Leafs @ Rangers (Feb 22, 2009)

The Rangers retired the numbers 3 and 9 of Harry Howell and Andy Bathgate respectively. Bathgate was also a member of the Maple Leafs as he was traded to Toronto 45 years ago to the day.  But for Toronto it was just another game to play in a disappointing but productive season.

The Leafs surprisingly played just as well as the night before against Vancouver.  In fact, they were better because they actually won the game this time and with classic Leafs style in overtime.

Toskala was once again the main factor in another tight defensive game.  The night before his goaltending opponent was Reberto Luongo and against the Rangers it didn’t get any better with Henrik Lundqvist.  But Toskala came out with another aggressive goaltending performance.  He traveled out to the top of his crease and his great rebound control was once again a big part of his great game.

The Leafs defence also did another great job of clearing the front of their crease for Toskala.  And Ian White was very smart with the puck and was rewarded with a goal.  I also have give kudos to Jeff Finger and Jonas Frogren who both played a simple and smart aggressive game. 

However, I really believe that the Leafs should have achieved a shutout.  There were two important reasons why this didn’t happen:

1)                               Jason Blake got lazy for just a second and assumed that his team mates were going to pick up the slack.  He should not have let Scott Gomez get away from him.  Gomez scored as a result and tied the game because the Leafs defence were caught of position due to Gomez’s lightning speed.  This is why Blake won’t win a Selke trophy anytime soon.  He should have stuck to Gomez like glue.  This was bad defence and communication between team mates.

2)                               Officiating was terrible and Dominic Moore received an incredibly bad penalty towards the end of the game.  Michal Rozsival tripped up Moore but instead the he was given a holding the stick penalty.  To make things worse, Rozsival scored the game tying goal at 19:20 of the third forcing the game into overtime.But the Leafs won in overtime which is great because they deserved to win this game.  Especially after Toskala’s performance with 41 shots against.

But to end my post game analysis I believe that the Leafs really have to improve their face off strategies.  Against the Canucks they were winning more face offs but then were quickly losing the puck.  Against the Rangers their face off percentage was the problem.  Toronto centres have to improve their face off skills.  Especially Matt Stajan if he wants to stick around.  Dominic Moore is decent on the draw and I hope he continues to improves both his face off skills and consistency.

GAME HIGHLIGHTS VIDEO

http://www.nhl.tv/team/console.jsp?hlg=20082009,2,890