THE ZEBRAS ON ICE (POST GAME OPINIONS)

The struggles just don't want to leave Toronto, even when things were starting to look up. The Leafs lose 5-3 to the Lighting in a gong show of a match (a ton of goals scored). This was once again a big game for the Leafs as two huge points were on the line. And, once again, they let them slip away and take another hit at their playoff chances.

This is still not the time to panic, although most Leaf fans would think otherwise. Look, would you rather see the Leafs struggle in the playoffs or right now? Besides, they are showing signs of improvement as Kessel finally broke through and Bozak got two assists. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to get the Leafs on top, as a series of questionable calls put the Leafs on the penalty kill many times. Even when Paul Ranger got hurt and the Leafs were given a huge opportunity (a five minute power play), they still could not score. This was a tough one to watch, and the fans at the ACC let the Leafs know it.

So, here are the three reasons why the Leafs could not win, again, :

1) The referees

You knew this was coming at some point in my blog. But I have to say this: The refs do not like the Leafs. What makes no sense is that Johnson was able to get away with murder my interfering someone and ended up scoring. AND THE REFS DID NOTHING! There is nothing that can describe how poor the decisions made by the referee were, and it ruined what would have been a good hockey game.

2) Stamkos and his stick

Here's an interesting question, who is the one player that you cannot give space to on the Bolts? If you guessed Stamkos, its a perfect snipe top cheese. It just seems that the number of players that just LOVE to play against the Leafs tends to be long, including Matt Moulsom, Patrice Bergeron, Jason Pomminville, Stamkos, and more. If the Leafs played tighter defense and prevented some lucky bounces for the Bolts, the Leafs could probably have won this game.

3)  Unlucky bounces

For the second time in as many games, the Leafs gave up a bunch of stoppable goals. In this game, the very first shot from Tampa just whistled by Reimer, who was unprepared. All in the first minute of the game (sound familiar)!The refs also made some very low quality calls, like I said before, that gave all of the momentum to the Bolts. Ultimately, another unlucky night for the Blue and White.

As I predicted in the pre game article:

 "This looks to be a scoring fest, but the winner will have a one goal advantage."

It was a scoring fest all right, but Tampa Bay had a two goal advantage. The score board is now even: Right-2 Wrong-2.

Well, hopefully that somehow over these next three days, the Leafs regroup, refocuses, and get Bernier back from injury. It will be just in time for yet another big game on Saturday against the Habs. See you then!