Maple Leafs 2, Lightning 3
Published January 22, 2010 @ 07:57 in Toronto Maple Leafs

It was just another night at the office for our Leafs. This time, we decided to dig deep for a new way to lose. How about too many men on the ice in the last minute of overtime. That'll work...

And that led to the Lightning scoring the winner with 9.8 seconds left in OT. If you're tracking this at home, and you should be, that's our 35th loss in 52 games. It ain't easy being this bad.

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What Would Wendel Do?
Published January 20, 2010 @ 19:57 in Toronto Maple Leafs

Before I act, I always ask myself one simple question. What would Wendel do?

If you're asking yourself this same question, and you should, you should buy WWWD right now from PuckingHilarious.com because they're donating $2 from every shirt sold to the Canadian Red Cross for help with relief in Haiti. Get one now.

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Maple Leafs 3, Thrashers 4
Published January 20, 2010 @ 08:02 in Toronto Maple Leafs

I missed this one due to volleyball. As a result, we're keeping this one really, really short..

Our beloved Toronto Maple Leafs lead the league with 177 goals allowed.

That is all. Go Leafs Go.

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Maple Leafs 4, Predators 3
Published January 19, 2010 @ 07:54 in Toronto Maple Leafs

We jumped out to a juicy 3-0 lead with a trifecta of goals in our first 8 shots and then sat back and waited for Nashville to come back.

They did, tying it in third and pressing to win until Phil "The Thrill" Kessel awoke from his slumber to win it for the good guys.

5 points behind Tampa Bay for 13th in the conference. Hell, yeah!

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No Leafs = No Eyeballs
Published January 18, 2010 @ 18:19 in Television, Toronto Maple Leafs

During hockey season, I have a Pavlovian response to Saturday nights. Around 7pm I instinctively seek a comfy seat and a television so I can watch my Toronto Maple Leafs on CBC's Hockey Night in Canada. It's an important tradition in my house.

This past Saturday night, as the clock approached 7, I felt those familiar tingles. It was time for hockey featuring the blue and white, only there was no Leaf game to be found. Instead it was the Habs vs. Sens and the Leafs had the night off.

In his column today, Chris Zelkovich explains why a Saturday night without the Leafs is a ratings disaster for the CBC.

While stories hit the news from time to time telling us that interest in the Toronto Maple Leafs is dropping faster than, well, the Leafs' playoff chances, the fact is the Blue-and-White still drive ratings no matter how bad they are.

Further proof came Saturday night in one of those rare instances when the Leafs are not the main attraction on Hockey Night In Canada. In fact, this Saturday they weren't even playing. Instead, the nation got the Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators -- an all-Canadian matchup featuring one team with deep roots across the country.

It was a pretty good game, too.

The result? The lowest Game 1 rating on CBC this season. It drew 300,000 fewer viewers than the previously ratings dog and drew only 130,000 more than a Detroit-Toronto pre-season game.

It was almost beaten out by the Pittsburgh-Vancouver late game and finished behind three NFL playoff games. Actually, it was four because the 1,040,000 who watched Sunday's Jets-Chargers game included only those who tuned in to TSN. The game was on CBS, too.

Here's an idea for the NHL schedule makers. Let's ensure the Leafs play each and every Saturday night. It's good for me, it's good for the CBC and it just makes good sense.

Besides, it's the way it should be. You don't mess with the natural order of things.

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Lanny McDonald and Brian Glennie are Hungry Men
Published January 16, 2010 @ 09:27 in Toronto Maple Leafs

YouTube user Retrontario frequently uploads fantastic retro-Toronto-centric gems. These clips never fail to bring back a ton of memories for me, so I feature them from time to time.

Lanny McDonald and Brian Glennie are hungry. Thankfully, they have Hungry-Man tv dinners to fill them up.

This is proof positive that NHLers weren't paid very much in the 70s.

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Maple Leafs 1, Capitals 6
Published January 16, 2010 @ 09:03 in Toronto Maple Leafs

Remember when we shutout Philadelphia 4-0? Bozak had that sick goal and Toskala recorded his first shutout since October 2008?

That was fun.

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Molson Sticks it to Leafs Fans With Molson Canadian 67
Published January 15, 2010 @ 18:50 in My 2 Cents, Toronto Maple Leafs

Near my house there's a big billboard advertising Molson's new light beer. It's called Molson Canadian 67 and the logo is half a maple leaf beside "67". When I see this logo, I only think of one thing. That's 1967, the last time the Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup.

I see this ad as a taunt. '67 was a long time ago, a time when there were only six NHL teams, a time before my birth. Why is Molson taunting Leafs fans?

Oh right, George Gillett recently sold the Montreal Canadiens and the Bell Centre to the Molson family. Now it all makes perfect sense.

Molson's marketing team will tell you the 67 references the number of calories in the beer, but we know better. It's Molson, and the Montreal Canadiens, sticking it to Leafs fans.

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Maple Leafs 4, Flyers 0
Published January 14, 2010 @ 21:56 in Toronto Maple Leafs

Were we that good or were the Flyers that bad? Methinks we caught the Flyers on an off night because there's no other way to explain a Vesa Toskala shutout.

It was a convincing win with the clear highlight being an absolutely sick goal by Tyler Bozak. It also happens to be his first career NHL goal.

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Maple Leafs 2, Hurricanes 4
Published January 13, 2010 @ 09:51 in Toronto Maple Leafs

The Leafs have allowed 51 power play goals against this season. A blog called Behind the Net recently listed the worst penalty killing teams since 1963.

Only two terrible Los Angeles Kings teams from the late 70s and early 80s had less than a 70 PK%. This season's Leafs clock in at 68.32%. That's unbelievably bad.

No matter how you slice it, this year's Leafs take is historically bad on the power-play. Every single player with regular PK time other than Jeff Finger has given up goals at a rate that's worse than the league-average. Mike Komisarek, Nikolai Kulemin, Wayne Primeau and Francois Beauchemin have been particularly bad, allowing goals at double the NHL average, or worse. Komisarek's poor PK work is made even worse because he did not even play against top PP lines at 4-on-5. And let's not forget Vesa Toskala, who has had a humiliating 768 save percentage down a man - that's so bad that it can't all be the fault of the skaters in front of him.

Typical Leafs analysis with the cup half empty all the time. Don't you all realize that the opposition is only scoring on their powerplays against us 31.68% of the time? We kill 2 out of every 3 successfully!

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