Brophy on Leafs: Thrilling play, trying PK

Say what you want about the Toronto Maple Leafs, they are exciting even in defeat.

As has been their trademark the past few years, the Leafs were woeful killing penalties – which ultimately led to their downfall – but, to their credit, they made it close and exciting in the end in a wide-open 5-4 Buffalo Sabres home victory over Toronto.

Nevertheless, the Leafs have to figure out a way to either stop taking penalties (Yuk! Yuk! Yuk!) or somehow learn how to kill them off. It seems rather improbable that Toronto will take no more penalties the rest of the year, so killing them off seems like their best option.

The Leafs, who are the NHL’s worst penalty-killing team, gave up three power play goals on six shorthanded attempts Friday in Buffalo. As hard as they work on the penalty kill on a daily basis, they just aren’t getting any better.

The Leafs suggest every now and then they see improvements in their penalty-kill, almost as if they are trying to convince themselves that is the case. But over the last month, even when it looked like they might be starting to get it, they remained among the worst teams in the league percentage-wise when shorthanded.

Over the past four games, bad has turned to worse. Three of Buffalo’s five goals were scored with the man advantage, marking the 10th game this season Toronto has allowed multiple power play goals against. Entering the contest the Maple Leafs had given up seven power play goals on their last 13 attempted kills. Three more on six attempts leaves them with 10 failures in 19.

As someone who watches this team practice regularly, I can attest to the amount of time the Maple Leafs put into improving their penalty killing. It has become an obsession. However, as coach Ron Wilson likes to point out, you can’t have players blocking shots during workouts for fear of injury; and blocking shots is an integral part of the kill.

So is the goalie’s contribution. On this particular night James Reimer was unable to bail his team out when it was down a man – or two. For the Leafs it was the same old story; too many bad penalties, too many poor clearing attempts and a lack of saves. That is not exactly a formula that leads to too many victories.

The funny thing about the Leafs is, no matter how abominable their penalty-killing is, they usually somehow manage to find a way to stay in the game right to the end. Even though they blew leads of 1-0 and 2-1; falling behind 4-2 at one point, the Leafs were never really out of it.

The good news for the Leafs was the fact top scorers Phil Kessel and Joffrey Lupul hooked up for a beautiful goal; the one that gave Toronto a 1-0 lead early in the second period. Kessel, normally the triggerman, carried the puck into the Buffalo zone on a 2-on-1 and had what seemed to be a no-brainer shooting opportunity. Instead of shooting, he slipped a pass to Lupul who hesitated just long enough for Sabres goalie Ryan Miller to allow him the required space to roof a shot. Goal No. 14 on the year was Lupul’s prettiest yet.

As a side note, it was the fifth year anniversary of Kessel being cancer free. The 24-year-old sniper was diagnosed with testicular cancer in his rookie season with the Boston Bruins.

If there was a highlight of the evening for the Leafs, it was frustrated winger Nikolai Kulemin scoring his first goal in 24 games. One of the team’s hardest working players had gone unrewarded for his efforts to the point where it was surprising the Leafs didn’t sit him out a game or two. On this night he was hauled down while cutting to the net on, if you were a Sabres fan, a questionable penalty shot. When he was given the free breakaway, Kulemin hammered the puck into the top corner of the net.

The lowlight of the game for Toronto was the ejection of captain Dion Phaneuf at 17:01 of the second period for nailing Buffalo rookie Zack Kassian into the end boards. Kassian had his back turned at the time of the collision, but it didn’t seem nearly as nasty as many of the hits that have resulted in major penalties or suspensions this season. There was no deliberate attempt to injure.

Obviously the NHL will look at the Phaneuf hit in regard to supplemental discipline, but it would be shocking to think the captain would be punished further. He should be in the lineup when Toronto hosts the Vancouver Canucks Saturday night.