Leafs fans who have followed the team closely will recognize a familiar pattern. The Leafs win a number of games but are outshot (often badly). The clamour from "experts" generally follows it's own pattern - if it weren't for Belfour they would never win, or, the won "ugly", or they stole a victory etc etc.
Consequently the Leafs will turn in an impressive shot clock performance and lose - standing all logic on it's head.
So it was last night as the Leafs threw 37 shots at the Bruins backup goalie and could only manage a single goal.
Hannu Toivonen (got him in the pool?) looked fabulous and one has to like the Bruin's depth in goal going forward. If this kid plays like he did last night they are in an excellent position come next year should Raycroft (who I think is a free agent next year) bolt to another club.
Lindros had another third period goal (he seems to only score in this period) but didn't seem as visible as he has for most games this season. In fact during the first period I thought he wasn't playing.
The Stajan-Steen-Ponikarovsky was the Leafs best unit last night and Czerkawski had his best game of the season. And by that I mean he looked like an NHL player, not some beer league floater.
Special merit should go to Leafs play-by-play man Joe Bowen who with 2 minutes to go mentioned the word shutout immediately resulting in a Leaf goal to ruin Toivonen's stellar performance to that point.
Ottawa tomorrow night - bring it on!
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