The New York Islanders are coming of a hellish season in which they had to start their year on the road for 13 games while their new rink was being finished. They were under a new coach (Lane Lambert) and had the injury bug just hammer them hard resulting that they missed the playoffs for the first time in this era. The Isles came in tonight with only 1 win in their last 5 games.
Erik Kalgren got the start in goal tonight, after 3 solid performances from Matt Murray. Nick Robertson sat out again while Tavares/Marner and Mathews/Nylander were “re-united”.
Not much too say about the first period except that the Leafs owned the first half and the Islanders fought back. In fact, when Owen Dobson deflected a point shot in off David Kampf’s butt, it was kind of the highlight of the period.
Tranna came back strong throughout the second, including goals from their 1-2 centres. Captain Johnny continued his strong trend on the power play with his 7th PPG, helping Marner extend his point streak to 13 games. Auston Mathews had a real nice tip in from Liligren at the 14 minute mark to put the Leafs out front. 2 comments on that period: Toronto was outhit by the NYI at the 10 minute mark 27-10 and a scrum behind the Leafs net (both teams participated) wasted 90 seconds of my life – a SCURGE on our game !
The most significant part of the third period happened with a seemingly harmless collision between Leafs leading D-man (Mo Reilly) and his opponent at the blue line. All seemed OK until Morgan was called into the “room”, never to return. Later, Auston was clipped by a questionable knee on knee as he entered the zone. Rasmus Sandin (of all people) showed up to defend his superstar as a brave gesture. NYI did not quit and at the 17 minute mark Josh Bailey tied it up right after TML had an enormous miss at the other end.
Overtime was another pathetic show by your Toronto Maple Leafs. Bumbling. Stumbling. KAOS ! 3-2 NYI !
HOPPER NOTES: You saw my disdain for the along the boards scrums earlier – the last :34 seconds of an important game was the same – PATHETIC…Mathew Barzel (got him in the pool) is on a roll…guys I’d like on my team: Cal Clutterbuck, Adam Pellech and Anthony Beauvileir…love the guy, but we have got to get Kerfoot going…maybe Keefe should shift him and Bunting back and forth too…cool that Coach Keefe has a replay monitor in the floor behind the bench – always wondered why he was looking down all the time after a goal or controversial play…agree with my pal Glennie that the white shoulder pads on the retro jerseys were cool…(BTW, Leafs Hooper on Hockey videos may return on YouTube if I can only figure out the tech)…that provocateur remains correct on the OT failures…Leafs are limping
thru a 6-1-3 November…so nice to see the GREY CUP in the building…now, back on the road to prove their worth…love the comments –
Same old Leafs..
What were Nylander and Marner doing in OT.
Nylander caused three face offs in their zone..Two on senseless passes for icings.
Marner’s high risk pass attempt was the start of the play that led to the winning goal.
you got that right