Last night's game was going to happen at some point, we just werent playing great team hockey even though we were winning.
Ottawa is a really underrated team whos plays good structured hockey, is deep and come to play almost every night. Leafs just hadnt played a team that can stiffle you as much as Ottawa and I felt like our compete level wasnt good enough in the first 2 periods. If we continue down the road of super speedy/skilled team (which I have no problems) than games like last night or even the LA will be tough tests. Those teams that play ultra basic but are very strong north south teams and will battle you for the puck all over will always be our kryptinite. Not saying we wont beat them but I will have way more worries going against these teams vs teams who want to play a similar game to us. Our backend and some of our forwards could really get exposed in the type of games like last night.
Good thing is we're super young and green. I think last nights loss will be the perfect wakeup call for the Leafs and give Babcock a great platform to say "You guys arent nearly as good as the hype and you need to start playing better as a team or we will get our lunchs handed to us by some elite teams".
Our vets need to be better. I dont care what the stats say but JVR, Bozak and Komarov just arent bringing a ton at the moment.
This next stretch of hockey is going to be tough. Last night vs OTT, tomorrow vs LA, vs a talented CAR team, PHI playing well and after that a ugly westcoast roadtrip.
We will learn alot about this years group in the next 7-8 games me thinks.