The Sultan of Swank

BWRAWR Alex Who? Spacek and Hamrlik hold him to 4 shots and no points. Another awesome outing by Price. Furious finish, wow, when Washington made it 3-2 with 3 to play, they turned it onto a whole 'nother level. Feel sorry for Toronto tomorrow. You get angry Ovechkin who had no points and was pretty invisible and a Caps team that got out played most of the game. I'm guessing A8 with a hat trick. Also... I've noticed that when Ron Wilson talks to the media... he genuinely looks like the worst coach in the league. Cracking jokes about Kane in Chicago (and losing), complaining about the phantom high stick (The Leafs managed to give up a 3-0 lead all on their own), he often times belittles his team, which can't feel good. At least at the end of the season the Leafs will pull a Gainey and clean house.

3-0 and 4-2 and then with 30 seconds left... I will repeat myself, I'm pretty sure that Toronto has the worst record in blowing third period leads since the lock out.

It is definitely not a good year to be a fan of an Eastern Canadian hockey team. Sacrement mon estee, fucking Brian Gionta... out indefinitely, broken foot. Fucking Foppa.

Swiss league player Saatanan Saatana and I love Chico Reisch

Plub, certainly no better indeed as both goalies made some dandy's during the game. It's upsetting that Montreal is down to having only a top 3 forwards (not that we had 6 to start), and only 3 defensemen. I think the only team with less legitamate scoring talent is Toronto with their top 1 forward and 2 defensemen. I can't wait for O'Byrne and Gionta to come back... maybe they can help our anemic scoring chances.

He's baaaaaaaaacccccccccckkkkkkk....... 53 saves 2 nights ago. 36 saves tonight. 89 for 93 in his last 2 games. Including 2 unbelievable saves in the shootout as the Hapless Habs pull out the win, missing half their effing line up.

55 shots against?! By Nashville?!?!?! Andrei Markov come back plz.

I thought Burkie was going to be putting players down into the AHL regardless of who they were etc etc... It honestly couldn't hurt. Plus it opens up more cap space.

Carey Price gets a shut out. I know it was 4-2 but he got decapitated by his own defenseman on the first (nice one Mara) and a puck got kicked in on the second haha. I'm calling it a shut out. Lord knows he needs it.

In my NHL 10 GM Campaign, I'm playing as the Habs naturally. My team is a respectable 22-12-4, but what's more impressive is Mike Cammalleri, 38 games into the season and he's at 44 goals. 50 in 50 is a dream we will realize.

Forbes came out with their most valueable teams report. Not surprisingly the money making juggernaught that is Toronto is first for the 4th year in a row at $470M, Montreal was third at $339M, Vancouver #9 at $239M, Calgary #16 at $200M, Ottawa was 17th at $197M and Edmonton rounded out the Canadian teams at #24 at $166 M. Phoenix was not surprisingly the least valueable team at $138M. Toronto has an absurd average ticket price of $97. #2 most valueable team (Rangers, $414M) had an average ticket price of only $55. The only hockey market with the same fanbase (Montreal) had an average ticket price of $67... Fuck it sucks to be a regular Joe Leafs fan. Toe, decent piece of writing. I would however disagree with you on Komisarek, while his hit on Metropolit was for once a nicely timed hit, more often than not, Komisarek goes for a 5 star, HON candidate hit and manages to take himself out of the play, often times leading to a goal. While his play has indeed increased since joining the Leafs, I think that he's still got a lot to prove for his contract. Playing him with Kaberle is really the only option for Komisarek as that the closest player Toronto has to Markov, and it's become evident that Komisarek needs an unbelievable reliable played, offensively gifted, and defensively responsible as Markov to carry the pair. I wonder about White. I don't know much about him, how long has he been a Leaf? To me, captaining an Original 6 team, no matter how much or little success they've had over the years, you can't just throw someone in at captain for being a consistent player. In my head, White is like Gorges. Strong, passionate about his team mates, reliable and under rated. Does he lead by example? Is he the spark on the ice that we sometimes need... I'd say no... I'd say he's just a solid hockey player and there's nothing wrong with that. If Komisarek ever regains his form from his pre-Lucic ass-kicking. He's your future captain... at least he was for us.

