The Two-Line Pass

The Lead

Maybe Brian Burke was just what the Leafs needed.

I mean, obviously he’s not going to have to great an impact on the on-ice product and he just started Saturday, but it’s difficult to argue with results. Two days after beating up on the Flyers pretty bad, the Leafs went to California, possibly with an achin’ in their heart, and mounted an acceptably solid, hard-working comeback to win 3-1.

Obviously the Leafs have worked hard all year — they’ve been among the hardest workers I’ve seen so far this season — but they’ve had little to show for it, and, given the talent up and down that roster, they’ve probably gotten what they deserve from a personnel standpoint.

But it was interesting to me that during LeafsTV’s extensive interview with Brian Burke, he brought up an interesting concept while discussing his being in charge of Team USA’s 2010 Olympic roster. Herb Brooks, who of course was in charge of the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” team and all that, was a master motivator and got everything he could out of a group of college players. You know the story. But what Burke said was that Brooks didn’t have the best players. Far from it. But he had the best team, and Burke, by implication, seems committed to letting his current team take a whack at succeeding without any big player movements or shakeups. That’s certainly admirable.

But if Burke’s looking to fire up another miracle and somehow get this clattering hodgepodge of mediocre players anywhere near a playoff spot, his team is going to have to work just as hard as it did tonight to even have a chance. Maybe even harder.

Not giving up goals like the one Alex Frolov scored to open the scoring 57 seconds into the game is a good place to start. (Pro tip: You can’t let a guy like Frolov get behind your defense.) The Leafs are very lucky indeed that the Kings are still as young as they are and that Anze Kopitar hasn’t looked himself of late, because if you give up a goal that early to most NHL teams, especially those in the Western Conference, there’s a damn good chance that you never come back from it. The Leafs, to their credit, did immediately settle down and didn’t give up another goal for the rest of the night, though they did allow another couple breakaways that, had it not been for Vesa Toskala standing on his head, might’ve cost them.

On the other end, Jason LaBarbera, of all people, was also playing remarkably well. He stopped a couple Leafs rushes in the first period (one on Mikhail Grabovski and one on Matt Stajan and Nik Antropov) and kept the Kings up for two full periods, but the Leafs were working too hard and doing a surprising amount of little things right. Except, of course, for when Wayne Simmonds helped put both Tomas Kaberle and Pavel Kubina in the box at the same time for unsportsmanlike conduct (a penalty shared by Simmonds) and hooking, respectively. Ron Wilson had to have been a little perturbed that his top defensive pairing was sitting in the box because of something a fourth-line agitator did, especially when it results in a 4-on-3 power play for LA near the end of the second period. But the Leafs killed it, and used that to shift the momentum headed into the third.

It was Stajan that finally broke through the Los Angeles defense 10 seconds into a 5-on-3 that was the result of tripping calls to Sean O’Donnell and Dustin Brown. The goal came with three seconds remaining in O’Donnell’s infraction, and Brown could only watch from the box as Grabovski converted on the remainder of that power play. That was pretty much it. Jeff Finger, who had a shockingly great night, added an empty netter.

But this was the blue print for how the Leafs have to win hockey games, minus the whole giving-up-a-goal-less-than-a-minute-in thing. Work their asses off for 60 minutes and grind one out. Had this been an LA team that was playing a little better at the moment, or had Toskala not been outstanding in making 32 saves, it might’ve been a different result. But the Leafs, and Burke, have to be happy with four points from two games regardless of opponent or circumstance. Work hard and keep the game simple. Herbie would’ve liked that.

Elsewhere…

Nashville 2, Buffalo 0

Pekka Rinne made 30 saves to earn his first career shutout and JP Dumont had a goal and an assist. Of course this game had all the excitement and attractive play you’d expect from two worn-down, beat-up teams. The Sabres were playing their fourth game in six nights (yikes) and the Preds playing their third in four (also yikes), so when Jason Arnott finally broke the tie with a greasy goal, you knew that was probably gonna wrap it up. It did.

Columbus 3, Vancouver 2

Steve Mason got the win after stopping 30 shots, 18 in the final period, but he should be used to it by now. The Blue Jackets staged a late comeback, capped by a game-winner from Kristian Huselius on a pass created by the indescribably hard work Rick Nash did coming out of the corner. Poor Cory Schneider got hung out to dry on that one. But goddamn, Mason was unbelievable. Just unbelievable.

Detroit 2, Anaheim 1

Just a few hours after Mike Babcock said his team wasn’t working hard enough, it worked awful hard to win this one. After allowing another early goal, to Chris Kunitz, the Red Wings clamped down and got goals from Johan Franzen and Marian Hossa to win it. It didn’t hurt, though, that JS Giguere, who had made 37 saves on 38 shots through two periods, had to be removed from the game due to dehydration. Jonas Hiller took the loss. Chris Osgood, meanwhile, only had to face 16 shots, which is about as easy a night as any NHL goalie can ask for, eh?

Colorado 6, Minnesota 5

Paul Stastny had two goals tonight because he’s really, really good. I don’t know where the rest of the goals from these two offensively-challenged teams came from, but what the hell? It seemed like an exciting Wild/Avalanche game. What more could you want? Just don’t pay attention to the goaltending. The teams scored 11 goals on just 48 shots, and Peter Budaj gave up five on 17 to get the win.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 at 4:22 am and is filed under Good night. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.