It occurred to me the Leafs had 7 players in the WCH who each played about half a dozen "high intensity" games (including exhibition and tournament games). Some of the players were already in game shape and had shaken most of the rust off by then. (vs 1 for us).
Matthews second goal was a beauty. He deserves all the attention he's getting. What else have Leaf fans (I'm including TSN and Sporstnet) had to get excited about in the past decade? Let them have their moment, the Battle of Ontario will be better for it.
PP was much better and PK was perfect. The 2 things that led to this team missing the playoffs last year and 2 of the more direct (easier) things to coach as there is a single focus in each situation. Establishing a 5v5 system takes more times as you have to teach the players what to do in each situation and practice those situations. You also need to get some games in to execute this system, make errors and learn from them. It's the only way a team can improve. As long as the players are told what mistakes were made and how they can correct them then they'll be fine.
I'd even wager that Boucher has a progressive strategy for implementing his system. Step 1 was likely work on special teams (apparently special teams have been starting practice earlier). The following steps are likely establishing positioning in various situations and assigning roles to players. Eventually when you have all the parts (PP, PK, positioning, breakout, zone entries...) you get a cohesive system and it's usually followed by success.
As for attendance, I know I will no longer attend Leafs games at CTC after 2-3 bad experiences at those games. Habs games are fine as it's normally some good natured ribbing and trash talking but when it's against the Leafs, the poor experience/ambiance is just not worth the price and time investment to go from East Gatineau all the way to Kanata and back.
