The Hockey Thread

[Clawson]

Montreal wouldn't have made the playoffs without the bitch point last year. Toronto was denied the playoffs in back-to-back years because of it. It works out for everyone in the end eventually.

[The Sultan of Swank]

I'm not saying it based on Montreal alone Clawson, my point is that teams who have more wins deserve the playoffs ahead of teams who have more favourable losses.

Pizza, I meant to compare to Boston haha.

Edited December 10, 2009 by The Sultan of Swank

[Toe]

The current system makes it more competitive at the end of the season for the final playoff spots. The league wants more teams looking competitive, not less. That is why they won't be changing the scoring system any time soon.

Toronto played a fan-dabi-dozi game against the Islanders. Tavares scored two on the powerplay that were practically unstoppable for Toskala. Other then that, Toronto looked good. Toskala was on his game, Blake scored a dirty goal to win the game, and the defence provided some offence for us. Unlike the last game against the Islanders, the Leafs did not allow Dwayne Roloson to steal the game.

[Pizza]

Gotcha, that's much less ridiculous and you have a fair point there. Even though you're still a game back if we went strictly wins and losses.

[The Sultan of Swank]

It's not that I want to put Montreal in a far better position, I just feel that if Boston and Montreal have equal number of wins, they should be far closer in points.

[Pizza]

Then a far better example to make your case with would be the 13-17 Stars being ahead of the 16-14 Canucks. Now that's a ridiculous situation, far worse than anything in the East right now.

[SeanDMan]

Yeah! Poor us!

Pizza, don't expect Basha to know what he's talking about.

[NobBe Nobbs]

Unless it's a conspiracy theory about how the white man is keeping the even whiter Canadiens down. Or anything stupid, really, he's a fairly stupid person. You have to aim your points low so they can't scream over his head at Mach 1 (although bless him, he tries his hardest. See that quote in his signature from me? The one about how win-loss records being wins/(wins + losses) ignores the possibility of ties? Apparently the concept of other sports no longer exists to him)

[Toe]

I am really hoping Toronto can flip the script from their last outing against Boston and pick up the win.

One thing I realized today is that a lot of people have written off the Leafs because of the bad start. Right now, Toronto is 5 points out of a playoff spot with 52 games to play. Last year, Pittsburgh was....5 points out of a playoff spot with 23 games to play. I'm not saying the Leafs are even close to the team Pittsburgh is right now, but to think that they could come back after their lousy start to contend for the playoffs is pretty cool.

[Gabriel]

I am really hoping Toronto can flip the script from their last outing against Boston and pick up the win.

One thing I realized today is that a lot of people have written off the Leafs because of the bad start. Right now, Toronto is 5 points out of a playoff spot with 52 games to play. Last year, Pittsburgh was....5 points out of a playoff spot with 23 games to play. I'm not saying the Leafs are even close to the team Pittsburgh is right now, but to think that they could come back after their lousy start to contend for the playoffs is pretty cool.

I've been saying it since the beginning of the year, but I honestly think that the Maple Leafs will be in contention for a playoff spot right up to the end of the season. When everyone was panicking, I said to stay the course, because they were doing a lot of things right and just getting some hard luck bounces. Here we are now, and they're five points out, and what's changed really? They have better luck, and it's improving the confidence and play of a lot of the guys. Kulemin back checking? Primeau playing with Kessel? Schenn's stepping up hard again and being The Human Eraser... Kaberle looks like the player he can be... even Toskala has stepped up his game.

It's amazing how much a little confidence can change a group of players.

If they can be in 9th or better come the deadline, look for Burke to be a big time buyer. The top one or two guys being shopped around come March should find themselves the talk of some pretty serious trade dealings involving the Leafs.

[The Sultan of Swank]

Be we were arguing about hockey, you're still wrong, you act like a 12 year old and I'm pretty sure that right now if I insulted the Leafs, you would pop a vein at your computer and start typing in ALL CAPS or something to try to cut me down... so why don't you stop acting like a troll and try to contribute to the thread? I mean, like I've said before, aside from the occasional spat, Clawson and I have managed to more or less set aside our homerism and try to be better fans in general in the thread... I think it wouldn't be too much to ask of you to just... Y'know... grow up?

