By Stan Smith

The Toronto Maple Leafs eeked out a 3-2 overtime win against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday night. What were the good, bad, and ugly aspects of the game?

Let’s get the negative stuff out of the way first.

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The Ugly

The officiating was atrocious in this game. Questionable calls, bad calls, and non-calls abounded. Two of the questionable or bad calls went against the Maple Leafs immediately.  

First, Simon Benoit was penalized for tripping ex-Maple Leafs Michael Bunting. There is no denying that Benoit’s stick tripped Bunting. The only problem was that Benoit was playing the puck at the time, and he made contact with the puck at the same time it came in contact with Bunting.   

Then, Ilya Lyubshkin was called for boarding on a play where Reilly Smith pivoted at the last second after Lyubushkin committed to the hit. Lyubushkin held up on the hit once he realized that Smith had turned. There is no way Lyubushkin could have avoided contact in time not to hit him. There were worse hits from behind that weren’t called. 

I want to note here that I have the benefit of replaying these incidents, and the referees don’t in most cases. The game moves extremely fast, but there were enough questions about both calls to give me a reason to go back and look at them a second time. I would not have looked at them again if I felt they were clear penalties. 

In the first minute of the second period, there was no call when Valterri Puustinen tripped Bobby McMann. That evened out later in the game when Mark Giordano got away with an obvious trip on Erik Karlsson.

Later in the second period, Rickard Rakell was called for slashing Mitch Marner. I played that one over a few times, and nothing even resembled a slash on that play. 

The one thing I can say is the calls, or non-calls, did go both ways.

The referees did get two plays right. The announcers made a big deal and questioned the calls, but the right call was made in both cases. The first one was Jake McCabe’s high stick on Sidney Crosby. The referees got that call correct by first calling it a double minor so they could review it, then ruling that the puck made contact with Crosby’s face and not the stick.

I used my slow-motion to replay the slow-motion replay on the broadcast. An angle showed McCabe’s stick did not make contact with Crosby’s face. I couldn’t believe one of the announcers stated the call should have been made because the stick would have made contact if the puck weren’t there. The stick did not make contact so no call, period.  I will say the Maple Leafs were lucky the rule had been recently changed to allow a video review. But the idea is to get the call right, and they did. 

Later in the third period, Crosby and the announcers made a big deal of a hand pass by Crosby, who was whistled dead. I could understand Crosby’s upset because the whistle was blown late. The announcers made a big deal of the fact that it was the back official who made the call and not the one closest to the play. But once again, the replay showed that Crosby clearly gloved the puck to another Pittsburgh player. The whistle was blown late, but the right call was made.

The Bad

The Maple Leafs spent too much time defending in this game, as the Penguins carried the play for the majority of it. According to Naturalstattrick.com, Pittsburgh had 62% of the Expected Goals at five-on-five in the game. Individually, only five Maple Leafs players were on the positive side of the five-on-five Expected Goals. These were the entire Matthews line, TJ Brodie, and Mark Giordano. Everyone else was under the 50% mark. 

The first Penguins goal came off of a turnover in the Toronto zone by Ilya Lyubushkin. Later in the game, another Lyubushkin turnover led to a couple of good scoring chances by Pittsburgh. I think back to a broadcast earlier in the season when ex-Maple Leafs Jeff O’Neill was talking about defensemen making backhand passes in the defensive zone and how they result in a higher rate of turnovers. I have watched for that ever since, and he is right.

In both cases, Lyubushkin coughed up the puck on his offhand side of the ice. Instead of simply vacating the puck out of the zone on his forehand, he attempted passes on his backhand toward the middle of the zone. Since I have started particularly watching for forehand and backhand passes by defensemen in their own zone, I have been amazed at how many backhand passes lead to turnovers.  

The Good

Okay, now with the good stuff.

First and foremost, the Maple Leafs won the game. By doing so, they moved six points up on the Tampa Bay Lightning with the same number of games played. They also moved to within three points of the Florida Panthers with a game in hand. In addition, they play Florida in the second-last game of the season. Florida is all but assured to be their first-round opponent. It is just a matter of who gets home ice. 

Special Teams

The difference in this game was the special teams. Florida actually outscored Toronto 2-1 at five-on-five. However, the Maple Leafs went one for two on the power play and killed off all five of the Panthers’ power plays. If you consider three-on-three a special team, Toronto won that one, too. The penalty kill has been outstanding for the Maple Leafs of late. With Marner back, the power play has scored in back-to-back games.

65 Down, 5 To Go

Auston Matthews is taking his quest for 70 goals to the wire. After scoring his 65th goal on the power play, he has five games left to get five more goals. Having a player go for a personal mark can harm team success. But having the best goal-scorer in the game, who shoots the puck every chance, is good. It would be nice to see Matthews get his seventh hat trick of the season in one of the next three games and hit the 70-goal mark before they hit the road in Florida for the last two games. 

Greasy Knies

Matthew Knies scored the type of goal that is going to be his bread and butter in his career. He parked in front of the net, took a beating, and put the puck in the net. Watching him play, it is easy to forget that he is only 21. He looks like a veteran player.  

Ilya Samsonov

This was another solid effort by Ilya Samsonov. He’s 18-3-1 in his last 22 starts. He has won the starting job in the playoffs hands down. Now, it’s a matter of load management in these last five games while helping Joseph Woll find his game in case he is needed in the postseason. 

What’s Next?

The Maple Leafs play the New Jersey Devils in a home-and-home series. The last time these two teams met, New Jersey was in a playoff battle. They smoked Toronto 6-3. Since then, the Devils have lost four of their last five games and are all but out of it. They will try to hold on to their slim playoff hopes. 

New Jersey played back-to-back games on Saturday and Sunday before getting Monday off. Toronto will be playing their second back-to-back game. Unless something unforeseen happens, I Woll will be the starter.  

While Head Coach Sheldon Keefe went with the same lineup in the last two games for the first time in forever, I would not be surprised to see some changes in the roster for this game. It is late in the season, and the second game will be in two nights. 

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