toronto for most of the third period, but Mason Raymond gets the empty net goal, to finish off the Leafs .
SUMMARY;
A good effort by the Maple Leafs, but they did themselves in again with dumb penalties that they can’t afford to take. It seems that some of these penalties are congruent with those they’ve taken in other games this year, where Toronto have trouble coping with the speed of other teams, because of they just don’t have enough skilled players on their roster who can keep up. This is what happens when there is too much emphasis on toughness, instead of speed and skill. You can’t blame the goalie for this one. Joey MacDonald was better than expected !!! Roberto Luongo was superb, especially in the third period, when his team stopped skating and working.