Boxing Day Post-Mortem
On opening night, the Leafs outshot the Habs at Air Canada Centre by a wide margin of 46-27, only to lose in overtime.
Nearly three months later, the game played between the same two teams on Boxing Night was played in an eerily symmetrical fashion.
Toronto blasted 49 shots at Montreal goalie Jaroslav Halak – more than double the Habs’ total of 23 – yet salvaged only a single point after Andrei Kostitsyn scored the overtime winner.
“I’m not going to say we deserved a better fate,” said Jason Blake, who netted his eighth goal of the year after driving hard to the net in the third period. “We’ve got to find a way to overtime. ” Toronto’s record has fallen to a dismal 1-9 when tied after sixty minutes.
Meanwhile the Leafs’ power-play continues to struggle with only one goal in their last 19 opportunities in the past seven games. In fact, Toronto just barely survived catastrophe on their own power-play when goaltender Jonas Gustavsson vacated the Leafs goal on a delayed call against the Habs. Phil Kessel passed the puck back to the point, but the puck eluded both Toronto defencemen, travelling about 180 feet towards the empty net before being retrieved by Francois Beauchemin.
Not only are the Leafs having trouble scoring on their own man advantages, but they’re struggling to prevent goals against, in those situations.
Kessel, whose pointless streak has now reached five games, had a chance to end the game in regulation after one-timing a cross-ice feed from Matt Stajan, only to fire the puck wide.
“It’s a gimme, and I missed it. I gotta bury that, what can I say?” said a discouraged Kessel following the game.
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Luke Schenn’s younger brother Brayden had two assists in Team Canada’s 16-0 rout of Latvia in the opening game of the World Junior Hockey Championship in Saskatoon. “I’m very excited, ” said the older Schenn. ” It was only a couple of years ago that I was playing he was looking up, and hoping he can get there one day himself. Growing up as a kid, if you ever said that you were going to play at the World Juniors in your hometown, it’s pretty hard to believe. So he’s very lucky to get the chance to do it. ”
The elder Schenn won a gold medal with the Team Canada juniors at the 2008 tournament held in Pardubice, Czech Republic.
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Kingston, Ontario native Jayna Hefford was named as an alternate captain of Team Canada’s Women’s Olympic hockey team this past week. Hefford, along with team captain Hayley Wickenheiser and Caroline Ouellette – also an alternate – is aiming to lead Canada to a third straight gold medal, while also trying to prevent the archrival U.S. from stealing the spotlight on home soil in Vancouver, just as the Canadians did in Salt Lake City in 2002.
Hefford was in attendance at last night’s game at Air Canada Centre, accepting $10,000 on behalf of charity.
Rob Del Mundo is the author of
Blue And White Beat, and is a regular columnist at TMLfans.ca
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