@ St. Louis

The Leafs went to St. Louis and decided that shooting the puck was purely optional. Getting outshot 38 to 13 is a special kind of performance that only this franchise could deliver with a straight face. Joseph Woll spent his time facing a firing squad while his teammates apparently forgot they were in a hockey game. The first period was a sign of things to come with the Blues more than doubling our shot total and Jack Finley taking a double minor for high sticking that our power play predictably did nothing with.

Jimmy Snuggerud opened the scoring in the second period but the real comedy arrived halfway through the frame. Justin Holl of all people decided to score his first goal of the season against his former team. It is the most predictable script in sports. Every time a former Leaf needs to end a drought they just have to look at the blue and white jersey across from them to find their confidence. The shot count climbed to 23 for the Blues by the end of the second while the Leafs stayed stuck with a grand total of eight shots through forty minutes of play.

Jake McCabe actually gave a brief moment of hope by cutting the lead to one early in the third period with assists from Dakota Joshua and Jacob Quillan. That hope lasted about as long as a New Year resolution. Less than two minutes later the Leafs gave up a soul-crushing shorthanded goal to Pius Suter while they were supposed to be tying the game on a power play. Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg added more misery to make it a 5-1 disaster. Matias Maccelli took a late penalty just to ensure the Blues could finish the job on the man advantage. It was a classic display of whatever the opposite of effort is.