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

Pens Win Streak Snapped at 5 As Leafs Win 4-3

Last year the Toronto Maple Leafs had a middling record at home. Moreover, their Saturday night Hockey Night In Canada was terrible. But this season the Leafs are unbeaten at home and last night defeated a hot Pittsburgh Penguins team 4-3 snapping the Penguins 5 game winning streak. Jonas Gustavsson notched his second victory in a row and seems to be gaining confidence as he plays more games. He made a big save on James Neal late in the third period to preserve the Leafs 4-3 lead. The Monster made 34 saves as the Leafs were outshot 37-29.

The defense pair of Dion Phaneuf and Carl Gunnarsson were outstanding and Ron Wilson seemed to try to pair them against Evgeni Malkin's line. Mike Komissarek had one of his stronger games and the defense corp in general played well and made plays when they had to. With Gustavsson playing better and the defense playing well, things are certainly looking up when you consider that they have been doing this without their number 1 goalie James Reimer.

Brian Burke's plan to have a solid corp of bottom six and top six lines really seems to be in place at this point. The fourth line of Dupuis-Steckel-Brown handled Malkin's line really well last night when they were out there against them. They forecheck extremely well and create scoring chances. The Leafs have not had this luxury from a fourth line in years. Matthew Lombardi's line is solid and I thought Tyler Bozak played well last night. It would be nice to see Matt Frattin get on the scoresheet with a goal.

The top two lines are rolling. Last night we saw what the possibilities can be if Tim Connolly stays healthy as he made a nice pass(while on his butt) to Phil Kessel who one-timed it with a bullet passed Brent Johnson that proved to be the game winner. Connolly also scored a beauty on the power play on a nice feed from Kessel. The Mikhail Grabovski line seems to have found its scoring touch as Grabovski scored a power play goal and Clarke MacArthur scored his second goal of the season. MacArthur now has two goals in his last two games.

While the power play seemed to click, the penalty killing unit did allow 2 goals in four Penguin opportunities. To be fair, the last Pittsburgh power play goal the Leafs were down 2 men and two of their best penalty killers (Steckel & Dupuis) were in the box. I really think that the penalty killing unit is doing better than the stats show and hopefully their numbers will look better.

There has been much made out of the fact that the Leafs had an easy schedule to start the season. But they went on the road where they were only outplayed in the Boston game and beat the Rangers and the Canadiens. They beat a very good Penguin team last night. There is something different with this team than last year's squad. They are more determined. Dion Phaneuf was interviewed during the Rangers game and what really struck me was how often Phaneuf reiterated that they need to continue to work hard and that they are building something special.

Tonight they face an Ottawa Senators team that is hot right now. This game will not be easy but its a game that the Leafs can win. Puck drop is at 7:30pm in Kanata, Ontario.

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Tomorrow's post will critique the Browns-49ers game and some notes on Leafs-Senators.