Red Wings vs. Leafs - Post Win Game

Last night was the second win of the Leafs' young season and unfortunately, it was the first game I couldn't watch due to my own hockey game. However, after quite a bit of statistical analysis and reading about last night's game there are several themes that came up.

First of all, there was a general consensus among Leafs bloggers that Beauchemin was a problem last night especially after he put the Leafs on the penalty kill in the last minute of the game and forced Gustavsson to be spectacular, stealing the win. This is discouraging since he was on the ice for 23 minutes of the game while Kaberle held to 21 compared to his intense numbers the game before. Thankfully though, Komisarek was finally the defensive defenseman Leafs Nation has been waiting on this season.

As of last night, our two lousiest defensemen are Luke Schenn and Francois Beauchemin. I've heard some Leafs fans talk about sending Luke Schenn to the Marlies so he can regroup. Although he hasn't been playing his best hockey with the Leafs this year, that would be a terrible idea. No matter how he plays, he still plays better than Exelby on a consistent basis and while Van Ryn is injured, he is staying with the Leafs. He has great positional vision and can hit like Exelby without his mental lapses. If Finger is in our line up, Exelby is our 7th defenseman and that's how it should remain.

Moving on, Gustavsson is beginning to show himself as a statistically apt NHL starting goaltender, with 2.84GAA and a .908 save percentage. On a team with the record that the Leafs have right now, I'm very happy with Burke's offseason acquisition of the Monster. In addition, he's keeping Toskala juggling waterbottles on the bench which is always a plus. Maybe Burke should try to get Vancouver to trade Raycroft back to us for Toskala? No? Worth a shot.

Offensively, both Blake and Mitchell scored. Looks like we don't need to find a player to move it to Kessel, they'll just do it themselves. Plus, with the speed of that first line, defensemen will be on their heels every rush our first line makes. Once the Leafs set up in the offensive zone, Kaberle as one of the elite puck-moving defensemen in the League can feed Kessel the puck at the side of the net.

I'm a little worried about playing the Red Wings tonight after falling to a 2-0 deficit to Carolina, the worst team in the League. The Red Wings, no matter how much of a rough season they're having, is always a tough game. Our defensive defensemen have to have an incredibly strong game blocking as many pucks as possible and keeping it in the offensive zone for the majority of the game. I smell Kessel's first goal coming tonight assisted by Kaberle. It's going to happen, or at least I hope it does.

Good luck Buds and Go Leafs Go!!