It was similar to last night's near-collapse in Carolina, except the game-saving goal never came. A combination of terrible goaltending and suspect defensive coverage undid the Maple Leafs tonight as they sat on an early 3-0 lead thinking they would ride it to the finish line, failing to take into the account the fact that, with a goaltender that’s seriously struggling between the pipes, leads can disappear on the turn of a dime, let alone over the course of 40 minutes. The end result is one which will please neither side of tanking/playoff spectrum.
I’m unfortunately going to come out with the following proclamation after observing the Finn flop his way through the final two periods tonight: Vesa Toskala has lost it. The Kovalchuk goal wasn’t his fault, and the Bryan Little goal was somewhat forgivable, but the following two were beyond the pale. On the tying goal with five minutes to go in the third, Ian White had forced Rich Peverley to the outside and there was absolutely no reason for Toskala to go chasing him down. In stark contrast, in a very similar situation in which Alexei Ponikarovsky slid the puck out front to Matt Stajan, Kari Lehtonen reacted perfectly and shut down Stajan in the goalmouth. If that were Toskala, he would’ve been sprawling into the corner. There were two lapses that led to Peverley’s overtime goal, one of which was Ian White ala last season chasing down the puck carrier instead of marking the incoming forward on his side, the other was Toskala’s ugly rebound.
Justin Pogge’s been very hot as of late since returning to the Toronto Marlies from his brief stint with the Maple Leafs (5-2-0, 1.64 GAA, .934 SV% in 7 GP). Perhaps the Leafs are best to leave Toskala between the posts as we near the trade deadline so that Brian Burke can continue to work at maximizing the return in a potential deal. As
Gus Katsaros suggests, his trade value is unlikely to be diminished in what has been a designated re-building year in T.O. There isn’t a viable option to finish out the year currently occupying the end of the Leafs’ bench. It’s time to re-insert Pogge into the crease for a good string of starts for a true evaluation determining whether or not he’s going to be the Leafs’ man… one thing now seems for certain, Vesa Toskala isn’t.
How about that Rich Peverley? Hat-tip to Gus Katsaros who suggested the Leafs should’ve looked into him when he was up for grabs on waivers. It seems to me that in a re-building stage there’s absolutely no reason not to take up that type of possibility.
In addition to White, Tomas Kaberle struggled mightily on the defensive size of the puck, as he cavalierly made his way back into the defensive zone after giving the puck away and getting caught up ice, resulting in a goal. Additionally, the dimunitive Bryan Little handily outmuscled him on the one-on-one in the second period, resulting in Little’s goal.
On the positive side of things, Luke Schenn was monstrous in 24+ minutes of ice-time. What a play on Ilya Kovalchuk's breakaway opportunity just as I was calling for Schenn to take him down. He did appear to have one lapse on Kovalchuk’s empty net finish to the tie game… while no camera angle showed exactly how Kovalchuk got so open, he was Schenn’s man. Nik Hagman and Dominic Moore continued to be awesome and Mikhail Grabovski actively buzzed the offensive zone, creating a number of chances for himself.
Your thoughts?
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