Leafs 4 - Wild 1: Gustavsson Shutout

First off, a tip of the hat to the good folks over at Hockey Wilderness for having us over for a good natured, ribbing filled field trip. Sorry about the whole getting trounced thing. We totally didn't see this coming.

Second, a wag of the finger to the Columbus Blue Jackets who signed Brett Lebda somewhere around the second period. Not a smart move because they'll end up failing for Nail and then probably lose the draft lottery.

Third, a tip of the hat for the Toronto Maple Leafs for ending a three game skid and beating a team they would otherwise have no business losing to.

Jonas Gustavsson pulled off his signature move, stopping every shot he faced, save for one laugher. Joffrey Lupul had an assistrick which catapulted him into the team scoring lead with 51 points, 1 more than Phil Kessel and only 3 back of league leader Evgeni Malkin. Not too shabby for a salary dump.

More after the jump.

Leading off the scoring was Nazem Kadri whose nifty mittens were front and center with a crazy backhand bouncer only 50 seconds into the game. Joey Crabb followed that up by sliding the puck underneath the goal as Jared Spurgeon tried a little chicanery by knocking it off its moorings with his face. Phil Kessel add a PP tally after a crazy goal mouth scrum and Mikael Grabovski avoided the ire of the NHL Overlords by not making a distinct kicking motion with his foot.

Somewhat a rarity, the Leafs outshot the Wild 33-21 and carried play throughout the game. They yet again avoided multiple trips to the box and remain perfect on the PK in 2012. Not too shabby.

All in all a great game in which Keith Aulie didn't play.