Leafs Come Within Literally a Toe’s Length in Edmonton

The Leafs continued their struggles on their road trip in Edmonton as they dropped tonight’s game by a score of 3-2. Though some noticeable improvements to their play were made during this game, the Leafs still were unable to put together a full sixty minutes of hockey. A poor second period was, once again, the period that put the Leafs in a hole that they could not dig out of. A couple of unintelligent plays and some defensive mistakes that the Oilers were able to capitalize on put the Leafs down by a score of 3-1 heading into the third. Despite an inspired third period effort, Oiler netminder, Ty Conklin came up with fourteen of fifteen saves in the final frame, enough to preserve the victory for the Oilers.

If the Leafs are able to play more periods that resembled the third period they played tonight, they will be a lot better off. They registered fifteen shots and were able to generate a lot of good looking offensive opportunities. They came within Tom Fitzgerald’s foot of tying this game. A chance midway through the third period which saw a Leaf shot heading directly into the net was stopped inadvertently by Tom Fitzgerald’s foot on the goal line as he tried to reestablish his position infront of the net. Defensively, the Maple Leafs played a lot better in the third as well. Only one error was made that resulted in a great Edmonton chance. This was caused by a Bryan Marchment giveaway at the blueline.

Perhaps what was most concerning was the reoccurrence of the hip problems of Alex Mogilny. He left at the end of the first period of tonight’s game and did not return. He had an aggravation of this problem a week ago tonight against Los Angeles where missed the overtime period. This could be a problem that has to do with the joint of Mogilny’s hip which is cause for considerable concern as this could see him out of the lineup for an extended period of time.