Maple Leafs-Blue Jackets:Big First Paces Toronto To Victory

Two wins.  Two losses.  Two wins.  Notice anything?

The rollercoaster that is the Toronto Maple Leafs 2007-2008 season continued tonight, this time in the form of a 3-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Carlo Colaiacovo, Nik Antropov, and Chad Kilger scored first period goals for the Maple Leafs, who won their second straight at the Air Canada Centre.

Nik Zherdev replied for Columbus, who entered tonight's game only three points out of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

The Maple Leafs opened the scoring 5:41 into the opening period when a Carlo Colaiacovo took a blast from the point that deflected off of Jackets D-man Dick Tarnstrom and past the prone Pascal Leclaire.  The goal was the oft injured defenseman's second of the season.

Columbus' Ron Hainsey took a holding penalty at 15:07 of the first, putting the Toronto Maple Leafs on the powerplay for the first time on the evening.  It took Toronto just six seconds to capitalize on the call, as Nik Antropov was able to grab a loose puck and shovel it into an open net over Pascal Leclaire in the midst of a goal mouth scramble.  The goal was Antropov's 21st of the season, adding to his already career high totals.

Just thirty seconds later Columbus was able to reply however, with russian sniper Nik Zherdev snapping a wrister past Toronto's Vesa Toskala.  It was the 24th tally this season for Zherdev, who appears to have put his attitude problems behind him, and is really coming around to being the NHL player many in the Columbus organization thought he could be when they drafted him.  That goal was scored at 15:42 of the first period.

Just over one minute later it was Chad Kilger replying for Toronto on what was definitely a weird goal.  Kilger took a pass on what looked to be a broken play, spun around and fired a hard shot, catching Leclaire off guard and going five hole to stretch the Leafs lead to 3-1.  The goal is Kilger's 10th of the season.

The second and third period of the game featured no scoring, but certainly not for a lack of effort.  Columbus outshot Toronto 9-5 in the second stanza, while the Leafs held a 11-9 advantage in the final period of the contest.

Jackets goalie Pascal Leclaire settled down after a shaky start to make 22 saves in the losing effort.  Toronto's Vesa Toskala made 26 saves in a winning cause.  Both goalies were not at their best tonight, but the defensive tone of the game allowed them to settle down as the night went on.

Next up for Toronto is a date with their Northeast rival Buffalo Sabres this Thursday at the Air Canada Centre.  These two met just a week ago, where Buffalo edged Toronto 1-0 on a third period goal by Paul Gaustad. 

Game Thoughts

--Vesa Toskala looked a little out of sync tonight, but what can you say when he gets away with it?  After standing tall in the early going for Toronto Saturday against the Bruins, Toskala was counted on tonight to make a variety of tough saves, however he game up alot of rebounds which could have been troublesome.

--I thought the Leafs did a great job tonight with Rick Nash and Nik Zherdev.  The talented forwards are Columbus' one-two punch and we've seen many highlight reel goals this season off the stick of Nash.  Toronto's defenseman, namely Pavel Kubina, went toe to toe with Nash and kept him in check all night long.

--I'm sure this feels like deja vu for everyone who has read some of my previous articles, but what can you say about the line of Moore/Kilger/Devereaux.  They really set the tone night after night and help Toronto create many chances.  It happened Saturday night when Moore was able to tie the game for the Leafs, and tonight when Kilger was able to lift them to a 3-1 lead.  

--Pretty scary stuff tonight seeing all of those Leafs going off the ice at separate times due to injuries.  Over the course of the sixty minutes Kubina, Tucker, Blake, Steen, Devereaux,McCabe, and Stajan were all injured and most of them left the game for at least a little period of time.

--For those who like the grinding, hard working style (and I am one of them) you had to like alot of what you seen tonight.  Malholtra and Moore were battling along the boards, Nash was hitting guys early on, Stajan was mixing it up with a few different guys.  The refs could have let them go a little more, some of the penalties were of the weak variety.  All in all though, it is nice to see a good physical game.

--Speaking of a physical game, was that the same Maple Leafs team that was here all year? Since when do they start hitting?  All kidding aside, the crowd went nuts when guys like Dominic Moore, and Hal Gill started taking the body tonight.  And Toronto should keep that in mind.  Not only did it fire the fans up, it opened up alot of room for offensive opportunities for them tonight.  They are a rather big group, they simply need to find a way to use it.

--Along with the physicality of the contest tonight, I also enjoyed the speed and tempo the Maple Leafs carried throughout the game.  By all accounts the Leafs arenot one of the faster skating teams in the league, but if they move their feet and use their bodies they are an effective bunch, it's simply something we haven't seen much this year.

--Just a quick note.  I don't usually comment on the other team, but in this case I feel obliged.  I must say it is nice to see Michael Peca return to the Air Canada Centre.  I didn't see anything from him that make me yearn for him to back in a Maple Leafs uniform or anything like that, but sometimes I do wish things would have worked out better for Mike and the Maple Leafs.  He was a guy who wanted to be here, seen it as an honour to be here, and his season was cut short by a freak injury.  He was never given another chance and that's unfortunate for him.  In saying that hopefully someone takes a flyer on him at the deadline.  He could be a good character guy who would be an effective shut down player (and we seen how important that was in last year's cup final.)

For those who didn't see in my pre game post, I just wanted to once again say how thankful I am for you guys helping me reach 10,000 page views.  I know there are likely many people on the site who have alot more than that, but there were times when I thought no one would want to listen to what I was saying, let alone 10,000!  

Once again, thanks alot, and here's to a whole lot more in the future. 

Next Game:

Toronto Vs Buffalo

Game Time:

7:30 on LeafsTV

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