tonytalkssports My Take on Sports, particularly the Yankees, Maple Leafs and Browns

Dumb Penalties Lead To 4-2 Leafs Loss

The Washington Capitals had 6 power play opportunities and connected on four of the them to defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 in the nation's capital. The Leaf penalty killing unit was terrible last night however what was worse was the undisciplined penalties that the Leafs took particularly Joey Crabb. With the Leafs 39 seconds away from killing a Colby Armstrong penalty, Crabb took an unnecessary boarding penalty resulting in a 5 on 3 power play for the Capitals. James Reimer made a great save with the paddle of his stick but the puck bounced up and hit the knob of his stick and went into the net giving the Capitals a 3-1 lead.

The Leafs fought back and Cody Franson brought the Leafs within a goal with a shot from the point on a good play from Nikolai Kulemin with a little over 6 minutes left in the game. The Leafs took the play to the Capitals and you had a feeling that they might be able to tie the game. Then Joey Crabb doesn't control his stick and clips John Carlson with about 2:15 left in the game killing whatever chance the Leafs may have had to tie the game. The Capitals once again scored as Dennis Wideman notched his third goal of the game.

The talking heads and media scribes are pointing out that the Leafs have now lost 4 out of their last 5 games but its not time to panic. If you look at the 2 losses to Boston, the overtime loss to New Jersey and last night, the Leafs were competitive and in some instances the better team when 5 on 5. But penalties are a killer and last night was inexcusable.

Some may start to clamor for Jonas Gustavsson to go back into the nets but Reimer was not the reason for the Leaf loss. He made some big saves to keep his team in the game. Goaltending is not the problem. Penalty killing and lack of secondary scoring are the problems. Hopefully, the current lineup can stay intact for awhile because there needs to be some chemistry developed. The Grabovski-Kulemin-MacArthur line looked good last night and had some chances. However, Coach Ron Wilson is right: they need to start shooting more. There was a point in the third period where the line had the puck in the Washington zone for over a minute but didn't get a shot on goal.

The Leafs are off until Tuesday when they take on the Carolina Hurricanes at the ACC. The puck drop is at 7pm.
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Later today my weekly NFL Picks and tomorrow my comments on the Colt McCoy hit.