Opportunistic Leafs win 4–3 despite strong Sens effort

The Senators were the much better team, but they lost to a pair of hot goalies. Ottawa outshot Toronto 41–22 and outchanced the Leafs by a ratio of 2-to-1, but giving up too many odd-man rushes meant they couldn't quite muster enough to win.

The story of the beginning of the game was the Sens carrying the balance of play and getting several high-danger chances, though they couldn't solve Joseph Woll until there were 25 seconds left in the period, when Josh Norris finally scored on yet another breakaway:

The second period saw the Sens look like the much better team again, but the Leafs got both goals in the frame, both coming on odd-man rushes due to lost coverage and some great saves by Woll.

The third felt like it started with the dagger, with Hamonic losing his stick and then his positioning and Calle Jarnkrök getting the goal on yet another odd-man rush. But the Sens actually pushed back, and Jacob Bernard-Docker scored his first career goal on maybe the most premeditated one-timer I've ever seen:

The Sens were pressing, but then the Leafs scored on what felt like their first sustained pressure of the game. Joseph Woll took an awkward fall and stayed down, sending Martin Jones into his first action as a Leaf. Jones picked up where Woll had left off, stoning ever in-close chance, and it felt like that might do it. But Ottawa kept pressing, and they even managed to score 6-on-5 off the stick of Giroux after a huge amount of scrambling in front.

After that, they drew a penalty with 50 seconds left to set up the chance to tie it up. It was going to be a nail-biter. The Sens got a few more pucks on net, but couldn't solve Martin Jones, who had no business being this good coming in cold to a close game.

Thoughts:

• Vladimir Tarasenko got robbed several times. Dude is feeling it, even if he wasn't scoring this game. His partnership with Tim Stützle has looked really sharp.
• I hate that every recap I pile on Travis Hamonic, but guy is washed. His coverage after losing his stick was so hectic. It's like he had no idea how to play defence, couldn't figure out if he should cover the puck carrier or the pass so he covered nobody. He also couldn't figure himself out on the Nylander goal at the end. #FreeMaxence
• The Sens powerplay couldn’t gain the zone cleanly. Same as against Florida, the Leafs played an aggressive kill and Ottawa seemed like they had no idea to even get into the zone, forget get set up.
• It was nice to see the Sens not give up when down by a couple in the third, and also press hard with the goalie pulled. The last couple times they seemed unable to even exit their own zone in the last 5 minutes of a game, so this was improvement.
• Hard to fault Forsberg when the goals against were a breakaway, a misplayed 2-on-1, a misplayed 3-on-2, and a scrambled that they couldn't get out of the zone. Still, it would be nice if when the opposing goalies stand on their heads, your own goalie makes at least one improbable save.

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