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

Leafs Fall Again at Home 7-4

In by far their worse performance of the year, the Toronto Maple Leafs blew a 3-1 first period lead falling to the New York Islanders 7-4. With an opportunity to pick up another two points after knocking off the Penguins on Wednesday night, the Leafs abandoned their recent defensive responsible style of play and gave up five unanswered goals.

The turning point of the game was while the Leafs were shorthanded in the second period. The Leafs actually had the Islanders on their heels coming up with two shorthanded scoring chances. However, the Islanders weathered the storm and two Leafs were caught up ice as Mark Streit put one past Ben Scrivens making the score 3-2. It was all downhill after that as the Islanders took the play to Leafs.

The aggressive forecheck and responsible defensive play that was exhibited the night before in Pittsburgh was completely abandoned. Ben Scrivens did not have a good night. Scrivens made some nice saves early on but seemed to falter like the rest of the team as the game wore on. He was pulled in the third period with the score 5-3. James Reimer played the rest of the way, allowing a Matt Moulson goal with the Islanders seventh goal going into an empty net.

In this 48 game compressed season, the Leafs will have to put this game behind them and get ready for the Rangers, who they play Saturday night. However, I think that Randy Carlyle will remind this team today that they can't be successful if they play like they did against the Islanders. The Leafs must be willing to pay the price every shift in order to have a chance to win. Last night, that didn't happen and I'm sure Carlyle will have something to say about that today at practice.