Let's Win This One
Published March 21, 2009 @ 13:24 in Toronto Maple Leafs

I realize this is now Tank Nation, but let's win this one. Let's play spoilers with our arch rivals and help push the Montreal Canadiens out of the NHL playoffs.

Let's take a look at the current NHL standings...

Montreal is sitting in 8th place. The Panthers are only a point back. It's important we do our part to return Bryan McCabe to the dance!

Let's kick it old school. Let's cheer on our team tonight.

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Maple Leafs 1, Panthers 3
Published March 20, 2009 @ 09:32 in Toronto Maple Leafs

The Sens won't make the playoffs, so if we can get the Habs to finish out of the playoff picture, we'll call this a decent season for the Leafs. With this goal in mind, I knew we had to lose to the Panthers last night. It's all about sacrifices here in Tank Nation.

The Sens beat the Canadiens last night, so Montreal is now only a point ahead of the 9th place Panthers. Sweet schudenfreude.

Current Record	Last Games	Season Leaders
28-29-13 69 points 4th in Northeast Division	3-1 Loss vs. Florida 4-3 Win vs. Tampa Bay 8-6 Win vs. Calgary	J. Blake - 56 M. Stajan - 49 Ponikarovsky - 48

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Mike Boone of the Montreal Gazette
Published March 19, 2009 @ 11:17 in Radio, Toronto Maple Leafs

When driving home from the office, I'll often listen to Prime Time Sports, hosted by Bob McCown on THEFAN590. Like any die hard Leaf fan, I love it when they explore the glorious fall of the Montreal Canadiens. The go-to guy lately, for such discussions, is Mike Boone of the Montreal Gazette.

Naturally, my ears always prick up when I hear McCown announced that Michael Boone or Mike Boone will be on. Not only do we share a name, but I'm fascinated by the topic. In their 100th season, Habs fans expected their team to win another cup. Instead, they're clinging to a playoff spot. Their beloved coach was just canned, their beloved goaltender with ice in his veins has stumbled back to earth and even us Leaf fans are taking delight in the free-fall.

Mike Boone has a blog, if you want to read his take on the Habs. Unfortunately, he likes to post garbage like this.

Who knew an extra "e" could make such a difference?

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God Still Hates Us
Published March 18, 2009 @ 11:19 in Toronto Maple Leafs

I was just testing the monthly drop-down menu and randomly chose to visit March of 2003. That's when I found a letter I wrote to God on behalf of all Maple Leaf fans.

Here's what I wrote on March 15, 2003.

Hello God, it's me Mike.

What exactly do you have against my Toronto Maple Leafs? Why to you use your omnipotent power to crush us at every opportunity? You tortured us with the Harold Ballard regime, forcing me to grow up in a decade almost completely void of playoff victories. Then, when everything lined up perfectly for a Habs-Leafs Stanley Cup Final in '93, you gave The Great One yet another break and used your mighty power to blind the refs as Gretzky clearly high-sticked Gilmour. We deserved to win that night. You made sure it didn't happen.

Now, in 2003, that very same Gilmour came home. On Thursday night, I watched #93 play for four minutes and fifty-one seconds. Everything seemed right again. Everything seemed perfectly in place for a serious run at the cup. Leaf fans were happy. We were oh so happy Lord! Then, as quickly as you giveth, you taketh away.

Dougie was laying on the ice, clearly in pain. The war horse couldn't stand, but this warrior was going to get to the bench on his own. As I watched him crawl twenty feet to the bench, I looked up and asked you one simple question. "Why?"

On behalf of all Torontonians, I apologize for whatever it is you don't like about us. Perhaps it's our arrogance? We are the self-proclaimed capital of Canada, you know. Perhaps it's the fact that many Leaf fans spill on to Yonge Street to celebrate a single playoff victory. Is it that we're satisfied with so little from our hockey team? Should we expect more? Tell us oh Lord, tell us what we can do to earn your favour? If we change now, maybe Dougie is back for the playoffs? Please see what you can do...

Your biggest fan,
Mike

What gets me is that I wrote that six years ago, and we've only won one playoff series since... and that was against our traditional whipping boys, the Ottawa Senators. Since I wrote that letter to God, we've only qualified for the playoffs twice, and the last time was in 2004. There was the lockout and now four successive years of failure, the longest streak in franchise history.

This story has a moral. Don't dump your problems on God. He'll just get pissed and double the dosage of failure. He'll turn it all to shit faster than you can say Jonas Hoglund, but he'll still give us that seven game victory over the Sens.

My sweet Lord!

