The Maple Leafs are leaving Raleigh with stolen goods in the form of two points in the NHL standings.

It was a case of history repeating itself for much of the night: a pretty lame Leaf effort, Cam Ward suddenly finding his pre-2012 form again versus the Leafs, so on and so forth.

It was also a painfully boring game for much of it, and went according to script for two mildly talented teams coached by Mike Babcock and Mike Babcock’s disciple Bill Peters.

In terms of process, though, Peters will continue to rue his team’s luck while Babcock will be treating this more like a loss. The Leafs had a particularly ugly run of play in the second – outshot 10-1 in the first 15 minutes of the period – through to the early third.

According to War On Ice, the Leafs were outshot 2:1 at 5v5 (30-15), out shot attempted 54-37, but actually had more scoring chances with 18 to the Canes’ 16 (9 to 6 in high-danger scoring areas). The Hurricanes under Peters are really struggling to turn possession into chances of note.

Without the break of a faceoff infraction penalty, Toronto is probably leaving Carolina empty handed, but credit to the powerplay for continuing to click at an important juncture of the game — although the later 4 on 3 PP in OT was a bit of a trainwreck, the Leafs are rolling on both sides of special teams and getting great goaltending, and it’s making up for a bit of a step back in their 5v5 play.

Funny how things can change in a hurry, but Babcock won’t like that last part one bit.

If there’s three things to like about the game tonight:

The Return of Optimus Reim: Reimer continues to soar, and is now up to a sparkling .933 save percentage along with a 7-2-3 record. Reimer has collected points for the Leafs in 10 of 12 games and has been in net for all but one of the Leafs’ 18 points. Goals from behind the goalline like the one from Carolina’s Brad Malone tonight are almost always the goaltender’s fault, but Reimer more than compensated for it with a 34-save performance accentuated by a big save in overtime and a fantastic showing in the shootout, particularly on a second-effort stop on Nathan Gerbe.

Nazem Kadri bumped the monkey off his back. Finally a chance fell for him in the low slot and he put it in the roof for his first goal in 62 shots on net. You could see earlier in the game on a 2 on 1 opportunity just how much he was questioning himself in offensive situations – hopefully not so much anymore. Him and JvR were easily bested on even strength possession, though (see below).

Leo Komarov was an all-situations beast for the Leafs. Leo had a massive effort on the 5 on 3 late in the first period to twice break up passes with good anticipation and an active stick before sending it down the ice. He then won a battle in the slot to free the puck up for Kadri on the tying goal on the late powerplay. He also mixed in the customary seven hits to go along with his assist. All in a night’s work for Uncle Leo.

Let’s make it four – Dion Phaneuf did everything in his power to get his team going with a couple of punishing hits that dialled up the temperature of the game, if only temporarily.

Okay, five – His point streak ends at five, but Tyler Bozak appears to have some new-dad mojo going as he had some nice shifts tonight where he was first to pucks and distributing well, particularly on a 4 on 4 shift in the third.

There won’t be much time to let this one digest as the Leafs are in Boston for a game that starts 20 hours from now. The Leafs could leapfrog the Bruins in the Atlantic Division standings with two points.

Reimer will start again tomorrow — it might have been something that was already decided given the way the last back to back went with Bernier in net, but the 34-save performance definitely sealed it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BJJYZKvrlo

Shot Location Chart

Even Strength Possession Chart

Leafs vs. Hurricanes — Leafs Player Stats

PLAYER G A P +/- PIM S HITS BKS FO% PP TOI SH TOI TOI M. Hunwick 0 0 0 0 0 3 3 4 - 0:26 2:34 26:33:00 D. Phaneuf 0 0 0 -1 0 3 3 0 - 3:59 1:40 23:52 P. Parenteau 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 - 4:12 0:00 19:37 J. Lupul 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 - 2:01 0:00 16:11 J. van Riemsdyk 0 1 1 -1 0 3 0 0 100% 2:53 0:00 18:58 S. Matthias 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 - 0:00 0:16 15:01 P. Holland 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 62% 3:50 0:00 15:34 D. Winnik 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 - 0:00 0:00 9:47 B. Boyes 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 100% 2:33 0:00 13:12 M. Grabner 0 0 0 0 2 4 5 1 - 0:00 1:05 10:13 T. Bozak 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 41% 3:42 0:38 20:30 N. Kadri 1 0 1 -1 0 3 1 2 32% 2:53 0:00 20:29 M. Rielly 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 - 1:51 0:20 25:49:00 R. Polak 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 1 - 0:00 0:34 17:16 L. Komarov 0 1 1 -1 0 1 7 0 50% 1:44 1:09 16:36 J. Gardiner 0 0 0 -1 0 0 3 0 - 1:31 0:00 18:55 M. Marincin 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 - 0:00 0:00 9:45 B. Froese 0 0 0 0 2 1 2 1 31% 0:00 0:34 11:29

Leafs vs. Hurricanes — Leafs Player Possession Stats

Name Corsi For Corsi Against Corsi Corsi For% Zone Start% MATT HUNWICK 18 31 -13 36.73% 27.78% DION PHANEUF 15 22 -7 40.54% 36.84% PIERRE-ALEXANDRE PARENTEAU 13 15 -2 46.43% 38.46% JOFFREY LUPUL 8 17 -9 32% 12.50% JAMES VAN RIEMSDYK 11 23 -12 32.35% 46.15% SHAWN MATTHIAS 12 15 -3 44.44% 36.36% PETER HOLLAND 11 14 -3 44% 33.33% DANIEL WINNIK 6 10 -4 37.50% 14.29% BRAD BOYES 9 11 -2 45% 40% JAMES REIMER 49 67 -18 42.24% 32.56% MICHAEL GRABNER 12 9 3 57.14% 25% TYLER BOZAK 14 14 0 50% 35.71% NAZEM KADRI 10 25 -15 28.57% 42.86% MORGAN RIELLY 15 29 -14 34.09% 30% ROMAN POLAK 12 15 -3 44.44% 30% LEO KOMAROV 10 16 -6 38.46% 36.36% JAKE GARDINER 18 13 5 58.06% 33.33% MARTIN MARINCIN 8 10 -2 44.44% 100% BYRON FROESE 9 9 0 50% 8.33%

Mike Babcock Post Game