LFR19 – Game 21 – Centre Of Attention – Blue Jackets 3, Maple Leafs 2 (OT)

LFR19 – Game 21 – Centre Of Attention – Blue Jackets 3, Maple Leafs 2 (OT)

All right. What are we talking about today? I don’t know. You don’t know? I don’t know. What do you mean you don’t know? I’m flammixed because my reaction to that loss is the perfect intersection of rational and rage. Flemixed. Let’s go. It starts with an A and ends with anxiety. Off the shelter with you wherever you are. Welcome to LFO. Leafs lose 32 in overtime to the Columbus Blue Jackets. First of all, no. No. Remember what I said? Remember what I said last video? No, you don’t remember what I said because half you, more than half you weren’t even here because they won. Two videos ago, the Leafs had lost five straight. That video got over 115,000. Last video they win 51. Well, welcome back to like several like almost an arena full of you. Do you understand? I’d love to know what this video ends up at. Let’s say it ends up at around 70. Next time you’re in Scotia Bank Arena, look around. Imagine every seat full. That’s how many more people watch a loss video than a win. And on average, it’s actually more. Okay, listen. Listen. I want to do something and I’m only going to do it one more time. That’s a lie. I might do it Saturday, too. Probably not. I don’t know. We’re doing a live show with the Ashawa Generals on Sunday. It’s going to be a lot of fun. We’re going to watch the Ashawa Generals game together and then we’re going to have a live show at a place called Bond Street. No, not on the actual street, silly. It’s a venue called Bond Street. We did an event there last year and it was a lot of fun. We spoke to Ashawa General starting goalie Jacob Oster. This year we got two Jennies. We got Sam Roberts and Hoshi Wang who is a second round pick of the San Jose Sharks. And I will see you there or I will see you after another video where the Leafs lost probably mathematically. Okay. Okay. The way you look at that game is very dependent on how you viewed the Leafs coming into the game. I am mad that they lost on TSN after the broadcast. They said the Leafs are 15 and one in their last seven or something like that. It’s bad. Now, when you say it like that, yeah, it’s bad. But here’s the thing. I already knew that. And if they won, it’d be like, oh, they’re two, four in one, which is definitely better still, but but with two T’s, to be clear, the ultimate glass half full way to look at this. The Leafs have played three straight good games. They looked good in all three games. Low bar, I know, but that’s what we’re dealing with right now. But I don’t think it’s a coincidence that in all three of those games, Joseph Wool played and was downright great. Three games in, I’m not sure he’s allowed a bad goal this season, honestly. Basically, he’s given them a chance to win every game he’s played. They lost the Chicago game. They had a chance. They won the last game. Obviously, he gave him a chance. And tonight, they went to overtime. There was about half a minute left in overtime. They had a chance. The other glass half full way to look at it is, man, they got a point out of a game where they were down two nothing. You don’t always get a point out of a game where you were down two nothing. In fact, I’m going to say less than half of the time you get a point out of a game where you were down two nothing. Glass half empty. Yeah, the record recently has been bad. Yeah, they tied it, but they should have won. And it’s unfair in a team sport with a team this big to single out one player or one line. And yet I think it’s perfectly reasonable to do that in this scenario. This was a tight game, a really tight game. And the Leafs did not play those for the first at least 15 games of the season. The last three games, even though the Leafs are 1-1 and one in those last three games, the Leafs look like the Leafs of last year. maybe not getting the same result, but the games are similar. Sometimes they outshoot the opponent, other times the opponent outshoots them, but they have the puck a decent amount of the time and they get saves, but ultimately they don’t make a ton of mistakes. They don’t get a ton of scoring chances either, but they make enough to get by. Most games, win or lose, end up with the net empty in the final minute, minute and a half. Whether it’s the Leafs fighting to come back from a one or two goal deficit and the other team trying to fight from coming back from a one or two goal deficit. Last year’s Baroo Leafs played a ton of tight games. The kind of games where mistakes kill you and one line made two of them in a game where you needed three goals to win. And that’s a killer. Here, let’s look at the game. How was this game won and lost? The Leafs, just like last game, had a very, very good first period. They were the way better team than Columbus. They had better chances than Columbus. Their power play didn’t score, but oh man, did they look dangerous. They had a bunch of shots on the first one. Second one, Yarn Croak should have got a goal. He lifted the puck up just not high enough. It was a great stop from Jet Greavves, who should absolutely be getting his flowers. How many times do I have to talk about Jet Greavves on the podcast for you to get the message? Pessimistically, Jet Greavves is the goalie of the Blue Jackets future. Optimistically, he’s their goalie currently. So naturally, after