I thought the Leafs played better in the two loses to Ottawa but sometimes all you have to be is better than your opposition to win. Last night the Leafs made fewer mistake than Montreal and skated away with an overtime win. The Leafs would never had gotten to overtime if it wasn't for some awful giveaways by the Canadien defense that lead to 2 goals for Alexei Ponikarovsky. I love Leaf-Hab games but this one was a stinker. Both teams made a ton of mistakes. There were pucks jumping over sticks, defensive zone giveaways, and untimely penalties. Toronto was awful early, while the Canadiens saved their worst for last. This one should have ended in a tie if it could. Neither team deserved to win. But in the new NHL someone has to win.
I thought Matt Stajan and Alex Steen were Toronto’s best forwards. Once Ponikarovsky switched with Jason Blake and joined Mats Sundin and Nik Antropov on the top line, I thought that unit was good. Vesa Toskala silenced his critics with an above average performance. But he was far from great. The usual fickle ACC crowd quickly got behind him.
Pavel Kubina looked terrible. Bryan McCabe’s inability to keep the puck in the Montreal zone in the 2nd led to a shorthanded goal by the Canadiens. McCabe was on the ice for all three Montreal goals. Is that the best you can get for $7 million?
