Leafs Run Into Another Hot Goaltender

For the second Tuesday in a row, the Maple Leafs offensive attack was turned aside by the hand of a hot goaltender. Last Tuesday, the Leafs could not find a way to beat Carolina Hurricanes netminder, Kevin Weeks despite generating numerous solid scoring opportunities. Last night, Craig Anderson stepped into Air Canada Centre and turned aside all but one of the Maple Leafs forty-four shots. When a team runs into a good goaltender, there is not much that can be done, however, starting out with absolutely no energy or intensity in a game against a poor team certainly does not help.

That is exactly what the Maple Leafs did last night as they sat back throughout the first two periods and let the Blackhawks hang around until they finally chipped four goals past Trevor Kidd. By the time the Leafs got in gear at the start of the third period, it was much too late to mount any sort of comeback as the Blackhawks netminder, Craig Anderson had fallen into a groove. The Leafs fired twenty-one shots at the Blackhawks goal in the third period but could not find a hole in the armor of Anderson. By the end of the game, the Blackhawks walked away with a shocking 4-1 win over the Maple Leafs.

After a game as intense as the match up on Saturday against the Senators, a poor follow up was a large concern. Adding to the cause for concern was the possibility of looking too far ahead to Thursday’s game against the Senators not to mention the fact the key players including Ed Belfour and Joe Nieuwendyk were lost to injury in Saturday’s game. As difficult as it may be to maintain intensity throughout each game of the eighty-two game regular season, there is no excuse for laying an egg against a team that has only one road win all year. At the end of the year, the Leafs may look back and wish they had the two points back from last night’s game.

Should the Leafs beat the Senators tomorrow, they will hold a five point lead going into the all star break. However, tomorrow’s game seems to be shaping up quite like the Senators versus Leafs match up on January 8th with several key players out of the lineup. Ed Belfour, Tom Fitzgerald and Joe Nieuwendyk are all highly doubtful and Bryan McCabe is listed day to day after sustaining a broken nose in practice today.