Devils 2 - Leafs 1 -- Eight Points Out
Standing 8 Count
The Leafs have been knocked down again, there is blood splattered all over the mat, the crowd is yelling, chanting, even taunting for the wounded to stay down. Pushing forward while stumbling to one knee, it takes ever ounce of strength just to stand. With vibrating knees, a glazed look after a devastating loss to the Devils, the Leafs rise to their feet for what could be the last time this season. 8 points out, and a loss to the Flyers next week may very well be the final blow that will seal their fate.
Paul Maurice did a fantastic job in keeping his top line away from the Madden unit, playing with three lines and stacking the Sundin line, it was paramount for Maurice to go toe to toe with an excellent coach in Sutter and match lines as best he could. If you choose to stack your top three lines you have no choice but to play the match game. If you choose to stack your top three lines you have no choice but to play the match game. This generated good scoring chances and drew penalties as the night grew longer. It put the Madden line against the Stajan line whom gave the Devils checkers all they could handle before having to deal with Sundin, Antropov and Steen. Most importantly it allowed the Leafs to set their tone, and control the flow of each line change. This scheme fell apart with a minuet left to play as Elais, Parise, Langenbrunner overwhelmed Stajan in the neutral zone and countered on the Leafs to win the game with a little help from ‘the bottle opener’. We have all heard of the ‘can opener’, but the Langenbrunner ‘bottle opener’ was new to me as I watched him pitch fork Toskala to reveal the puck for a streaking Parise to score the game winner.
During the first goal against, Colaiacovo could and maybe should have dropped Langenbrunner as he cut through the crease, but seeing as how McCabe unfortunately slipped on the play, Langenbrunner became Colaiacovos man as well as the his own man in front, after Langenbrunner himself rubbed out the keeper, Parise buried the first goal. It was the beginning of the trap which played right into the hands of the tired Devils who were on the tail end of a back to back, for the rest of the game their focus was all D, almost never pushing any attack passed center ice. That was until Captain Clutch did it again by bringing the Leafs level with another timely slapper, unfortunately the momentum shift which ultimately altered the Devils attack was not met with the same enthusiasm by the unprepared Leafs.
A couple things that caught my attention were again the D pairings, I thought that both Stralman and White each had quality games, I found that Stralman is proving to be much more physical then I anticipated as he would continually stand up a rush and even use the body down low. White was quick and aggressive and would routinely move the puck out of the zone with ease. Both faired well with the lack of a very aggressive fore-check, that said, they still did perform well. This bigger issue is the fact that the two cannot pair together, thus causing Colaiacovo to jump from the left to the right side for each penalty kill and the one shift a period when the coaches then decide to pair Colaiacovo with McCabe. I know what you are saying, the guy is a pro, what does it matter if he shifts from the right side to the left side of D. Pro or Joe it does matter, not only are you playing with a new partner, the familiarity and comfort level is altered as angles, outlets and opponents differ from side to side, most importantly backhand to forehand. This has been going on all year, and was one of the issues Woznieski had to put up with during his early stint this season.
The season is all but done, but officially not done yet. The insurmountable climb ahead of them seems only possible mathematically, but the credit comes with the fight, and now healthily this team has been scraping tooth an nail, and that is good to see, and despite the impossibilities, I still hope and want them to bring that fight to versus the Flyers this week.
The Leafs have been knocked down again, there is blood splattered all over the mat, the crowd is yelling, chanting, even taunting for the wounded to stay down. Pushing forward while stumbling to one knee, it takes ever ounce of strength just to stand. With vibrating knees, a glazed look after a devastating loss to the Devils, the Leafs rise to their feet for what could be the last time this season. 8 points out, and a loss to the Flyers next week may very well be the final blow that will seal their fate.
Paul Maurice did a fantastic job in keeping his top line away from the Madden unit, playing with three lines and stacking the Sundin line, it was paramount for Maurice to go toe to toe with an excellent coach in Sutter and match lines as best he could. If you choose to stack your top three lines you have no choice but to play the match game. If you choose to stack your top three lines you have no choice but to play the match game. This generated good scoring chances and drew penalties as the night grew longer. It put the Madden line against the Stajan line whom gave the Devils checkers all they could handle before having to deal with Sundin, Antropov and Steen. Most importantly it allowed the Leafs to set their tone, and control the flow of each line change. This scheme fell apart with a minuet left to play as Elais, Parise, Langenbrunner overwhelmed Stajan in the neutral zone and countered on the Leafs to win the game with a little help from ‘the bottle opener’. We have all heard of the ‘can opener’, but the Langenbrunner ‘bottle opener’ was new to me as I watched him pitch fork Toskala to reveal the puck for a streaking Parise to score the game winner.
During the first goal against, Colaiacovo could and maybe should have dropped Langenbrunner as he cut through the crease, but seeing as how McCabe unfortunately slipped on the play, Langenbrunner became Colaiacovos man as well as the his own man in front, after Langenbrunner himself rubbed out the keeper, Parise buried the first goal. It was the beginning of the trap which played right into the hands of the tired Devils who were on the tail end of a back to back, for the rest of the game their focus was all D, almost never pushing any attack passed center ice. That was until Captain Clutch did it again by bringing the Leafs level with another timely slapper, unfortunately the momentum shift which ultimately altered the Devils attack was not met with the same enthusiasm by the unprepared Leafs.
A couple things that caught my attention were again the D pairings, I thought that both Stralman and White each had quality games, I found that Stralman is proving to be much more physical then I anticipated as he would continually stand up a rush and even use the body down low. White was quick and aggressive and would routinely move the puck out of the zone with ease. Both faired well with the lack of a very aggressive fore-check, that said, they still did perform well. This bigger issue is the fact that the two cannot pair together, thus causing Colaiacovo to jump from the left to the right side for each penalty kill and the one shift a period when the coaches then decide to pair Colaiacovo with McCabe. I know what you are saying, the guy is a pro, what does it matter if he shifts from the right side to the left side of D. Pro or Joe it does matter, not only are you playing with a new partner, the familiarity and comfort level is altered as angles, outlets and opponents differ from side to side, most importantly backhand to forehand. This has been going on all year, and was one of the issues Woznieski had to put up with during his early stint this season.
The season is all but done, but officially not done yet. The insurmountable climb ahead of them seems only possible mathematically, but the credit comes with the fight, and now healthily this team has been scraping tooth an nail, and that is good to see, and despite the impossibilities, I still hope and want them to bring that fight to versus the Flyers this week.
posted by LEAFER at
8:50 AM
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