Leafs Down Wings 4-1 in Ugly Loss

It was a Saturday showdown in the final meeting between the Detroit Red Wings(17-6-7) and the Toronto Maple Leafs(16-9-3). Petr Mrazek drew the start in the 2nd of a back to back, Jakub Kindl and Stephen Weiss were out and Dan Cleary and Brian Lashoff were in for their respective positions. The series on the season was tied 2-2 with both team looking to grab a valuable 2 points against a division rival.

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First Period: Detroit 1 Toronto 1

Looking for a good start the Red Wings tried to get off on the right foot by…icing the puck about three times. Toronto obviously well rested came out skating and managed to put up several shots on Mrazek because of all the icings. Petr held the fort and with some spectacular play from rookie defenseman Xavier Ouellet, particularly on a 2 on 1 chance against Nazem Kadri, Kronwall took an early penalty but as it has been all year the team easily killed it. Ouellet actually saw time on the penalty kill with Kronwall in the box and looked solid during his stint on the PK.

Detroit was able to turn it around with solid work ethic and managed to draw a penalty against JVR who went for holding against Kronwall(great body positioning). Kronwall then fired a bullet from the point top shelf with Jonathan Bernier screened by Darren Helm(may have gone in off of Helm or Phaneuf). Toronto answered quickly with Joakim Andersson in the box for tripping as Phil Kessel took a shout that beat Mrazek after deflecting off of James van Riemsdyk. Detroit recovered quickly after the goal and had Toronto running around in their own zone with the announcers still reading off the goal scorers names over the PA.

Richard Panik took a bad penalty(the type that should land you an automatic game ejection for even attempting) as he tried to run high on Brenden Smith. Detroit was unable to capitalize on the Power Play with 17 seconds left in the period and would start the 2nd with 1:43 remaining on the Power Play. Shots were even at 12 apiece at the end of the period.

Second Period: Detroit 1 Toronto 2

Detroit was pretty lousy on the power play to start the period. Petr Mrazek had to make a huge save on Peter Holland and from there it didn’t get better until Datsyuk and Riley Sheahan combined for some magic but were unable to convert down low. The wings kept momentum after the power play, kind of, but were way to fancy with the puck and made things easy for Toronto in their own zone attempting cross ice passes and going east west instead of north south and not putting any shots on Bernier.

Helm had a great chance beating the defenders with his speed and attempted to jam one in on Bernier in tight. Jonathan Ericsson took a penalty for hooking and the resultant delayed called lead to a panic mode scramble for the Wings as Toronto played keep away and made Mrazek earn his NHL dollars. Petr was bit shaken up after jamming his knee to make another save but that didn’t seem to faze him as he made a huge save from his back with the net wide open and JVR on top of him.

Consecutive power plays for Toronto seemed to suck all the life out of the team and Toronto made Mrazek and the defenders work overtime. Toronto racked up 20 shots on goal this period to the 5 Detroit put on net. This all added up to Tatar losing the puck(on what according to Mickey Redmond was a hook) to Holzer who sent the puck up to a streaking Richard Panik who slipped a shot five hole on Mrazek. Things didn’t get any better and with shots 32-17 in favor of Toronto this game looked a lot like a twilight zone version of the last time the two teams met.

Third Period: Detroit Toronto

Per Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2014

gar·bage

noun ˈgär-bij

: things that are no longer useful or wanted and that have been thrown out

: a container where people put things that are being thrown out

: something that is worthless, unimportant, or of poor quality

This definition pretty much sums a period that was much like the second, terrible. The team was flat and Mrazek who had looked super human all game long let another by him as Morgan Rielly snapped a shot glove side from a bad angle that found twine. Quincey was about 2 steps behind Rielly who entered the zone unmolested and had room and space to make the play to put the Leafs up 3-1. There wasn’t a forward or defenseman who looked like he was really interested in playing the rest of this one out after that goal. Things grew so desperate that Babcock united the Euro Twins with Johan Franzen to no avail. Babcock pulled Mrazek with about 4 minutes to go in the game and that resulted in an empty net goal for his troubles, at least that shouldn’t count against his stats right? Shortly after Panik again ran Smith which resulted in smith slashing Panik, breaking his stick on the Toronto forward and the two having a dust-up behind the net. Smith earned an extra two for slashing and the Wings were on the penalty kill, which they killed off for whats its worth. Shots at the end of the game 41-28 in favor of the Maple Leafs.

Final Summary:

Well that was terrible, at least it didn’t go to overtime…right? What started out good turned to a garbage fire of an event. The Wings made everything to easy on Toronto and their fatigue showed through which is in excusable for this team. Mrazek deserves a steak dinner for his troubles and nobody should be exempt of Babcocks ire. All is not lost for the season however this is just the second regulation loss in a stretch going 6-2-2 in their last two games. That is not to bad at all. Losing to a division rival still hurts and the third consecutive loss(even though they did get to over time in the previous 2) hurts even more. This hopefully should be a bump in the road as they get a couple of days to rest up and come back at it on Tuesday the 16th of December versus Columbus.

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