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Maple Leafs 4, Lightning 3
Published March 18, 2009 @ 10:08 in Toronto Maple Leafs

Our Maple Leafs avoided a four-game, season-series sweep by the Lightning with a sweet come-from-behind victory in front of many Canadian tourists and Snowbirds in Tampa Bay.

Here's your useless piece of trivia for the day. The Leafs lead the NHL in overtime games, with 22.

Current Record	Last Games	Season Leaders
28-29-13 69 points 4th in Northeast Division	4-3 Win vs. Tampa Bay 8-6 Win vs. Calgary 4-1 Loss vs. Tampa Bay	J. Blake - 56 M. Stajan - 49 Ponikarovsky - 48

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Maple Leafs 8, Flames 6
Published March 15, 2009 @ 09:36 in Toronto Maple Leafs

It was our greatest offensive output of the season. I just checked the archives and failed to find another game with 8 Leaf goals this season.

It's also Calgary's ninth straight loss in Toronto dating back to December of 2000. In related news, I understand Brian Burke is lobbying the NHL to include more Toronto home games against the Flames next season.

Current Record	Last Games	Season Leaders
27-29-13 67 points 4th in Northeast Division	8-6 Win vs. Calgary 4-1 Loss vs. Tampa Bay 3-2 Win vs. New York Islanders	J. Blake - 54 M. Stajan - 48 Ponikarovsky - 48

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Norris Division Action from the Greys
Published March 13, 2009 @ 18:51 in Memories, Toronto Maple Leafs

In the mid-80s, my parents made sure we kids each got to at least one Leafs game a year at Maple Leaf Gardens. A teacher my mom worked with had season's tickets and he would sell a few pairs to us each year.

They were seats 11 and 12 of Section 94, Row A. That's in the Greys, if you remember Maple Leaf Gardens. The Greys were the worst seats in the house, but we got to sit in the first row of the Greys, which was the best of the worst.

The ticket owner, naturally, kept all the good games for himself. He wouldn't sell Saturday night games, or games against good teams. That meant we saw a lot of the Norris Division growing up. Just about every game I saw from 1985 through 1989 involved the Black Hawks, North Stars, Blues or Red Wings.

The most cherished tickets at the time were games against Wayne Gretzky's Oilers and our arch rivals, the Montreal Canadiens. In a sweet coincidence, I've only seen two Leaf games at the ACC this season. They were against the Canadiens and Oilers.

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Maple Leafs 1, Lightning 4
Published March 13, 2009 @ 09:30 in Toronto Maple Leafs

Tampa Bay is 3-0 against us this season. Tampa Bay has the NHL’s second-worst record, but we can't beat 'em. We caught them the night after they went to overtime against the Sens and we still couldn't come close.

Changing the topic somewhat, I'm starting to think about our annual NHL playoff pool. Save the evening of Monday, April 13 in your calendars if you're coming by to draft.

Current Record	Last Games	Season Leaders
26-29-13 65 points 4th in Northeast Division	4-1 Loss vs. Tampa Bay 3-2 Win vs. New York Islanders 2-1 Loss vs. Ottawa	J. Blake - 53 M. Stajan - 46 Ponikarovsky - 44

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City of Losers
Published March 12, 2009 @ 14:42 in Toronto Argos, Toronto Bills, Toronto Blue Jays, Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto News ~ Toronto Focus, Toronto Raptors

My city is a city of losers. At least when it comes to our primary professional sports teams. We suck.

Our Maple Leafs of the NHL are 27-28-13, which puts us 11th in the conference and well outside the playoffs.

Our Raptors of the NBA are 23-42, which puts us 14th in the conference and well outside the playoffs.

Our Blue Jays of MLB were 86-76, which put us 4th in the division and well outside the playoffs.

Our Argos of the CFL were 4-14, which put us 3rd in the division and well outside the playoffs.

Our Bills of the NFL were 7-9, which put us 4th in the division and well outside the playoffs.

There is little hope for any of the above. In fact, I'm willing to bet all miss the playoffs again next season.

Welcome to Loserville.

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Maple Leafs 3, Islanders 2
Published March 11, 2009 @ 08:49 in Toronto Maple Leafs

Remember Grabs? Mikhail Grabovski was that speedy little centre we plucked out of Montreal, but you're forgiven if you forgot about him. He hadn't scored in a while, but he notched his first OT goal last night to help the Leafs secure two points against the lowly Islanders.

We have another softy tomorrow against the Lightning.

Current Record	Last Games	Season Leaders
26-28-13 65 points 4th in Northeast Division	3-2 Win vs. New York Islanders 2-1 Loss vs. Ottawa 4-1 Loss vs. Edmonton	J. Blake - 52 M. Stajan - 46 Ponikarovsky - 44

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