The Sceptres won yesterday and that was fun. They beat the New York Sirens who are on a run, including yesterday, of never being outshot. This means Shots on Goal in the PWHL, alas.

The Sceptres play again Tuesday night, and I'm sorry to say the Leafs game is a weird afternoon start. The Penguins visit at 4 pm.

Sidney Crosby moves to 8th all time in points and passes Mario Lemieux for the most points in Penguins history.

The Leafs are unique in all ways, though, that much we do all know.

About last night...

In the preview, I said that the Leafs needed to be disciplined so they didn't take penalties and that they needed to persevere because the goaltending of the Stars is so good. I was worried this was going to expose some of the cracks in the team's confidence, trust, competitive spirit, etc.

Instead, the players brought that at a level not seen since October. They were actually fun to watch for most of the game. And they did take too many penalties, while the fairly tepid improvement on the power play with the new mixed up units wasn't enough. That turned out to not be much of a problem, however.

The game was 1-0 for Dallas for a very long time. But Dennis Hildeby is not Jake Oettinger's equal, and mistakes in front of him didn't help.

By the final minutes of the third period, it was out of reach. It was a 3-1 game until the ENGs got added on.

What was exposed was the weaknesses we should all know are there in the offensive system. It's not, and never has been, just about not getting into the zone enough. That's just been the bigger issue. The Leafs owned the Shots-on-Goal differential, the Corsi Differential, and I think the xG differential, but the NHL play-by-play system was broken by the end of the third, so that's a guess.

So this is a test case. You can avoid being in the defensive zone non-stop and still have flaws that shooting skill/luck has to overcome. It didn't last night. It sure used to, but this year is not a year where that's enough to make up for some other issues.

I'd question now, more than I used to, if it ever was enough.

However, I liked this team for how they tried to win, how they battled for it. And that's been a long time since I felt that way.

One unpleasant note: John Tavares took a shot off his hand/arm and went to the locker room for a time. He returned to the game and played well, but avoided taking faceoffs. I'm not so sure he's completely okay.

I want this team to figure this out. In mathematical terms the season is not yet out of reach. But it's not just about math. They have to play at least like they did last night most of the time. Maybe all of the time. No one thinks this is easy or even possible without some other teams going in the other direction and a shit load of luck.

So I'm watching this team to see what they're made of, to see how they respond to this much adversity. And yes, I actually watched the Leafs under Peter Horachek, so I know how bad it can get.

Nihilism tastes like bitter olives to me. It's not how I like my martinis.

From The Branches