TWO NEWBIES LOOK SOLID !

The New Jersey Devils brought their 23-35-5 act to Toronto to the play the Leafs in the Next Gen Game.  Toronto seemed to pay extra attention to Jersey’s young guns, Jack Hughes who has 41 points in his last 30 games and team scoring leader Jesper Bratt who has already doubled his best season with 62 point to date.  They were successful as the first period at zeroes.

The Leafs are looking to get on some sort of streak in their last 20 games now that the trade deadline is over.  They have won just 9 of their last 19 games.  Trade additions Mark Giordano and Colin Blackwell did not look out of place in their new roles, Giordano paired with Liljgren and Blackwell moving in alongside Spezza and Simmonds.

The Leafs came out for the second period in a bit of a daze – we’ve all heard of playing down to your competition – this was a good example.  They were clumsy with the puck coming out of their own zone and were pitiful on two early power play attempts.  David Severson was credited with the Devils’ first goal when a bad bounce of Lubushkin found the back of the net.  Ilya Mikaev tied up with a short handed goal in which he just blew past an aging PK Subban to deke the goalie and score.  Not to be outdone, Nico Hershiser slammed in a scramble rebound after Mzarek had made two fine stops.  And, finally Mitchell Marner picked off a beauty pass from Austin Mathews to score his career high 27^th.  2-2 after two.

The third period was rather uneventful except for some rambunctious body checking in the middle of the stanza.  Toronto went down on a 4 minute penalty when Mikaev’s high stick accidently cut Andres Joansson.  The Leafs got through the first one and then Engvall scored their second shorty of the night to take the win 3-2.

HOPPER NOTES:  I liked the black Next Gen sweaters the Leafs wore, not too sure about the reversable (just showing my age I guess)…they were apparently designed by the second biggest (next to Drake) jock sniffer in our land, Justin Beiber…was it just me or was that a rather “prickish” thing Arizona did by claiming the Leafs new Finish goalie on waivers ?…on a personal note, I want to thank all the staff at Peterborough Regional Hospital for the successful (to date) Arthoscopic Knee surgery performed on me this past Monday…what a fine group of professionals…and yes, that is why this report is so short and cranky !

CHEERS