Leafs beat Brodeur 6-5

Steve says:

Considering that this is the 2nd game in as many nights, I'd say this game was won due to the coaching of Wilson. He recognized that not all of our guys had legs for the whole night and he played the 4th line more than usual to make up for it and let his 1st line rest a bit more...the result was some great hard fore checking that led to a lot of scoring chances.I wasn't surprised that we looked a bit slow at times, but for the most part, Brodeur kept the Devils in this game. There were at least 5 times that Marty pulled out some magic tonight including one save where he snagged it with his blocker hand as the puck headed towards the goal line.Stajan and Moore had incredibly good games, and again, Schenn played a solid D game. The penalty at the end was bad luck. The reason we looked slow in the OT was because we were on the PK, and it took them a bit of time to get out of that mode.Great game...thanks for the win on my B-day boys!

Stamkos' first NHL point

Steve says:

There's some trivia for you...against what team did future NHL star Steven Stamkos get his first point.....wait for it...oh yes...it's the Leafs.

It was a good game spotted with a bit of sloppy D which I am not used to seeing from our guys anymore....also some blind passes in the Offensive zone that didn't pan out they way we'd all hoped it would...

but really it was a good effort by the Tampa netminder, Smith, and a couple of highlight goals by Lecavilier that won the game.

The Lightning were due for a win...and our guys just could not finish on all the chances we generated, and there were many chances.

The next game should be interesting against the Devils...we're up against a goalie who is on the hunt to break Patrick Roy's win record....

hopefully he doesn't get one game closer tonight.

ps. the pic is of Lecavilier scoring with Stamkos behind him just after the pass...

 

Standings

:)

Chris says:

For once I agree with my colleague. The Sens\Leaf game was beautiful.

The Battle of Ontario - Round 1

Goes to Toronto!

3-2!

a picture is worth a thousand words...

Win #2 ! 4-2 vs. Boston

Steve says:

That was a really good game for our guys...there were some big hits, and we stood up for ourselves. We won puck battles in the corners and best of all, we didn't give up after being down 2-0.

No Blake in the lineup didn't stop us from having a lot of shots on net, but this time some of them went in...

Toskala got his 100th win which is cool.

Van Ryn got his first goal as a Leaf.

Hagman played another solid game.

Schenn was pretty solid for the most part. He took a couple of penalties standing up for teammates which I am totally OK with and he was cool and collected on the PK. Great future for this kid...and it looks like he'll stay up with the big club for the duration.

A Good Effort

Steve says:

well finally we have a Leaf team that doesn't throw down their sticks in the 3rd period. in fact, quite the opposite. The Leafs held the Ducks off the shots list for the entire 3rd period ...and most of the 2nd as well...that's pretty cool.

they still lost, which sucks, but at least we fought back which is something this team has been missing for a long time, namely, the desire and beleaf that they can come back from anything.

Not sure I would have switched out Toskala for Cujo, but at least they are trying new things...#'s wise it's a smart play...but Cujo looked pretty cold out there...hopefully Toskala picks up his shootout skills...it looks like there will be a lot of ties this year.

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.