The Leafs came out of the gates quickly, but that didn't last long. They were dumping the puck in, getting to the puck in the corners, and generating some chances. Bates Battaglia scored his second goal of the season after some nice hustle and fore-checking by Wade Belak (didn't envision myself ever saying that). I noticed that they were dumping the puck in lightly, not hard enough for the goalie to play it behind the net. This worked well at least 3 times in the first 5 minutes, after that, their whole game fell apart. I can't remember them dumping the puck in this way at all last year. they would fire it in as hard as they could, the goalie would stop it, then start the break. It's just another sign of how Paul Maurice's philosophy differs from former head coach Pat Quinn.

So for the remaining 55 minutes, the Leafs didn't generate much. They did not show much energy or desire. No player stood out in my mind as having a really good game. Hal (the 6 foot 7 pylon) Gill, showed once again that he's still having trouble with the new NHL. He was caught flat footed again, watched his man skate by him, actually recovered in time, but forgot to look for the puck or tie up his man's stick. We'll save the Bryan McCabe rant for another day, but I will say that he really needs to start playing better to earn some of that giant contract he was given.