Written Oct 20th 2011
The first regulations loss of the season for the Leafs comes
from an embarrassing 6-2 defeat at the hands of the Boston Bruins. In his season debut, Colton Orr took on
Shawn Thornton in a lackluster battle 1:54 into the game. Steckel potted his first of the season
with a nice pass from Nazem Kadri who was recalled a day after being sent down
following his return from injury. Shortly after, Boston climbs in front with
two powerplay goals from Nathan Horton and a laser off the circle from Zdeno
Chara. Both teams went on to take three penalties each in the second but
neither team could capitalize with a strong period from Tim Thomas as the Leafs
outshot the Bruins 14 to 11 for the period. The third period got ugly for the
Leafs as goals by Lucic, Bergeron and Seguin made it 6–1. The Boston faithful erupted with “Thank
you Kessel” chants after Seguin’s second of the season. 49 seconds later Grabovski fired a
wrist shot past Thomas to bring the deficit to 4 goals. There was no comeback
tonight as the Bruins held on to hand the Leafs their first regulation loss.
Remember what happened last year? After going 4 and 0 they
followed that up with an impressive 1-8-3 record. Not to mention Phil Kessel’s
similar hot streak to begin the 2010 season followed up with a brutal next
month of embarrassing production. Have they evolved from last year? I for one
am not totally convinced. It is no
secret that a true number one center and an additional top six player are
needed to make this team a true contender but if all things go there way this
team may qualify for the playoffs.
At least there is some hope with quality youth in the system and those beginning
to make an impact with the big club but they are still a work in progress. It all depends on Reimer from here on
out and unfortunately for this likeable guy he will be much of the blame if
things go wrong.
By: Liam Niven
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