I'm probably alone here, but I don think the Leafs played that badly. They were flat in the first period for sure, but that penalty kill drained them and gave Montreal a huge momentum boost.
Montreal got a lot of shots, but I only counted 1 that was a really dangerous scoring chance. They missed the net on pretty much every other chance they had. They scored three goals on broken plays, it took them 4:54 to score on a 5 minute powerplay, and they only managed to get that one on a poor play by Scrivens. They scored a bad goal on Scrivens and an empty netter. I'm not convinced. Yes they got the two points and that's all that matters, but this was hardly a statement game by either team.
I've said this before an i'll keep saying it until it changes, but the Leafs do not handle aggressive fore checking well at all. They don't have enough skill on the back end to make their quick transition game work. That forces the D back an the only outlet they have is to guys who are standing still. When they are given time and space to execute, they do it very well, but when teams come at them and don't stop skating, they crumble.
