Ducks at Islanders

The Islanders come into tonight's game losers of 20 of 21. Rick Dipietro will be in goal tonight. Rick has made an inspired comeback, his numbers are not. Rick ranks last and 2nd to last in the NHL in Goals Against and Save Percentage. The Islanders are having trouble scoring as well and are not playing inspired hockey.

As for the Ducks, they have won 3 straight and have tied Dallas for the Pacific Division lead with 38 points. They are also 7-2-1 in their last 10 and will travel to Long Island after beating the Caps in overtime last night.

Take the Ducks to continue their winning ways and the Islanders to keep up their losing ways.

Pick: Ducks -125

between the #'s

Steve says:

Hollweg runs a kid from behind. The kid sees the hit coming and turns his back (rookie mistake). Hollweg gets a match penalty, and a 3 game suspension and all of Leafs Nation starts to turn him into the new whipping boy.

Malkin, one of the NHL's poster boys, runs Semin in the back. Malkin gets a 2 minute boarding penalty.

Kostitsyn, on the glorious 100 year old Habs team, runs Wideman into next week...he starts his charge at the blue line and ends it somewhere around row 5 in the stands...verdict? 2 minute boarding.

Now you may make the argument that Hollweg has a history and I will give you that. This guy has got to stop hitting like that. He must adapt his game if he hopes to continue on.

But, the whole point of the stiff sentences is to not only get Hollweg to change his ways, but also to send a message to all players that the league will not tolerate hits from behind.

I cant see how the message will ever get across if the only player being actually punished for doing this is Hollweg.

small revenge and full health...almost

Steve says:

Even though it doesn't help the Leaf cause any, it was nice to see the Sens get their asses handed to them by the last placed team in the North East Division, The Washington Capitals.
Ovechkin was just awesome and the Sens played like the lazy spoiled team that I like to believe they are. Finally a team was able to recognize the main Sens play of the trailing winger...someone finally caught on. I have been preaching defense against that play for a year now and finally some coach said to his wingers, "watch for that trailing winger on the Sens" and lo and behold it worked...

Tonight we have everyone back except Carlo...Paul Maurice seems to think that reuniting his PP (formerly listed in the top 5 last year before injuries) will help his team. What he doesn't seem to fully accept is that it is his defence that is letting him down...he says they are practising for full team defence...

hopefully we see that tonight...

Go Leafs!

Chris Neil is a goof..and Alfie is a clown

Game 13

Washington at Toronto
Final Score: Washington wins 7 - 1

Ovechkin goes for a skate in Toronto
Steve says:

Holy hell! what is with this team and falling to shite at home?

I cant believe that Washington chased Toskala from the net!

That defense was painful to watch...again we followed the puck like it was a magnet and left the high slot open...

Our guys forgot who they should be covering...often that guy left open was Ovechkin! Who the hell leaves Ovechkin open?

Get it together boys..we know you can't win all of the games...but you should have won last nights game...
damn!
ps. I am 1 week away from the Sens/Leafs game in Ottawa that I have tickets for!

Chris says:

Seriously. Stop it.

Just stop it. Do the Leafs have a multiple personality this year or what? Or maybe the faint praise from Leaf Nation after two wins in a row combined to give them a false sense of security.

What a crap game.

On one hand I'm glad, because I have Ovechkin in my hockey pool and I pulled down a couple good points last night.

But mostly I'm disgusted. The Leafs are going to lose games like any other hockey team. But what the hell is the story with all these blowouts? Did they learn nothing from the lessons of the last two games? Was it some sort of elaborate tease?

Come one guys, get it together. You've got some of the most generous fans in the world and they'll forgive a lot. But one thing they won't let you get away with is playing hockey without a decent grasp of it's basical fundamentals.

Do better.