Eat Sleep Leafs

Surely, but strangely the Leafs have picked up points in four straight games after a 4-3 win Wednesday night in Tampa.

Strangely, because the four games have hardly been seamless.

First was Carolina, when the Leafs saw one big lead (3-0) and one late lead (2 seconds left) slip away in a 6-5 shootout loss.

The following Saturday they arguably played their most complete game of the season in a 2-1 shootout defeat of the Washington Capitals.

Follow that up with a 61-shot effort and overtime loss to the Islanders, a game in which they outshot the Isles by forty, and you have a strange collection of points after Wednesday’s tilt.

Twice on Wednesday they squelched leads only to regain them each time.

First a 2-0 lead evaporated in the first after goals from Nikolai Kulemin and Niklas Hagman were matched by Lightning markers from Andrej Meszaros and Vincent Lecavalier. Then a 3-2 lead disintegrated in the second when Ryan Malone tied the game. But the Leafs managed to hang in and Matt Stajan’s sixth of the year on a breakaway late in the second built the lead back to one, a lead they were able to hold onto for good.

“Third period, it was just a matter of keep playing the same way and we did,” said Ron Wilson. “Four games in a row without a regulation loss, we’re picking up points, and we’ll gradually hopefully claw our way back in.”

Jonas Gustavsson was tested just six times in the third, with Carl Gunnarson and Francois Beauchemin proving an effective tandem, combating the Steve Stamkos line whenever they saw the ice.

“[Francois] and Carl, their job was to try as best they could to shut down when they had the opportunities, the Stamkos line and I thought they did a great job,” Wilson said.

Six games into his NHL career, Gunnarson isn’t exactly playing like a rookie, and his steadiness is making him a favourite of the coach.

“Well he’s just plain and simple a very good defenseman,” Wilson said. “I’ve been saying it all along. He was arguably our best defenseman at training camp, but we didn’t have room and with a few injuries, he’s taken advantage so I see him staying here for a long time.”

A 7th round pick in the 2007 Entry draft, Gunnarson added three assists in Wednesday’s win, and in six games, he’s been on the ice for just two even-strength goals against despite playing over twenty minutes in five of those games.

“He plays solid defensively, doesn’t make too many mistakes and he’s as good offensively as he is defensively,” said Beauchemin, who played a game-high 28:36.

Inconsistency has plagued the Leafs all year long. After registering points in seven straight games earlier this season, the Leafs went on to lose four straight, before hitting this recent four-game point streak. For a team that began the year as awfully as they did, skids like the one in mid-November can’t continue if this team has even a faint hope of making the playoffs.

 

So are the Leafs turning a corner?

 

Friday in Sunrise will prove a good test. The Panthers are suddenly red-hot (5-0-3 in their last eight) and the Leafs have little margin for error.

 

-J.Siegel
Follow me on Twitter: jonas640