Jayzhockey

This evening's 3-2 loss was another tough one to swallow for a Maple Leafs team that largely outfought the Tampa Bay Lightning throughout the course of the game. There appeared to be only one real area where the Maple Leafs fell short in this one... star power. The Tampa Bay Lightning's Vincent Lecavalier pulled off a few moments of magic which proved decisive. Backstopped by a stingy Mike Smith, the Lightning were sturdy defensively, but on top of their 39 shots on target, the Leafs missed the 6x4 on an inexcusable 19 occasions (believe it or not, only 2 misses were off the stick of Jason Blake).

Unfortunately, sky-high missed shot totals aren't a new theme around these parts. For the last several years, the Maple Leafs have always lacked offensive prowess on paper. An offense-by-committee approach seemed effective, and it was the Leafs' play on the defensive side of the puck that was their primary shortcoming. But a lot of what was perceived as a team-wide effort was largely the discreet doing of Mats Sundin. Even when Sundin wasn't scoring goals of his own, he was providing opportunity to not only his line-mates but the forward corps as a whole. The opponents' defensive focus centered almost entirely around the Big Swede, leaving the supporting cast with more of a lease on life.
Brownscombe