By Stan Smith
The Good
Ilya Samsonov
After how December ended, I never thought I would be writing the following sentence. Ilya Samsonov stole a game for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
I hardly ever use the term “goalie steal.” As well, I usually disagree when someone else uses it. While a goalie can play a major role in winning a hockey game it is a team game after all. Goalies can’t win games by themselves. They can’t score goals. They can prevent goals from being scored and they are a team’s last line of defense. But most of the saves a goalie makes are assisted by the skaters in front of him. The degree of difficulty of the scoring chance is usually mitigated by the defensive play of the other players.
That cannot be said for the two-on-zero the Jets had while killing a Toronto power play three and a half minutes into the second period. Morgan Barron and Adam Lowry not only had a two-man breakaway, but the Maple Leafs players were so far out of the play they had a full seven seconds to pass the puck back and forth repeatedly and get two quality chances to score before any Toronto player recovered enough to get back into the play.
If they had scored on that play, which they should have, the score would have been 1-0 Jets and the game would have never made it to overtime.
Samsonov made more game-saving saves than that, but on that play alone Samsonov stole the game.
Samsonov Has Not Allowed Many Goals
After playing decently in his first game back from his hiatus Samsonov has allowed just one goal on the last 49 shots he has faced over his last two starts which works out to a 0.980 Save Percentage. According to Naturalstattrick.com, the Expected Goals Against in the last two games was 4.69. That means Samsonov has saved 3.69 Goals Above Expected in his last two starts. As a comparison, in Samsonov’s four starts before his hiatus, he had saved 10.94 Goals Below Expected.
Let me put that in simpler terms and talk in whole numbers. In the last two games, according to the criteria used to determine Expected-Goals Against Samsonov should have allowed five goals and he allowed just one. In the four games before his absence, he should have allowed 10 goals and he allowed 21 goals.
Related: Reviewing the Good, Bad & Ugly in Maple Leafs 3-1 Win in Seattle
Nick Robertson
In a game where the whole team seemed to be out of sync, Nick Robertson stood out for all the right reasons. He was noticeable for his speed and his tenacity on the puck. Robertson had four shots on the net in the game. He was rewarded for his play in the game with a promotion to the top six in the third period. Once the Maple Leafs killed a penalty that carried over from the third period into the overtime, Robertson found himself on a shift with Auston Matthews and Morgan Rielly in the OT.
Robertson’s Long Great Shift
Robertson made the most of that shift and was the catalyst for the winning goal. First, he knocked down a pass that Neal Pionk attempted from behind the Winnipeg net. He used his body to shield the puck from Pionk and sent Matthews in alone on Jets’ goalie Laurent Brossoit. Rather than shoot, Matthews attempted to pass the puck back to Robertson and Nikolaj Ehlers slid to deflect the puck away from Robertson. Robertson picked up the loose puck and fed it back to Matthews who had circled back to cover the point. Matthews missed Robertson with the return pass and the puck slid into the corner of the Jets’ zone to the right of Brossoit. Robertson beat Lowry to the puck once again using his body to shield the puck and spun causing Lowry to lose an edge and fall. Robertson stickhandled the puck to create space between himself and Pionk. He then gave the puck to Rielly and headed for the bench. Rielly found Matthews parked beside the Winnipeg net and fed him a perfect pass which Matthews deposited behind Brossoit to win the game.
One funny thing about the play was that after doing all of the legwork on the goal, Robertson wasn’t even on the ice when it was scored. He had just stepped off onto the bench. He got an assist but didn’t even get a plus one for it. Robertson played a season-high 17:08 in this game.
Sheldon Keefe
With all of the flak that Sheldon Keefe has been getting lately, he deserves credit. He recognized the fact that Robertson was one of the few effective forwards in the game, increased his ice time, moved him up into the top six, and put him on the ice in the overtime.
Keefe also deserves credit for his benching of the first power play unit for two-man advantages despite the fact it could have cost the Maple Leafs the game. It took guts to do that, but he needed to point out that their play wasn’t good enough. It is interesting to note that for the first time in maybe forever Marner and Matthews did not lead the forwards in ice time.
The Bad
This was a terrible game for the Maple Leafs. According to Naturalstattrick.com at five on five the Maple Leafs created two High-Danger Scoring Chances in the whole game. The Maple Leafs did not have a single player on the positive side of the High-Danger Scoring Chances. Conor Timmins was on the ice for both High-Danger Chances For but he was also on the ice for two High-Danger Scoring Chances Against. Timmins was the only Maple Leafs’ player who was a plus for Expected Goals at 62.4%. The next best was Max Domi at 43.1%.
Related: 4 Reasons Not to Fire Maple Leafs Sheldon Keefe
The Ugly
There were two very ugly aspects to this game.
The first was the turnovers by the Maple Leafs. The box score for the game shows 30 times the puck was either turned over by Toronto or taken away by Winnipeg. With my reports being written from a Maple-Leafs-centric point of view that equates to 30 turnovers by Toronto in the game. In the first thirteen minutes of this game, I counted four turnovers by Rielly and Timothy Liljegren, two by Mitch Marner, and single giveaways by Matthews, William Nylander, and TJ Brodie.
The second ugly aspect was the power play. It went zero for five in this game and has scored just one goal in their last 20 power plays. The talent on this team is just too good for the power play to be that bad. On the plus side, the talent on this team is just too good for the power play to be this bad. Sooner or later it has to turn things around. Let’s just hope it is sooner.
I have a third thing to add for the “Ugly.” This has bugged me since the first time I saw the Justin Bieber-designed black uniforms. Why did Bieber think it was a good idea to put black numbers on black uniforms? To be honest, I like the overall looks of the uniforms, I just can’t read the darn numbers. Please somebody fill them in with white so I can read them.
What’s Next?
One game and then a week off for most of the team. Matthews, Nylander, Marner, and Rielly will have the All-Star game to attend. However, that in itself is a time for the players to relax and enjoy themselves.
The next game is a visit to Winnipeg where I expect to see a better performance by everyone not named Samsonov. The fact is they were lucky enough to win the last game. There must have been a lot of embarrassed players after their performance in that game.
It will be interesting to see if Robertson stays in the top six. It would be great for both Robertson and the Maple Leafs if the Wednesday game against the Jets was the catalyst that propelled Robertson into becoming the offensive player he has the potential to become.