After 22 games going back to last season, Mats Sundin finally tied Darryl Sittler's record for most goals by a Maple Leaf. Vesa Toskala took over in net and played well. But the Leafs still lost even though they outshot the Senators 43-29.
These 2 games against the Senators were very frustrating to watch because the Leafs played well enough to win but mistakes and sloppy play cost them both games. You don't get away with that against teams like Ottawa.
Well does that mean they will do better against weaker teams? Not necessarily. You can shoot yourself in the foot any time, any place. Missed assignments in front of your own net will cost you goals on any night. Ever team has at least one sniper that will feed off defensive lapses. The Leaf powerplay which should be a strength has been bad.
But the worst part of their game has been bad penalties. Twice last night the Leafs took a penalty less than 10 seconds into a powerplay of their own, thus robbing themselves of a chance to get back into the game. They took 3 consecutive penalties at the end of the game that eliminated any chance of winning and handed the Senators' excellent powerplay enough opportunities to finally score the game winner.
