Ottawa Senators open pre-season with a shutout over Toronto Maple Leafs
It was not a good day for Toronto fans. They started their season with a shutout against 5 Ottawa goals. One against six would have been more palatable. They would have then been out performed instead of being entirely helpless. Good thing it was just the
preseason.
Ottawa goalie Robin Lehner might have had something to do with that. The Leafs offence isn’t that bad. In fact the Leafs had 24 shots on goal against the Senators’ 28. That’s 24 saves for Lehner. Without commenting on the quality of those shots that sounds
like a decent effort by the Toronto offence.
“We know we’ve got lots of work to do,” said Maple Leaf captain Dion Phaneuf. Well that might be an understatement. Phaneuf went on to add that the preseason games served that purpose. Last season the Maple Leafs were off to a better start but in the regular
season that all came crumbling down. The preseason really isn’t a good way to predict the regular season. Still one can’t help thinking that Brian Burke’s plans for Toronto might have gone very wrong somewhere along the way.
There are many things wrong with the Maple Leafs. The power-play is one obvious weakness. The second period was just littered with Ottawa penalties. The Leafs had 5-on-3 opportunities and not only did they not score, their shots on goals in through them
were also just horrible. The Leafs managed just five shots on goal in those 3 opportunities. A frustrated Ron Wilson even called a timeout during one those power-plays but nothing changed. The Leafs were truly helpless.
Though in the Leafs’ defence, they haven’t yet worked on special teams. From now till the regular season opens the improvement can’t be too significant. The Leafs were one of the worst teams in terms of power-play last year and they might just be the worst
again this year, unless Ron Wilson can pull off a miracle. “It was not unlike our problem last year where we were hesitant to move pucks quickly,” said Leafs coach Ron Wilson. “We did three or four things wrong, but that’s stuff we will work on going forward.”
Then there is the coaching question. Burke has done a great job as general manager and brought together a pretty decent squad. Much better than a team you’d expect to be shutout 5-0. Head Coach Ron Wilson is in his third year with the Leafs and so far he
doesn’t really have anything to show for it. When he came to the Toronto, the Leafs were a 91 points team. Last year the Leafs finished in 29th place and were down to 74 points. Under Wilson the Leafs went from 260 goals against up to 293 goals
against team. That’s exactly what the Maple Leafs can’t afford.
There is a fine line between trapping and being a better defensive side. Both Burke and Wilson are staunch opponents of trapping. “Playing the neutral-zone trap and squeezing the life out of every game, that goes against what Brian and I believe in,” Wilson
said. At this point perhaps Wilson should actually consider that because defensively he has been struggling and there appear to be no signs of an improvement.
Leaf goaltenders are also a concern. Rookie goalie Jussi Rynnas went for 3 goals in 10 shots on goal while Jonas Gustavosson stopped 16 of 18 shots on goal giving away 2. That just cannot be compared to Lehner 24 of 24 stops. The Senators’ 4 more shots on
goal don’t justify the different in goals. Ottawa’s defensemen were better but Toronto didn’t perform that badly. Jussi obviously won’t be happy with his statistics and neither would the Leafs. But this, after all, is the preseason.
A lot Toronto’s veteran weren’t even present on the ice against Ottawa. “Tomorrow night, we’ll have a completely different team,” Wilson said. The Maple Leafs are Scheduled to clash with the Senators again on Wednesday night. It would another opportunity
for Kris Versteeg to prove his merits. Coach Wilson had relied too heavily on the Stanley Cup winner.
Versteeg was on all of Toronto’s power plays but was unable to score. The Leafs had been looking at him as their penalty killer. Versteeg and the Leafs have until the regular to get their plays in order. Not much time.
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