The Hockey Thread

[Toe]

After the embarrassing loss to the Hurricanes on Tuesday, Toronto played a better game and almost pulled out a win against the Bruins. It's nice to see Stalberg and Bozak both score.

[Plubby]

Oh god, someone tell me this is a sickening joke being played on Colorado.

...please.

[caucasianheat]

Ferraro's dressing-down of Lapierre on commentary for that dirty shove into the boards was classic.

"He thinks it's funny. I think the way he plays is funny."

[The Sultan of Swank]

Montreal v San Jose was like Slovakia v Finland. Montreal surprisingly was winning till 10 min left in the game and then the better team won. Shit.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

Holy shit the Leafs pull it out.

[Toe]

Good to see Gustavsson play well. Also, Kessel's snipe was a beauty of a goal. Toronto had good possession during the course of the game. The lack of forward depth is showing, but the entire team competed throughout the contest. Good to FINALLY see an overtime result go our way, too.

[The Sultan of Swank]

Montreal controlled the flow of play for nearly the entire game. They were dominant, got good shots, had a hard forecheck and were strong along the boards. When the Kings scored the 3-2 goal with 7 to play, Montreal instead of doing what they always do, just pray to god that they can withstand the barrage until the end of the game, they went back on the attack and made it difficult for LA to generate enough chances to tie it up.

That being said, with Montreal having played so many more games than the teams around them, they really need to string together 4 or 5 in a row and hopefully with that, have Atlanta, Boston or Tampa....not win 4 or 5 in a row haha. Make up some of those lost games.

[Enter Blue Guy]

Good to see Gustavsson play well. Also, Kessel's snipe was a beauty of a goal. Toronto had good possession during the course of the game. The lack of forward depth is showing, but the entire team competed throughout the contest. Good to FINALLY see an overtime result go our way, too.

Yep, the Leafs are the shallowest offense in the league. It doesn't show up on the scoreboard, but I think all this extra ice time is paying off for some of the younger guys. Before this year I wasn't sure what we had in a guy like Kuley. Last season he was just an awkward fitting wing man for Grabbo. His point total looks like it will end being close to the same, but give him a stable role and he looks like he'll turn out to be a solid third line checking winger with a scoring touch. I also like that Bozak is easing into his game. He's got some natural chemistry with Kessel and has started to play more of a physical game. He isn't in Kessel's league, but he's done a pretty good job of hiding it. Likely destined for the third line once there is an anointed #1 center, but as of now he's exceeding expectations. So yeah, I'd say Kulemin and Bozak could end up being a parts of a respectable third line sometime in the future. That or Kulemin gets traded.

Not as effective as Bozak and Kuley, but I like Christian Hanson a lot. He's working really hard and he's being put in situations he has no business being in. And he looks competent out there. He's at his best at center but I'd love to see him make a smooth transition to RW because it looks like that's the only way he'll find a role on this team.

And from the little of seen of Caputi, I like. It'll be interesting to see he how he produces once he get comfortable because he has the right attitude and seems confident out there.

Stalberg is playing a bit better but he's still a work in progress. I actually think in a way this almost negative exposure is good for his progress. He looked a little too good in the preseason. I hope now he knows the compete level he needs to be at to play in the NHL. There is too much size and speed there to not think Stalberg could feature in a top 6 role on the Leafs, he needs up his work ethic to get on the right track.

With 52 points in the standings you have to find positives somewhere.

[Toe]

I didn't realize that the Leafs played tonight. Giggy is getting the start.

[caucasianheat]

Scumbag Matt Cooke flattens Mark Savard with a blind head shot. Hopefully he gets more than a slap on the wrist for this because it's the same kind of hit he's throwing constantly and now he's sending people out in ambulances with it. GMs just happen to be convening on headshots tomorrow, so it's the right time to send a message by throwing the book at a sleazy repeat offender.

[The Sultan of Swank]

Well... since Savard is a star, and he got injured, we can expect a suspension around what Lapierre got.