a good to maybe even dominant first period, the Blue Jackets score very early on in the second. Adam Fantelli, another Toronto base guy who just loves ripping it up in here. Think to Dowy and the Kings from a few games ago, flings the thing on net and it goes off the bar and you’re like, “Oh my goodness.” But Wool looks a little confused. And here’s the thing about these NHL goalies. Like even when they get beat, they knew where the puck was. And you see him like, “How did that beat me?” The reason it beat him is it touched grazed Dmitri Veronov, sending the puck just enough off target. And guess what? It’s a one- nothing lead for Columbus. Okay. Okay. You should be winning this game. Don’t lose sight of the fact that you should be winning this game. You won last game. You were severely short-handed. You got Scott Lton back. He looks really good. East Cowan’s back in the lineup. He looks really good. Yes, you’re injured, but you looked really good in the first period. You should be winning this game again. It’s the mistakes that kill you. I know the Leafs are short-handed. I know. I know. I know. The Doy McMahon Robertson line is a line like again, you’re at home. I never want to see that line on the road ever. But you’re at home. You control the matchups. You have a ton of injuries. I can forgive you for thinking it might work. What I can’t forgive the Leafs, and by the Leafs, I mean Craig Barube for, is for using Max Doi at center since the beginning of the season. He’s not one. No, Gregory, stop it. Oh my god. He’s not an NHL center. Stop. It’s mean. It’s mean. Oh, that line does two things. Score lots of goals against teams that are not good and get hemmed in. Well, don’t they get hemmed in? They survive by the skin of their teeth, but oh, they ice it. Puck comes all the way back. It’s a face off in your own end. You’re huffing. You’re puffing and you got to fight off the Blue Jackets to get the puck back. and you do get the puck back and you clear it. Not all the way down, but you clear it. Well, even after you clear it, you’re tired. So, you line change at the speed of services Ontario, which leads to this, which leads to this. Now, ultimately, this is a rip from Adam Fantelli. It’s an excellent shot. Very few goalies in the league are beating this. It’s a really good shot. It’s a really good goal. You give Fanty and the Blue Jackets credit for the goal. Even if Fantelli opts not to shoot this though, there’s Marenko. He’s right there. Marenko can get a pass from Fan Tilly. He can collect a rebound. He can do all sorts of things that are not fun for you in blue. And who’s back? It’s Tvaris who’s just getting there because he just got off the bench. And McMahon who’s huffing and puffing because he’s been out there for like four minutes now because he was the lead guy after you dumped it poorly following an icing. So, if you look at the stats for this game, you’re going to see that Tavvaris was a an even rating and Willie was an even rating. They weren’t a plus, they weren’t a minus, they were even. Both guys should be plus one, but they got a minus for being on the ice for like 3 seconds because their teammates let them down right as they were getting off. Robertson was a minus one. Doi was a minus one, and that’s just because of overtime. Those guys should have both been dash two. Doy with the exclamation mark, but we’ll get to that a little later. So now you’re down 2 nothing at home in a game where you have injuries, but the game is still happening and you dominated the first period and you should be up or at minimum tied or no, that’s not even minimum. That’s not even minimum. Minimum is down a goal, which is what you were. And it’s way easier to come back in a game when you’re just down a goal. Well, you’re down two goals because your coach, despite the fact that you’re over 750 games into your NHL career, is like, “Ah, maybe this time.” No, not maybe this time. Stop it. I know there’s injuries, dude. You could have gone something along the lines of like Tavvaris, Lton, Lorren, Quillin. I I don’t know. At least all those guys are centers. What’s funny is Lorren isn’t really a center, but he looked like it the other night playing 15 minutes and playing awesome. Like, I’m hammering Doy, but at the end of the day, his coach shouldn’t be putting him there. Like, I feel like we may never get to know this player. He’s not a center. I tell you what, when they get any one guy back, not two, one of Matthews or Wah, I never want to see him play center again. It’s mean to the guy. It is not putting him in a position to succeed. And you’re if you’re not putting every player in a position to succeed, you are not putting the team in a position to succeed. Anyway, this game did go to overtime. How did it get there? Well, injuries or not, other guys have to show up. with a little help from the guys who always show up. John Tvaris, God I love you, hands it off to Dakota Mermis, the merman, hands it off cleanly off the draw, mind you, wins the face off and goes straight to the net. Dakota Mermis puts it on. And the question is not did Jet Greavves see this puck, it’s can you see Jet Greavves right now? There’s a goalie in this picture. Do you see him? That’s a great way to beat a goalie that you can’t beat because Greavves was great all night. Guess what? This line was dynamite. Willie, Tvaris, and either Yarncroak or Cowan. Started with Yarn