Lightning tonight. The prodigal son returns, so it should be a good game. Tampa/Montreal match ups are usually surprisingly close. I was reading today, Carey Price got his 50th win the other night, he did it in 102 games. Brodeur did it in 92, Roy in 111, Luongo and Fleury in 140 and 150. I thought wow, that's an encouraging stat, until I looked a little deeper, Jim Carey also can be in that group, getting his first 50 in less than 120 games... Man.... Stats are so useless sometimes.

Awesome game to watch. Very exciting. Price played fan-dabi-dozi, when it went to OT... never in doubt. 7-0 past 60 min. Sucks we gave up a point to a divisional rival though. I have an issue with the loser point in Overtime and shootout. I don't understand why the losing team deserves a point. When there were still ties, yes, split the two points, but now they've just added an extra point for the winner... I understand that the losing team managed to get as far as overtime but I hate the idea of rewarding losing. So far this season Washington would have 16 points instead of 20, Toronto 2 instead of 7 and Dallas would not be anywhere near 8th in the West to name a few examples. Teams that get the wins deserve to be in the playoffs. It happens every year that teams with less wins, but more "good losses" are ranked higher in the top 8, or make the playoffs ahead of teams with more wins. Yes, it's nice when we can console ourselves with the at least we got a point mantra after an OT loss, but I just plain dislike it. It doesn't make sense to reward the loss. Maybe it could be re-worked so an OT loss is a loss, no points, but shootout would be the 3 point system since it's not really a hockey game at that point anyways.... Thoughts?

Toe, we`ve got a writer for our paper, Jack Todd. He`s the same way. When the team plays well, it`s only a matter of time until they fail, when they lose a game, we`re boned, if we play poorly we should blow up the team. Our fans are too noisy, not loud enough, too obnoxious, too timid etc etc... They get their ratings baiting the fans. Poor Phoenix, They sold out their home opener, and then have had 1 other game over 10,000 attendance (11,000 against Detroit). Last night in Phoenix, 5800 fans... Should it not be the last year in Phoenix? I mean the Marlies or Bulldogs pull in better attendance. They're not a bad team, just a bad city I guess... Atlanta tonight. Scary Carey in nets. Hal Gill is out for several weeks at the earliest... which may be a blessing in disguise. Matt Carle called up for his NHL debut... I wanted P.K. haha. O'Byrne should be back in mid to late November which will be a huge help to us. The fans may have shown their dissapproval for increased ticket prices this season. We've got a more exciting team than last year, so there's no reason our mediocre play would stop them from coming, but as late as this afternoon there were still tickets available to the game. If it doesn't sell out that would be a huge deal here... then again fans are never going to show up if the higher ups think they can go all Toronto on us with the prices.

Wow, I know it went to Shootout. But Toronto got the shit kicked out of them tonight. Komisuckit ran away from Chipchura after a huge(but legal) hit on Metropolit. There were a ton of non calls, but it don't matter cause Montreal dominated most of the game and Toronto got lucky in the third. Once it went to OT it was no question that Montreal would win... and we did... cause Toskala is a joke, I don't see why Gustavsson wasn;t in nets. Montreal shooters froze Toskala solid in the shoot out. The refs tried as hard as they could to give Toronto as many PP's as possible, T'ranna was pretty cheap as was to be expected, but it was still a great game to watch even if outcome was pretty much a given before the game even started. Suck it on Komisarek for being a bitch tonight. Funny event on RDS. When Toronto scored first, the color guy in french said "what a catastrophe, Toronto has scored the first goal of the game for the first time this season" I think it's funny that it's a catastrophe.

I just picked the game up, it seems a bit over my head in so far as myself trying to understand it all. I was a big fan of EU3 which while a different game, also had a lot to it. I'm just gonna try my luck as France I suppose. Gotta stop those pesky English from hitting another conquest.

Throw in a few verses about Halak while you're at it. GAA under 1.50 and Save% over .940 in his 4 game winning streak.

It`s good that the Leafs won convincingly enough that they deserved it. Anaheim played terribly last night and Toronto took advantage. I`m happy that Toronto got their win last night because if they came to Montreal 0-11 or whatever it would be, and Won... I'm pretty sure the fans would have burned down the Bell Centre.

Y'know... I think I can like this team... Our top line failed to score tonight, but they were all over the ice, and are so strong in all 3 zones. If they play this strong all year (and that's a big if), it would probably be the best top line the Habs have had in my lifetime. Good game. Tim Peel, the idiot ref who was behind the 11 minors in a row debacle in Carolina and the 8 in a row in Toronto last year called 7 minors against Montreal tonight, the very last one against Cammy was probably the only real good call he made... But that's not important. What is important is that amazing saucer pass from Pleks over Streit right to Hammer in OT for the Winnah! Drive for 5 against the Pens on Wednesday.

