from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,
When asked what was wrong with the Leafs play on the penalty kill, Frederik Anderson said: “I don’t know. I haven’t looked at that.”
Normally, there is a connection between crummy penalty killing and crummy goaltending – but Andersen has had an excellent series against the Bruins. Been the Leafs best player. Structurally, though, down a man the Leafs don’t appear to have any reasonable answer through the first four games – more importantly Wednesday night with the Leafs having a 2-1 lead in the series and the grand opportunity to go up two games.
An opportunity now blown as the series heads back to Boston for Game 5.
In Game 4, Boston scored a first-period power-play goal and a second-period power-play goal and really that had the Leafs playing catchup all night long. Two power-play goals. They only had two power plays.
After four games, Boston now has five power-play goals, at least one in every game. Toronto has killed penalties at a fire-the-coach rate of 54.5%. You need 80% or more to get into law school, get into medical school, get to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
At below 60%, you’re getting ready to pack your bags and head home. That’s frankly inexcusable.
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