Five Takeaways - Leafs vs. Senators - 01/10/18

1. Leafs put puck on Senators' net often, but veteran Anderson turns all aside through first half of contest.In the final game before their NHL-mandated bye week, Toronto was aggressive out of the gate and fired 16 shots at Sens goaltender Craig Anderson in the first 20 minutes of play. Unfortunately for Leafs Nation, Anderson was sharp and got a little bit of puck luck on his side as he stopped all of Toronto's shots in the opening frame - and the first nine he saw in the second period - and held the Buds off the scoresheet for more than half the game.

Anderson hasn't enjoyed his best season - the same can be said for many of his Senators teammates - but he was resilient and had help from Ottawa's defenders, who did well in collapsing around him and limiting the Buds' rebound opportunities. And his play between the pipes set the stage for the Sens to mount an offense-minded attack of their own.

2. Opportunistic Sens take lead midway through first, add to it early in second. The Senators have struggled mightily on the road this season - they've posted a 5-10-4 mark away from home, and have only one win in their past 14 road games - but they've also won two of their past three games and scored 12 goals in those two victories. The veteran squad doesn't lack for offensive threats, but Ottawa got on the scoresheet first Wednesday when blueliner Thomas Chabot netted his third of the year at 11:26 and gave his team a lead they'd carry into the second period.
Despite being outshot 16-12 for the second consecutive period, the Sens added to their lead 1:52 into the second. This time, it was winger Mike Hoffman who did the damage, beating Leafs goalie Frederik Andersen for his 11th of the season and a two-goal Ottawa advantage. The Buds were doing a lot of things right up until this point, but the Senators are a veteran group with the ability to pounce on small mistakes and turn them into goals, and on this night, that's what they did for the first 40 minutes of action.

3. Borgman blueline blast slices Sens' lead in half, puts Toronto within a goal of tying it entering third.The Leafs have had issues with their offence in the previous four games of their current six-game homestand, generating just six goals in regulation time in that span and being shut out in the first game after coming off the road. Some of that could be attributed to the aforementioned puck luck that simply wasn't going their way, but there were stretches Toronto has been held to the outside of the ice and thus unable to create chaos in front of goalies.
That wasn't the case at the end of the second period Wednesday, as the Leafs created some traffic in front of Anderson, and D-man Andreas Borgman's shot from the point deflected off of Senators forward Matt Duchene, through the maze of bodies, and into Ottawa's net at the 18:10 mark to cut the visitors' lead to 2-1. Demonstrating Anderson could be beaten was important for the Buds as they entered the third, and Borgman's marker - his third of the year - was a nice confidence-boost for the rookie and his fellow Leafs.

4. Buds tie it on van Riemsdyk goal at start of third, but Sens retake lead less than 90 seconds later.Winger James van Riemsdyk was one of the more dangerous Leafs in the first two periods, racking up eight shots on net before the third began. And on his ninth shot, which came with him all alone in front of Anderson, he stickhandled the puck between his legs, fanned on his initial scoring attempt, then made no mistake as he tapped it into an open Senators net to even the score at the 54-second mark of the third.
However, 1:21 later, the Sens struck back when Toronto couldn't draw an icing call on Ottawa, and centre Gabriel Dumont scored his first goal as a Senator (after being acquired from Tampa Bay in November) to put his side back in front 3-2. Dumont's marker took some of the noise out of the building, but it didn't stop the Leafs from continuing to pressure their opponent for the rest of regulation.

5. Rielly marker pulls Leafs even, but late defensive lapse leads to game-winner for Ottawa.Blueliner Morgan Rielly has steadily been amassing points in what is almost assuredly going to be his most productive offensive season in the NHL to date - including posting at least one point in six of his past eight games, and eight points overall in that span. You can see his confidence with the puck increasing just about every night, with his willingness to join the rush and carry the puck deep into the offensive zone at an all-time high. And his production continued Wednesday, at just the right time: the 23-year-old scored his fifth of the year at 12:28 of the third, and once again, Toronto was tied with Ottawa.

Unfortunately, a late-third-period pinch by Rielly resulted in a 3-on-1 Senators rush, and winger Tom Pyatt beat Andersen with 3:05 left in the third to give the Sens a 4-3 lead. Toronto head coach Mike Babcock pulled Andersen for the extra skater with 2:28 left, but Ottawa prevented the Leafs from tying it yet again and the Buds dropped their second straight game.

All-in-all, the Leafs outshot the Senators 47-32, but the combination of Anderson's play, bad puck luck and a handful of defensive breakdowns was too much for Toronto to overcome. They'll have five days to forget about this one before they return to action and take on St. Louis on Jan. 16, but they'll definitely need a better overall defensive effort to beat the Blues.