Carey Price gives up 3 goals on what? 10 shots in the first. Yanked. Halak comes in, Habs come to life. 2 minutes to play, I was upset that we were gonna lose, I said to myself, if Montreal can score in the next 30 seconds.... maybe... just maybe they can fluke a second one in. Sure enough, with 1:50 or so to play Gionta all alone in front snipes it. Then with 10 seconds to play and Markov in the slot, no denying it... Although Perry's a bitch... but a Gold Medal bitch so no matter what, it's okay with me haha.

Hiller forgets that if you slide all the way into your own net with the puck it's a goal. Tomas Plek the Turtleneck goes roofjob for the win and the Habs are in 7th place with 70 points.

[Toe]

Once again, a good overall performance from our team is wasted due to our lack of scoring touch up front.

[The Sultan of Swank]

Really needed ya to win tonight Toronto...

[Toe]

Stamko has 40 goals already? Man, I thought he was a little overhyped coming out of junior, but he really has improved a ton. I wonder if playing with (and learning from) Martin St. Louis has helped?

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

...so my aunt is now Facebook friends with Theo Fleury.

[The Sultan of Swank]

So I found this pretty cool site. It projects the percentages of a team making the playoffs based on all sorts of data and a slew of simulations... It's pretty interesting. They do it for all the major sports as well.

www.sportsclubstats.com

For the east they say

Washington is qualified

Pittsburgh 100% chance

New Jersey 100% chance

Buffalo 99.9% chance

Ottawa 97.9% chance (14 weeks ago they were 19%)

Philly 97.3% chance

Boston 62.4% chance

Montreal 58.5% chance

---

Atlanta 31.4%

Rangers 27%

Tampa 17.8%

Florida 5.8

Carolina 1.8%

Islanders 0.4%

Toronto 0.0054%

Supposedly they have a simulation run the remaining games 25,000,000 times per team to give them their percentages.... I'm not sure if I believe that, but apparently 9-5-1 is Montreal's record 1.4 million out of 25 million times for the most likely record, and 14.6 million out of 25 million times the Habs had a sufficient record to make the playoffs. Obviously Washington had it 25 out of 25 and Toronto(Edmonton's already out, so I'm not picking on ya) they were projected to go 17-0-0 1,320 times, and had a sufficient record to make the second season 1,368 out of 25,000,000 times.

I also think it's cool that for every game it shows the effect it will have on the percentages, like if Montreal wins tonight the direct result would be Montreal bumping up to 67% and boston falling to 62.1%, but then if the bruins win, Montreal is down to 56 and Boston up to 69....

Oh my there's too much

Edited March 9, 2010 by The Sultan of Swank

[Toe]

Way to go, Leafs! They put in a good performance all game and were finally rewarded with the overtime winner by Nikolai Kulemin. Since the stinker against Carolina, the Leafs have been looking better and better. If they can finish strong, I'll be happy. The playoffs are long gone, but I am still watching these games.

[Clawson]

Playoff dream isn't over yet. PLAYOFFS!!!1

These Leafs are actually much more interesting to watch now though. I've been enjoying the games even when our powerplay is going all Benny Hill music on us.

[The Sultan of Swank]

I'm happy Toronto limited Boston to only 1 point... but I was hoping for none haha.

Habs win, and look pretty dang good doing it. The Gionta-Gomez-Pouliot line is on fire, and pretty much has been since they were put together.

Huge win as far as the standings go, 72 points ties Montreal for 6th, which obviously Philly will win at least one of the 3 games they have in hand, but the more important thing is that the 9th place Rangers are now 5 points back of Montreal with only 2 games in hand.

...

The one good thing Montreal has going is if they tie for 8th like last season, they'll likely have a higher win total as they've dropped only 6 in OT.

...

Edmonton and Boston next before hitting the road again. There's no reason Montreal can't snag 6 of 6 points at home, but as we've seen all season. They'll likely get shut out in Edmonton and lose big to the B's.

Edited March 10, 2010 by The Sultan of Swank

[Plubby]

Why play well for sixty when you can just play well for twenty?

*kicks things over*