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.
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