The Hockey Thread

[Toe]

I'm not going to say he is playing really well until I stop seeing him letting in the soft goals. Marty Reasoner's goal in the Atlanta game was weak.

[Toe]

Now that was a fantastic effort by Toskala. No weak goals allowed, and his glove is looking good. I don't know if its Allaire or if its just his confidence returning, but Toskala is looking more and more like the goaltender we saw in his first year in Toronto.

It's always fan-dabi-dozi to see the Leafs beat Ottawa. I felt like the referees gave both teams a lot of leeway and the level of physical play increased as the game wore on. Mike Komisarek was playing the body very well. The breakaway goal by Kessel was awesome to watch. He has such a quick release and a very hard, accurate shot.

[The Sultan of Swank]

I'm about to eat some crow here... Evidentally it has been brought to my attention that Phil Kessel may have been the one doing the heavy lifting in his pairing with Marc Savard. Apologies all around haha.

Also...

Andrei Markov, scheduled to return in Febru-- Saturday fucking night! It's a Festivus Miracle!

....

Although if I'm Jacques Martin, I bench him against Toronto...

Edited December 18, 2009 by The Sultan of Swank

[Clawson]

Phil Kessel has 1 less goal than Marc Savard has points in 4 more games.

[The Sultan of Swank]

Yes, but I was amongst the first to jump on the fact that Kessel was playing on a far more talented team in Boston than he could hope for in Toronto, then he was injured for a good chunk of the year and missed a bunch of games, and now he's pretty much thrown the team on his back and is doing all he can to carry them towards the playoffs, so... While both are super talented, the inference that Kessel's stats were padded due to the guys he got to play with is obviously ridiculous now.

Markov scored 2 in his comeback... that was wonderful.

Sweden decides to not shake hands after the game cause they got spanked by our U20 team.

[Guest Mr. Grinch]

*looks at new thread title*

...that you, c-heat?

[The Sultan of Swank]

Wow, what a steal last night. 50 shots against and we get the win.... should never happen but I'll take it.

On the Bergeron OT goal, which in itself was a fan-dabi-dozi move, that whole goal was the work of the industrious Tomas Plekanec who made an unbelievable and precise saucer pass over one stick and then another and then right onto the tape for MAB to get the break and the goal.

Bergeron now has 9 on the year, tied with Robidas for most by a defenseman, with 5 games less played. Not bad for 750k.

Pleks, who once again was really the star forward for our team had 4 points on the night. Involved in every goal, and for the first time in god knows how long, Montreal officially has a top 10 scorer... sign em Bobbo. With 40 points, he's ranked 9th based on games played but tied for 6th with Parise, Backstrom, Richards and St. Louis. That's some pretty nice company. His 33 assists also rank 2nd in the league, behind Joe Thornton. Now, only 38 games into the year, these are some fan-dabi-dozi numbers, but come February and March, if he keeps this up, I think it puts him into the category of a star player... but that's still 40 games from now and tomorrow night will once again be a what have you done for me lately situation haha. Oh fickle Habs fans...

Edited December 22, 2009 by The Sultan of Swank

[caucasianheat]

*looks at new thread title*

...that you, c-heat?

I figured if I didn't say anything, people would blame you.

[NobBe Nobbs]

*looks at new thread title*

...that you, c-heat?

I figured if I didn't say anything, people would blame you.

I don't know about everybody else, but I'll be happy blaming it him no matter what.

[The Sultan of Swank]

1 last Tomas Plek the Turtleneck statistic I thought was interesting. No player ahead of him in league scoring ranks in the top 200 in penalty kill minutes, he's 4th in the league... granted that has a lot to do with playing on the 2nd most penalized team...

[Plubby]

Fuck Ryan Getzlaf. Pitiful player.

[The Sultan of Swank]

Spoiler: Canes Win.

Montreal, traditionally rarely wins the last game before Christmas. When it's on the road, we haven't won on Dec 23 since 1945. Now THAT'S futility.

[The Sultan of Swank]

I think I asked this before but didn't get much of an answer but why do Leafs fans feel that Gilmour is something of a sacred Leaf?

I'm just curious about it. He grew up in Kingston a Habs fan so he's not a hometown boy, I know he played 6 years in Toronto, but he played 5 in St. Louis and 4 in Calgary where he won a cup, along with 2 each in Jersey, Montreal, Buffalo and Chicago so it's now a Ray Bourque sort of Cup. He did put up his two best offensive seasons(and I think the Leafs best as well) in Toronto, but he came close to those numbers in St. Louis and almost as close in Calgary.

I'm not trying to say that he isn't... I'm just trying to understand the relationship.

[Pizza]

92-93 and 93-94 were our best seasons of the post expansion era and our best chances of ending our cup drought, and Gilmour was a large part of that. During those two seasons Gilmour was a top 5 player in a league that included Gretzky and Lemieux. I was 6 years old during the 92-93 playoffs, and I remember them more vividly than our 2002 run. He's the greatest Maple Leaf of my lifetime thus far.