Sean, where does this come from. I was comparing teams in the East, because teams in the same conference battle for playoff spots against each other. I didn't think my dislike of the bitch point means I don't know what I'm talking about. I'd like to believe that Pizza, Clawson and I discussed something about hockey that didn't degenerate into name calling for once... sorry for trying to talk about something other than the Habs for once?

Pittsburgh tonight. Got killed last time, would be nice to beat them. Spacek is back from injury tonight which means Hamrlik won't have to play 30 min again. Maybe we can get lucky and take it in OT?

Edited December 10, 2009 by The Sultan of Swank

[Pizza]

Now I remember why I usually stay out of here.

[Toe]

Yeah, but you are always drawn back in by my raw, animal magnetism.

[Clawson]

I'm really starting to hate Broons fans.

[Toe]

That game sucked. Hopefully, the Leafs bounce back against Washington.

Oh crap.

[The Sultan of Swank]

It was a fan-dabi-dozi game last night. I really... really want to blame that terrible call where Gomez scored as the ref was blowing the whistle for the puck apparently being covered... It irks me because RDS showed in a replay that when the whistle blew, the puck was already in the net, but there's three reasons why it's entirely the Habs fault.

1) In the first two periods, they miss fired on at least 3 or 4 open nets/sure goals. If Cammy didn't hit the post, or Sergei didn't lose it in his feet, it'd have been 3, 4 or even 5-2 going into the third.

2) Carey Price after playing an amazing game (as he's done for his last 10 starts or so) let in a real softie with 6 minutes to play.

3) After Montreal had their goal disallowed, they went from a hard forechecking team, stifling a lot of Pens chances and turning them into odd man rushes to a deflated hockey team, upset by the call and not willing to put the effort back in.

Seriously though, there is one hell of an annomally going on this season. Montreal is the only team averaging less than 3 power plays a game, but we've gotta be one of the most penalized teams. Yeah we deserve most of them, but I felt that last night, on 5 PP's awarded to the Pens, 2 were calls where there just wasn't a penalty, they killed off all 5, but I feel that handling 3 PK's in a game, would have been much more reasonable than 5. I'm not saying that the refs are out to get the Habs, but it's just strange how quickly they put the whistles away when a guy like Moen takes a cross check to the back or wtv.

In any case, fan-dabi-dozi game to watch, sour ending, but the quick whistle hits every team from time to time, so they lost this one all on their own.

Dust off and Atlanta on Saturday.

[Plubby]

I don't understand why people get so butthurt about this "intent to blow the whistle" thing. If the ref sees something, but can't move his hand to his mouth fast enough, he SHOULD be allowed to make the call he wanted to make. What happens immediately afterward is irrelevant to his original call. When two infractions happen one after the other, you pay the first one (unless they're penalties in which case you should blow both).

[The Sultan of Swank]

I read an interesting article today, the Gazette was asking the question of should Mike Cammalleri be considered for Team Canada? He's not been mentioned at all, but they brought up that last year he was a top 5 Canadian goal scorer and so far this season is again in the top 5 for Canadians and also of those 5 only Sidney Crosby has a better +/-. To me, I think maybe, I mean, I don't see why not, but there's so much talent in Canada that's they're so many players that we can make the same case about so if he's left out I think it speaks more to the depth of Canadian talent than anything else... Thoughts? Anyone else you feel the same way about?

[Toe]

He has performed at a very high level in Calgary and Montreal. I find it odd that he has not been considered more.

What a huge, come from behind win against Washington for the Leafs. Kessel managed to break his powerplay cherry, while Toskala is actually playing solid in goal. The ACC is looking more and more like home ice again, instead of the hell it has been for most of the season.

[Plubby]

Solid? He's been fan-dabi-dozi. That glove is working overtime for him, it'll do wonders for his confidence. If he keeps his play up, he might be back to his San Jose self - all he needs is the team to get really behind him, he'll lift more - then if the coach says something in an interview or whatever, and gets the Toronto fans to stop and say "hey yeah, he has been alright lately" and they start to get behind him...then he's got it made.

There's a lot of ifs in there to be fair, but if it happens, Toronto will be a team to watch.