Croak. They ended up switching to Cowan. Cowan had an excellent game. He could have tipped this thing, but he didn’t. It’s Mermis the merman with his first goal in nearly two calendar years. And John Dvaris with the assist with the screen and my heart. All right, so in short order, the Leafs are only down one again. I’m less mad, but we still got to wait for the third period. Can they tie it up in the third period? Oh, the suspense is building. Except not really. They scored three and a half minutes in. Oliver Ecman Larson quietly just racking up the assist. That’s number 13 for him. Sneaky fantasy player if you have a deep enough pool. But really, it was just he receives it from the glove of Joseph Wall. Hands it to Tvaris who breaks out. While he’s breaking out, he hands it to Cowan. Cowen gains the zone. He hands it back to Tvaris. Oh, does he rip the thing. John Tvaris with points in his last four games. I don’t think you understand how great he’s been. 27 points in 21 games so far. He signed for less than four and a half per. The Leafs have played 10 games in the month of November. And John Tvaris has points in eight of them. In fact, that was his fifth twopoint game of November. Points in eight out of 10 games. That’s two games without a point. Five multi-point games. He has two and a half times the amount of multi multi-point games than no point games. In fact, get this. During the first five games of the season, John Tvaris had five points in five games. That’s really good. But he didn’t have any points in three of those games. He had a two-point game and a three-point game. After that, starting October 18th and going until November 1st, Tvaris had points in seven straight and then points in seven out of the next nine. Johnny T has been an animal for the Leafs, high or low, whether the team has been worth watching or not. And now the game is tied. Both teams hold on for overtime because it’s the style currently. Every game goes overtime. It’s crazy. And this overtime goes pretty good. Leafs get a couple looks. The Blue Jackets try to sucker the Leafs in and it doesn’t work. They did it against Doi just like the Blues tried against Omi. And Doy very disciplined was like, I’m not going to do that. In the final minute of overtime, new guys come over the boards. Machelli was just on and I was like, oh, that’s interesting. Wow. Wow. The Leafs have a bunch of injuries and they’re using Machelli in overtime. I guess they have to. Then in the final minute of OT, they go with Oliver Ecman Larson, Max Doy, and Nick Robertson. It starts pretty good. Like they’re passing it around. Robertson’s battling really well in the corner. They can’t come up with some. Oh. Oh, they maintain the puck. That’s good. While the Leafs are working it around, Jake McCabe decides, I’m going for it. Now, should he have gone for it? No. My brother, what? That is Zach Warren. Pardon? What? Now, Warensky reads it like a book. He read that like an audio book is how easily he read it. Blue Jackets go up the ice at the speed of light. Now, Nick Robertson gets on his horse and he’s going back and Doy gets on his horse and he’s going back. And Doy just makes the really unfortunate decision to skate backwards. I don’t know what Fantelli’s plan was, but he’s kind of like, “Oh, well, I I’m sure you can do it pretty fast, but you can’t do it faster than I can go forward.” And it’s threeon three, so if I just sort of go wide a little bit, I’ll be fine. Does Fanty beat him? You bet he does. Now, to his credit, Doy does create enough of a disturbance that Fantelli sort of momentarily loses the puck, but he gets it back and he puts it over a sprawled out Joseph Wall. That’s game. It’s a game of the most infinite decimal moments. And those mistakes kill you. They kill you every time. I know every team makes mistakes. I do. Every team, even the Stanley Cup winner makes mistakes. I’m sure Bub’s team that he won the Stanley Cup with in 2019 made mistakes. There was probably less of them and the Blues were better for it. Listen, you gain a point in the standings. Awesome. Should have been two, wasn’t two, you get one. The Leafs game against Montreal in Montreal on Saturday is mustwatch. The Leafs are 99 and3. The Habs are 107 and3. The Leafs have more regulation wins than the Habs do. They are reeling right now. You think the Leafs have an injury bug? O Marone, what’s going on in Montreal? This game is going to practically be the Marlies versus the Rockets. And yet, regardless of who takes the ice, for either team, there are two NHL points up for grabs. And by that, I mean it I mean go based on the trend, it’s going to overtime. So, there are three NHL points up for grabs. Your team is eligible for a maximum of two. Gary, you really screwed this up, dude. It’s a big one, and you got to win it. That is it for this one. Thank you very much for watching. Click like if you like this video. Click subscribe if you really liked it. Tell all your friends. Please donate to my Movember page down below. This it looks awful. That feels worse.

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Steve Dangle recaps and analyzes Game 21 of the Toronto Maple Leafs season against the Columbus Blue Jackets

Come see us at The Oshawa Generals Game: https://www.gofevo.com/event/OshawageneralsSteveDanglePodcastOn this episode of The Steve Dangle Podcast,

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