[Guest Mr. Grinch]

And Gilmour was unbelievably popular in Toronto when he played there. More popular than anybody we've had since I'd argue (other than returning Wendel).

[The Sultan of Swank]

Alright, I figured it had much more to do with than just stats, Thanks.

[The Sultan of Swank]

I was on FHF which is a pretty funny Habs blog and thought this was pretty good:

Saturday night, the CBC and RDS, 7:00 pm from the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. Bleu, blanc, rouge and blue and white all over. Goodwill towards men fucking ends TODAY, you truculent little bastards.

I say keep Markov out of the line up... Montreal actually plays pretty well (4-0) with him in the line up... maybe we can get 10 games with him in if we're lucky haha.

Kaberle's got 3 points in his last 3 games. Toronto shut out Montreal quite convincingly last time these two met. Goaltending and Kaberle lead this team right now, Komisarek might even be waking up and learning how to play hockey without Markov.

Only 3 points scored between Kessel, Poni, Hagman, Grabs and Stajan in Toronto's last 6 games.

Plekanec leads the Habs with 9 points in his last 3 games, Andrei Markov is back and in awesome form, Gomez seems to be waking up.... sloooooooowwwwwlllllly, Cammalleri can't score on the road, but he's had 5 points in his last 3 games. Marc Andre Bergeron is the leagues highest scoring defenseman.

D'agostini has been terrible lately, you can add Lapierre to that as well. Gill is only useful on the PK, Laraque hasn't once been useful for the Habs. Cammy needs to score on the road.

Gionta, Hamrlik and Mara all out for Montreal tonight.

EDIT:

Lol at CBC... "Montreal will go to the powerplay... they've been pretty good lately *long pause* as it turns out they're first in the league."

Way to do your research CBC... as annoying as a guy like Pierre McGuire is, at least he knows his stuff.

Toronto wildly deserved to win. Montreal went out to a quick 2-0 lead with hard work. Then they decided that'd be enough. Toronto worked hard the entire game, and almost won... Almost haha. The wanted posters for Halak should go up in Toronto tomorrow.

There were a few things I noticed about Toronto's game:

1) Unbelievable amount of bad shots. Shots from bad angles, shots with no traffic. There was no patience on the Toronto PP, you'd think it was 5 on 5 with the urgency they went for the shot regardless of if it's a good one or not. I know pucks on net is important(trust me.... I'm a Habs fan...) but smart shots.

2) Unbelievably terrible aim. I really feel that if Toronto shooters shot somewhere other than at the crest of the goalie's jersey or high and wide they'd be a dominant team. 49 shots tonight, lord knows how many missed or were blocked, but how many chances did Toronto have where the one timer came to Blake or Kessell or Stajan, they have the time and space and they miff it wide or hit the CH.

I mean, Toronto deserved at least 4 or 5 goals... at least, and to be honest the 2 goals they scored tonight weren't even off good shots. The first hit a Habs stick, the second was a clusterfuck that went in off a Hab, Blake and Halak. Now those goals happen, and a goal is a goal, but look at the Habs goals, Pleks roof daddy'd Gustavsson, Gomez had a nice shot and Andrei shot with traffic and beat Gustavsson.

Look at the last minute where Kessell had Halak dead to rights with 5 seconds left, and he missed by 3 feet.

Toronto deserved this game because Montreal played their worst game of the year. I'm more than happy to see Montreal take the two points. But I'll be first in line to say that Halak and the PP bailed the Habs out.

But really, Wilson, do some target practice with your team or something. Could have easily been 5 to 7 goals... easily, and it seems to be a chronic problem. Toronto leads the league in shots per game but have a terrible shooting percentage.

Shit, I'm frustrated for Leafs fans. How many times did Kessell drive hard past Markov... one of the best defenceman in the league, and.... he hits the post, misses the net, takes a terrible shot.

Edited December 27, 2009 by The Sultan of Swank

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

I think I want to take a holiday vacation to Switzerland one of these years, catch some Spengler Cup games.

[The Sultan of Swank]

Switzerland was probably my favourite place when I was in Europe.

Montreal drops a game to Ottawa and gets to feel how Toronto, Atlanta and others have felt recently. Montreal dominated Ottawa to a 2-0 lead, easily should have been 5-0. Leclaire keeps Ottawa in it, Ottawa snags the win late.

Zero penalties against Ottawa! although the refs did, disallow a perfectly legit goal for Ottawa for a phantom goalie interference call, so I guess they had to make up for it.

[Toe]

It's been a frustrating week to be a Leafs fan. The win over Boston was awesome to see, but the team has struggled a bit. Hopefully the win over Pittsburgh is a sign of good things, as Toronto is still in the race for a playoff spot.

Kessel has struggled recently, and I think he is slowly becoming the player he was in Boston - the one who turns over the puck and stays away from the physical play.