Since I’ve mentioned it over and over recently, let’s start with the forecheck. The Leafs will live and die this year by their forecheck. So if you’re trying to get a cycle going, which defenceman fishing the puck out of the corner is your worst nightmare? I’ll give you a hint: he’s freakin’ huge.
If I’m the first forechecker deep in Boston’s end, the last guy I want to have to fight with for the puck is Zdeno Chara. Now, Chara regularly plays close to or over 30 minutes a game, so you can’t just wait until he’s on the bench. But you’ve got two corners to choose from - choose the one that doesn’t have Chara in it! I don’t care if Chris Pronger, Scott Stevens and god are stacked in the other corner, you put the puck as far away from Chara as you can.
Well, the Leafs didn’t do that. They instead chose to give the puck to Chara over and over, with predictable results. They rarely got a strong forecheck going and as a result were baddly outchanced (if not outshot) tonight. The worst part? The same thing happened last week.
The only positive to take out of the ridiculous decision to test Chara all night long is that we got to see Alexei Ponikarovsky throw himself into the fray time and time again, and while I think we can all agree Chara was the winner, Ponikarovsky did better than most players I’ve seen in that situation. There aren’t many defencemen who can make Poni look small, but Chara does that, and yet he was unable to dominate or intimidate the forecheck. This bodes very well for the Leafs, and almost as well for both Ponikarovsky and also Nikolai Antropov, who was almost as good in the Boston zone. Once again Antropov and Ponikarovsky, both free agents after tonight, were the best Leaf forwards. You can’t say they’re just the best the Leafs can throw out there anymore - they are bona-fide top line wingers. And they’re both still getting better.
Another young forward I am usually very high on is Matthew Stajan, who unfortunately looked much weaker tonight. Stajan was one of the worst Leafs for giveaways and half-hearted efforts tonight, something I’m sure Paul Maurice took note of. Luckily this was just an off night for Stajan. He’ll bounce back.
Other Leafs who had a weak game I’m not quite so easy on. Tops on that list is Bryan McCabe. Now, yes, McCabe took a hard shot on an unprotected ankle, and yes, the Leafs played with effectively 4 1/2 defencemen tonight after Kubina got hurt (I’m a fan of Wade Belak but he’s a 5 minute a game player at best). Neither of these factors excuse McCabe’s sloppy, lazy play tonight, however. For an almost $6 million blueliner, McCabe didn’t skate hard, didn’t shoot hard, didn’t play the body hard, basically didn’t show up. Not acceptable. The game-breaking goal, with 4 minutes left, came because McCabe decided to try some sort of a stick-swipe pock-check piece of crap instead of taking Brad Boyes sitting all alone in the slot. Even Antropov came roaring from the point trying to interfere with Boyes. McCabe showed plenty of emotion after the goal was scored, but if he showed a little sense a little earlier, it didn’t have to happen.
And finally on McCabe, I know there were under 40 seconds left, but get your ass in gear! He took a solid 10 seconds getting the puck back up the ice after Boston cleared the zone. If you score with 40 seconds left, you have a chance, albeit a small one, of getting a second goal and making it to overtime. If you don’t even cross the red line until the clock is down to 15 seconds, the game is already over. Not acceptable.
Finally, a note on playing Belak over Brendan Bell. I know Bell struggled in his last game, I know Maurice had good intentions sitting the youngster down, giving him time to work some confidence back into his game. But tonight was a crystal clear example of why playing Belak as a 5 minute a game defenceman is just not a good idea. While Kubina was getting some work down on his broken chops, the Leafs may as well have been playing with 4 bodies on the blueline. I thought the point of signing Kubina and Hal Gill was to take some of the pressure of Tomas Kaberle and McCabe. How does playing a 5-man rotation and a hard-working, well liked but borderline player as your 6th defenceman lower the top duo’s minutes?