I think if they got the lead first it'll make them maybe believe in themselves. I know when the Habs lost 5 straight, I think we scored the first goal only once in that span. Also, when you've lost a bunch of games and the other team scores the first one, it can easily lead to a sort of "here we go again" mentality.

Toronto more than anything absolutely NEEDS to score the first goal of the game. So far through 25 days and 8 games of the season, the Leafs have held the lead for exactly 6 minutes and 41 seconds... that time coming briefly in the third period of the Canadiens game.

Cammellari(sp?) with the Hat Trick! Amazing! That was a great game to watch. Crazy back and forth action. Montreal was down 3-1 after one, and 4-2 midway through 2. Tomas Plekanec's vision on the second Cammy goal was unbelievable... if he played like that every game he'd be a star... Our top line strikes again. Its great that they're winning us games, but it's also making me nervous that we're not getting a ton of secondary scoring, but then again, all four lines tonight had good chances... especially the Metropolit line. Yeah he's a grinder, but he makes his line mates much better. Halak played well, he got destroyed on that gorgeous Gaborik goal. I think Price should get the next start. Had we won 5-1 or 5-2 with New York still getting the same chances, I'd say leave him in, but he was simply average tonight. Dan Boyle.... is an asshole. There was a strange sequence where the puck went out of play, the players were around each other and Vinny Prospal decides to elbow Matt D'Agostini in the face. Before Dags even knows whats going on Dan Boyle is beating the shit out of him, no unsportsmanlike call which was strange, because I'm pretty sure that Dags would never in his right mind challenge Boyle... who's about a foot taller and 80 pounds heavier. Tres exciting game. 3 gorgeous goals by Cammy, Bergeron pots another powerplay marker, Mara continued his strong play, Gorges as well, Gill cost us only 1 goal tonight... Against one of the best teams in the early goings of the season... I'll take it.

Well whoever it was. I remember before I was bilingual and I would watch the games on CBC, there was once a Leafs/Habs game and I'll never forget it. McCabe was down low in front of the net on a powerplay, and a shot hit him in the knee and re-directed into the net. The announcer then spent at least 5 minutes, talking about the genius of McCabe for putting his leg in the way and getting the tip and the genius of the Leafs coaching staff letting a D man get in on the action in the slot. Which would be true, but the replay clearly showed him just battling with someone else for position... It was on that day that I gave up the CBC haha. I really like the guys who used to do the Western broadcast, they called a good game. Also, while I sincerely do hope he makes a full recovery. I have to say a smile came to my face when I heard that Tucker got KO`d and needed 40 stitches, he falls into a category of players that I have a blood hate for... Again, in all seriousness I am happy that he`s going to be okay, and I would never want an injury serious enough to threaten his livelyhood to befall him... But since he`s going to be okay and only out for about 10 days... ... ... Pwnd.

Clawson has a point. Because as much as I hate the fact that the CBC on a national scale caters only to Leafs fans and then they throw in Calgary or Vancouver because there's nothing else on at 10pm, it does make more sense for the Leafs, even if they go 20-62. The CBC is almost completely shunned in Quebec because of the Bob Cole years which made for watching the Leafs vs any team absolutely nauseating. Also, what with most of the population in Quebec being french and with RDS generally pulling in numbers on their regional network that exceed the national broadcast for the CBC it makes no sense to really put too much effort into catering to the second largest prime time market, because nobody is watching really. On the other hand, from what I understand (which is very little), While Montreal has RDS (which comes with most cable packages in QC) for all 82 games per season, doesn't Toronto essentially have Leafs TV and then they have to wait for CBC or TSN to pick up games as well? The point I'm trying to make is that it makes more sense to keep the Leafs on CBC, and to be honest, it's better for the Leafs fans to be able to catch a game on basic cable every week if there's no readily accessable and cheap provider for all the games(which if there is, than just ignore that reasoning). -- Rangers tonight. Much tougher test than the Isles. Halak attack in nets again. If we can continue to limit opposing teams to 23 shots or less like we've been doing, it'll go a long way into keeping Gaborik and Dubinsky off the score sheet.