Even though the Leafs did a lot of really good things in tonight's game, they still came out at the wrong end of the scoreboard. Giggy outplayed Luongo except when it mattered the most... on a routine shot from Raymond from the blue line that went right through the five hole.
Moving Kessel up to play with Grabovski and MacArthur looked good. Moving Kessel to the slot on the power play also resulted in the Leafs' first PP goal in what seemed like an eternity. Moving Bozak away from Kessel also looked like a good idea, as he had a lot of chances playing with Kadri and Kulemin.
Kadri's first game was actually a lot better than I expected. He got hit pretty hard a few times, made quite a few neat passes and sure looked NHL ready. Of course, it was obvious on that 3 on 1 where he bobbled the puck that he's feeling the pressure of the call-up. Aulie however was unwaveringly steady for the entire game. His call up looks to be much smarter than the previous selection of Holzer. If only he wasn't saddled with Brett Lebda has his defense partner.
At the end of the night, the Leafs lost to a more talented team. They worked hard, once again didn't get the bounces (although if either Mitchell or Versteeg could've scored on their breakaways this would've been a different game) and lost. But if they keep up this effort level for the next game this losing streak will come to an end. One more lazy, listless game like we saw against Florida though and we'll be back to where we've been for the past three years.
