Maple Leafs-Sharks: Toronto Continues West Coast Flop

Different city, same results.

The Maple Leafs entered the HP Pavilion last night with their backs to the wall, and for two periods they played like it.

Led by Nik Antropov, who scored his 17th goal of the season, the Maple Leafs came out in the first period with something to prove. They were hard to play against, kept up a constant forecheck, and kept San Jose hemmed in their own zone for most of the first.

The second period was more of the same for the boys in blue and white, as they continued to push the Sharks, the leagues third best team, and give them all they could handle. Pavel Kubina stretched the Leafs lead to two with a power play goal early in that second frame.

But as any Leafs fan will tell you, even after seeing a strong period one and two, everyone was on baited breath, waiting for the third period meltdown we have seen time and again.

And so it began, like it had so many times before.

Penalties and turnovers. Those two things certainly aren't friends with any NHL team, yet, the Maple Leafs have seen more than their share of the unwanted party guests. Late in the second Boyd Devereaux, who played a real strong game, took a slashing penalty. Just 70 seconds into the third, the Sharks capitalized on that penalty, and Patrick Marleau scored for the Sharks, who were looking for an opening, a way to get back in the game. They got it.

At 7:30 Leafs rookie Jiri Tlusty took a holding the stick penalty, followed less than one minute later by a Hal Gill cross checking penalty. The calls were somewhat suspect, as the refs had let this stuff go the majority of the night, but I'm not here to blame officiating for this collapse, there are far bigger problems than that. The Sharks worked the two man advantage perfectly, and tied the game on a Craig Rivet point blast, that Toskala appeared to be screened on.

It was a new game, tied at two, and the Leafs were a fragile team who needed to survive the next five minutes or so, to avoid the roof from falling in on them. They couldn't do it. Joe Pavelski, parked right in the lip of the crease, tipped in a shot from the half boards to give the Sharks the 3-2 lead. A lead they would never surrender.

And so the questions begin. Where do we go from here? What is the fate of John Ferguson Jr? Paul Maurice?

Many people said the Leafs needed six points on this Western road trip. They picked up zero, and were outscored 13-4.

It appears we may have our answer sometime this week, as a board meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. The Maple Leafs are in action that night, back at the Air Canada Centre against the Carolina Hurricanes.

GAME NOTES

Boyd Devereaux had a real strong game, and may have been able to tie the game up on a shorthanded rush late in the game, however two hooking infractions by Sharks Captain Patrick Marleau, went undetected by the officials.

Dominic Moore made his Maple Leafs debut last night and it was fairly solid. Nothing spectacular (0 Pts, 0 shots, 7:38 Ice Time) but the speedy player was as advertised in giving his all on every shift. He was finishing his checks, strong on his forecheck, and early in the game help set the tone along with line mates Kilger and Devereaux.

Vesa Toskala made several big saves, and did not appear to show any affects of the soreness in his groin which was rumoured to be hampering him. This was his first game against his old team, and his first trip to the HP Pavilion since playing their in the post season last year.

Bit of a bizarre moment at the end of the game. As the final horn went a scrum ensued, as Linesman Lonnie Cameron came in to break up the scrum, Leafs captain Mats Sundin pushed Cameron out of the way. The official in charge of the crew, Rob Schick, later went on to say it wasn't an intentional push and was strictly done out of pure emotion. it appears the frustration is really beginning to mount for the captain.

As far as the officials go, that's a tough one to talk about. They called a very good first and second period, and I'm not simply saying that because the Maple Leafs were winning. It appeared they had put their whistles away, and then all of the sudden pulled them out and began to call some questionable calls. It's not so much the calls they made though, It's the one(s) that they didn't, particularly the no call on the Devereaux hook late in the game. Other than that though, its tough to fault them, they are not the sole reason the Leafs took another loss last night.

Scoring Summary

1st Period

3:19- Nik Antropov, Assists to: Mats Sundin

2nd Period

1:42-(PPG) Pavel Kubina, Assists to: Tomas Kaberle, Vesa Toskala

3rd Period

1:09-(PPG) Patrick Marleau, Assists to: Joe Thornton, Steve Bernier

8:31-(PPG) Craig Rivet, Assists to: Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton

10:21- Joe Pavelski, Assists to: Jonathan Cheechoo, Matt Carle

Goaltending

Tor-Toskala (L) 32 SV, 3 GA

SJ- Nabokov (W) 23 SV, 2 GA