watching some more

Steve says:

I am still keeping an eye ion the progress of the other teams even though we have yet to reach the halfway mark. Some people may think that this is nuts to watching the numbers so early. But to you people (you know who you are) I say that this is when the Leafs really lost last season. Yes we had a great run at the end to almost make it, but it was these games last year that caused us to have to play so hard at the end. SO I look at these games as being just as important as the last few...

so, last nights good news is that the Devils and Coyotes won their games. That keeps us right in the race with the other teams around us losing some game in hand.

Tonight there is only 1 game of any consequence to us, and it is minor actually...and that is to have Detroit beat Washington.
that will keep the caps down at the bottom which could help us in a few ways...not only in standings, but eventually the Caps ownership has got to make some deals to get things going for them. Hopefully when they do get to that point, the Leafs will have a GM in place that could work a deal to land us Ovechkin or Semin. I think we have a few more years left in Sundins tank and getting a guy like Ovechkin (a long shot I know) could be really sweet. Ovechkin has stated before that he would like to be a Leaf at some point. Hopefully he gets the chance.

ps. McCabe may need surgery to fix his wrist. Normally when something like this happens, the fans get all mad at whoever did it to our player....but I watched the replay a few times and it was a clean hit..McCabe just went into the boards weird...

Game 33 - Habs roll over Leafs...again

Steve says:

Wow...we looked awful out there...so many defensive breakdowns...on the Koivu goal, both our defencemen were standing still in the high slot! He just walked out from the corner and deked Toskala for an easy goal.

It was painful to watch after they have been playing so well.

Speaking of painful,...McCabe went down hard in the third with a broken hand (broken in 3 places!) so he'll be gone for about 6-8 weeks. That could be the difference on our defence and could be the difference in our season ....of course, this is McCabe...so maybe somehow this will actually turn out as a benefit for us...

From last night, 5 of the teams we needed to win did,(Yotes, Canes, Penguins, Wings, and Sens) but the most important of all those wins did not happen. That puts us back in 9th again. Points wise we are tioed with the Penguins, but they have a game in hand. We are 1 point out of 6th place...

So tonight we need a few things to happen:
Devils over the Flyers
Yotes over the Rangers
Blackhawks over the Panthers

That will keep everybody close and help us out with those games in hand...

and hopefully the boys can regroup around that loss in Montreal....

Game 32 - Leafs beat Thrashers

Steve says:

It all happened so fast......4-0 Leafs win...
was a great game...they did not look tired from the rest of a few days off...

a quick look at tonight

Steve says:

I'm on my way to coach my sons game...so here is a quick look at who we need to win to night to best fit the Leafs needs...

Leafs (obviously)
Yotes
Jackets
Canes
Penguins
Black Hawks
Wings
Sens (eewww...2 games in a row we need them to win...at least they are helping us with the dirty work...)

If this all happens...we could end up in 6th place after tonight...

Go Leafs!

from last night...to tonight

Steve says:

Some good things happened for the Leafs:
Sens beat the Penguins
Devils beat the Bruins
Flames beat Tampa

but, with the good comes the bad

habs beat flyers
isles beat yotes

So after all the dust has settled, Toronto gets bumped down to 10th place.
The good way to spin this is that we are now in a 3 way tie for points with Pittsburgh and NYIslanders. Pittsburgh has played the same number of games as us, and the Islanders only have 1 game in hand.
The Habs, Rangers, Bruins, and Devils have all also played the same number of games...so we can really see where we sit right now...which is out of a playoff spot.

That means that our future is really in our own hands now. Hopefully we fans will not be left on the edge of our seats hoping for some other team to win in order to decide our playoff fate this year.

Of the games happening tonight, here is who I hope wins...

Caps over Sabres
Flames over Canes
Leafs over Thrashers (duh)

Go Leafs Go!

watching the race

Steve says:

I am keeping a close eye on the other teams in our division while we are waiting to play. They are all finally (or have already) catching up to us in terms of games played. Now after tonight we shall see where we sit in terms of points.
Here are tonight's games and my hopes for the winner in bold. In brackets are the # of games played and their points AFTER tonight's games if they go according to my hopes. All of my "predictions" are based on a regulation win...I'll let you waste your time calculating all the possibilities of the OT win extra points...

Ottawa (30/43) vs Pittsburgh (31/32)
Devils (31/32) vs Bruins (31/32)
Flyers (29/36) vs Habs (31/33)
Tampa (32/31) vs Flames (no affect on our conference)
Islanders (30/30) vs Coyotes (no affect on our conference)

I know it is weird to cheering for other teams to win (esp the Sens...eeeeyuch!...actually I cant say that I don't want the Pens to beat the snot out of the Sens...even if it means our job is harder down the road) but what this does is puts the Leafs in a position to be able to jump over the Pens, Bruins, and Habs as well as increase our lead over Tampa and NYI.

#'s

Steve says:
To maintain our #9 position in the Eastern conference while we are waiting to play, we need a few things to happen tonight.

We need Buffalo to beat the Islanders (preferabbly in regulation) ...that will hold off New York until we can play on Friday and hopefully extend our lead above them.

The other game that is happening tonight poses a bigger problem for us. Atlanta vs. Boston.

If Atlanta wins, they will have 31 points and a game in hand still which makes it very close for us.

BUT if Boston wins, it holds Atlanta a few points behind us, but extends Boston's lead above us.

Both outcomes present good and bad points...

such is the parity in the NHL..