Tied 1-1 in the second period, Alexei Ponikarovsky was awarded a penalty shot. I saw it, you saw it, it happened.

It never happened. Instead, they determined that Sergei Gonchar had scored 13-seconds earlier. There's a rule somewhere about scoring two goals on the same play, so the penalty shot was cancelled.

This, in a nutshell, is the life of a Maple Leafs fan. We're tied with the defending Stanley Cup champions and fighting tough, about to get a penalty shot, but instead the puck is dropped at centre ice and we're down 2-1.

The sad thing is, I'm rather used to it by now. Of course Wallin missed that open net! What did you expect him to do? Score?

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I have an idea that will instantly improve our hockey club. Let's stop playing the Buffalo Sabres. We've now lost 10 in a row against them, going 0-5 this season.

I have another idea. Let's stop spotting the opposition a two goal lead. For the 23rd time this season, we were down 2-0. I know it's fun to storm back, but sometimes you fall a little short.

If my two ideas are implemented, I guarantee a race for 8th in the Eastern Conference.

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The Leafs fell behind 1-0 for 31st time in 44 games. But you know what's scary? This was the 22nd time they were down 2-0. We've been down 2-0 or more in half of our games.

In this one, we actually fell behind 4-0 in a snoozer of a game. It's tough to come off the excitement of the gold medal game on Tuesday and watch a dog like this.

At least we finally have a legitimate shot at the first overall pick, right?

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I thought it might be wise to get this Leaf recap up before tonight's game against the Flyers. You see, there was another game last night, and this Leaf victory sort of got buried.

What I'd like to see is a PPM look at GTA viewers of this game. If they're anything like me, they watched the entire first period and then got completely absorbed by the Canada-USA junior final.

Sobering fact of the day: Phil "The Thrill" Kessel has only one point in his past 10 games.

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Our streaky Leafs are in a nosedive. We're now 2-5-2 in our last 9 games. After our 0-7-1 start, we had a very respectable 9-4-2 run that pulled us back into playoff contention. Now it seems that was all for not.

On the bright side, I felt THE MONSTER was excellent. I don't know why Wilson keeps going back to Tosky. We all know it would have been 7-1 for the Flames with Tosky between the pipes.

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This was game #41. That means we're halfway done. It was tough to watch, another awful effort we deserved to lose, by why should game #41 be any different?

The fact we're still sort of in a pseudo playoff race is more a fluke of mathematics than anything. We can't even beat the Oilers, one of two teams lower than us in the standings. In fact, it seems a game against the Leafs is the perfect remedy for a losing streak. It's just a shame we can't play ourselves.

I love my hockey team, but we're not very good. We've got one very good forward, a half-decent defensive corp that's starting to gel and a goaltender we'd trade for a bag of pucks in a heartbeat.

Go Leafs Go!

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Ian White broke a tie with 1:22 to play with his third goal in four games and the Toronto Maple Leafs held on for a 4-3 victory over the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins.

Of course, I missed the whole game. I was forced by my wife to socialize with neighbours. I now remember why I hate leaving the house.

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I remember watching Jaroslav Halak when he was a member of the Hamilton Bulldogs. I'd be sitting in the front row at Richoh, right behind Halak, and he was always sharp against us.

That hasn't changed. He was pretty awesome again last night as he made 47 saves before we lost in overtime.

It seems we're awfully good at falling behind 2-0 and we're not half bad at battling back. We should have won this one in regulation, because we suck in extra time.

If we're looking for a silver lining, I suppose it's that we held Montreal to 19,999 franchise goals. They can get #20,000 against someone else.

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A welcome new addition to the Barilkosphere is Bloge Salming.

Here's Bloge Salming's Carol of the Bells as performed by Damien Cox of the Toronto Star with backup vocals by Howard Berger of the Fan 590. Merry Christmas!

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Merry Christmas Leafs fans, I hope you like crap!

We really should be beating the Islanders at this point, but Dwayne Roloson shut the door again and we never could get the equalizer. That's four losses in five games if you're counting along at home.

Bah humbug.

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