Well, that sucked.
The Leafs dropped a game that appeared to be completely in their control through most of the first two frames, coughing up a 3-0 lead to fall to the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 in regulation.
Corsis
The Leafs were in control of this game, which makes the loss particularly frustrating. As frustrating a loss can be with your spot in the playoffs all-but guaranteed, that is, but losing to a potential first-round opponent in ugly fashion isn’t particularly fun.
1st Period
We open the scoring with yet another goal from JVR:
#32 FOR JVR! pic.twitter.com/l1v9gDbQHx
— The Leafs Nation (@TLNdc) March 21, 2018
Make that 32 on the season for JVR. Marner and Carrick draw assists. 1-0.
The Leafs would go on to outplay and outscore the Lightning in the first, outshooting them 12-6 in the process.
2nd
With Nikita Kucherov in the box carrying over from the first, guess who it was in front of the net…
HE DID IT AGAIN! JVR with his 33rd goal of the season pic.twitter.com/4TAIcG29Oo
— The Leafs Nation (@TLNdc) March 21, 2018
James van Riemsdyk knows just where to lurk to score yet again. His 33rd of the season makes it a 2-0 game, and this thing is off to a great start.
The goal was followed by a couple of ten-bell saves by Frederik Andersen, who looked poised early on after his return from injury. He’d make another great stop on a break by Anthony Cirelli to keep the Lightning off the board.
And later in the period:
ZACHARY 🎯 pic.twitter.com/QMoGJEFkm0
— The Leafs Nation (@TLNdc) March 21, 2018
A flashy little snipe from Hyman, his 14th on the season, to make it 3-0 good guys.
Viktor Hedman would score with 3:20 left in the frame to put the Lightning on the board. But who cares, right?
3rd
Can we get a do-over on this one?
A mixture of lazy line-changing, an inopportune bounce off of Morgan Rielly and a partial flub by Frederik Andersen was all it would take to derail this game in the third frame. The Lightning would score four unanswered goals over a span of 12:36 dating back to the second period to steal this game out from under the Leafs. A deflating end to what started as a fun night.
As Seen On Twitter Dot Com
Zach Hyman just picked a corner on a Vezina candidate. Cancel the rest of the season and let’s just start the playoffs.
— Richard Lee-Sam (@RLeesam) March 21, 2018
And then what happened?
Tampa is beatable. You just can’t take your foot off the gas. Hope this game teaches the Leafs that.
— Totally Offside (@Totally_Offside) March 21, 2018
Wise words from a wise man.
— leafsbian🦄 (@mosephrielly) March 21, 2018
My least favorite episode.
The Buds are back at it on Thursday night in Nashville. Let’s hope for a better result.
So is anyone going to mention Hainsey? He’s been pretty terrible lately after a good start with Rielly.
As you noted, Hainsey’s play has declined since the early part of the season.
The other day I saw this chart that shows the performance of the Leafs D-men in terms of allowing teams to carry the puck into the D-zone and their ability to exit the D-zone with possession. All of the right-side D-men for the Leafs are not good in this metric.
https://public.tableau.com/profile/sean.tierney#!/vizhome/Exitsvsentrydefense–asofMarch17th/Dashboard1?publish=yes
Once on the webpage, scroll down the right-side and click on the Leafs icon.