Game Recap: Avs 4 - Leafs 1

Seems like the team had a huge let-down tonight, following the big Saturday night win and the 500th goal... in short, they played brutal. Sundin was given a golf vacation to Ireland by his teamates for the milestone, and it looked like most of the guys spent the game dreaming of the emerald isle.

Scary thought, I had a flashback to the Leafs team of last February, rather than last week. Losing most puck battles, not getting shots on net, and I swear they didn't string more than one pass together all night.

The last half of the game was played on what appeared to be slush. The Sundin line was ineffective, and clearly Jay Harrison is not an NHL-ready defenseman.

The Good:

Hard to find anything positive in this match, as the Leafs failed to generate any scoring chances, failed to establish any forecheck and failed to basically show up.

The Bad:

Mike Peca might have been the least worst Leaf forward tonight. He made a number of sound plays, and probably saved at least one goal with his smart decisions. Took yet another penalty, which is a no-no for this penalty-killer deficient team.

Matt Stajan also had a few good chances, and was one of few Leafs that managed to actually maintain puck control in the Avs zone.

The Ugly:

How about everyone but Stajan and Peca...

The entire Sundin line was outplayed by the Sakic line, Ponikarovsky and Kilger were AWOL and Raycroft let in a few softies.

As I mentioned earlier, Harrison is not NHL ready... which isn't entirely his fault, but he looked very shaky and took a few penalties to boot. Hal Gill was his usual self, meaning he should be the #5 guy, but is playing #3 minutes. Kubina can't come back quick enough.

Special mention goes to the ice at the ACC, which must be the worst in the NHL. The Leafs are looking to play an up-tempo game that features lots of passing and forward movement, but the puck has been bouncing around like a super-ball all season at home. If they can't figure out the problems in the next month or so, this issue could really start to cost a skating team like the Leafs points in the standings. Absolutely inexcusable given the resources of MLSE. Seriously, pay the guy from Edmonton to come in and show the ACC people how to fix the problems.