The Morning After

I didn't get drunk during the game last night but I sure as hell wish I did. The alcohol would have been the only thing enjoyable during that three hour block. It was a sloppy affair which both teams didn't seem to care to win. Somehow we found ourselves with a 2-0 lead so I can't complain. That's when it all started to go downhill.

Before the second period ended, Mike Brown finds himself on a 2 on 1 with Sjostrom and he doesn't even think to pass. This is easily read by the goalie and everybody else with a functioning set of eyes watching the game. Unless Mike Brown finds himself on a 2 on 1 with Colton Orr, his first option should never ever be shoot. The play then goes back down the ice and into the Leafs zone. Leopold throws a weak wrister on net from the point (which John Mitchell doesn't even attempt to block) and look who's there to clean up the garbage. Derek Roy, the guy Mike Brown was responsible for.

I don't know what was said in the locker room during the intermission but we came out playing even shittier. The Leafs mustered 3 shots in the third against Jhonas Enroth. You know, the 5'10 goalie who just got lit up against the Bruins, allowing 3 goals on 12 shots, a couple of nights ago.

This guy...

The way we were playing, I just had a feeling we wouldn't be able to hold on to the lead. I was hoping that I would be wrong but this is the Leafs we're talking about. Of course they will find a way to blow it. With 16 seconds left, the puck goes to Montador at the point, he throws it at the net, which no Leaf attempts to block (see the pattern here?). The puck bounces of Derek Roy, it bounces off Schenn, it then lands right on an open Jochen Hecht's stick where he jams it home with 14 seconds left. Well, fuck.

Nothing to note in overtime so we're off to the shoot out. While the Leafs are historically garbage in the shoot out, I had high hopes because we're facing a rookie goalie in his first career shoot out. There's no way we don't leave him looking for his jock strap. First up is Versteeg. In his attempt, he pulled off a shoot out move used by many Leafs in the past. He fired it right at Enroth's pads. Nice to see him carry on tradition. Kessel got robbed on another shot and John Mitchell scores on the end of a beautiful dangle. Luckily Vanek was the only one to score for Buffalo so we're going to extras.

The fourth shooter is Clarke MacArthur. The Clarke MacArthur who going into this game is a career 0 for 8 in the shoot out. I don't get it. Was it Cito Gaston appreciation night at the ACC? I simply didn't get what Wilson was thinking when Kulemin and Grabovski, who both have had a heck of a game, were still available. MacArthur, who saw what would and wouldn't work, decided to go with what wouldn't work, doing the exact same thing Versteeg did. For the fifth shooter, Wilson puts out another head scratcher in Tomas Kaberle. He gets stopped, Tyler Ennis doesn't. Game. Set. Match.

We lose a very ugly and very winnable game. I just wish there was one of these to be taken to make last night go away.

What's In The Home Cooking

Inside the concrete confines of 40 Bay St. is a place opposing goalies come to shine. I don't know if it's just me but it seems like every game we play at home we get stymied by the opposing goaltender. Let's take a look at some numbers.

Oct 1 - Carey Price - 43/46 - W - .935 vs .909
Oct 6 - Pascal Leclaire - 26/27 - W - .963 vs .901
Oct 10 - Marc-Andre Fleury - 18/20 - W - .900 vs .903
Oct 13 - Craig Anderson - 30/31 - W - .968 vs .918
Oct 17 - Henrik Lundqvist - 34/35 - W - .971 vs .912
Nov 3 - Antero Niittymaki - 40/41 - W - .976 vs .932
Nov 7 - Chris Osgood - 23/28 - L - .821 vs .897
Nov 10 - Niklas Backstrom - 37/39 - W - .949 vs .910
Nov 14 - Miikka Kiprusoff - 38/40 - W - .950 vs .922
Nov 21 - Semyon Varlamov - 38/39 - L - .974 vs .919
Nov 23 - Dwayne Roloson - 58/61 - W - .951 vs .916
Nov 30 - Ryan Miller - 38/38 - W - 1.000 vs .933

That is a list of all the starting visiting goaltenders, the number of saves/shots faced, the outcome of the game for them and their save percentage in the game vs their save percentage on the season.

The visiting goalies made a total of 423 saves on a total of 445 shots. That's a .951 save percentage!

In 12 home games, the Leafs only won two, one coming against a bad Chris Osgood and the other against an amazing Semyon Varlamov. The only time the Leafs faced a goalie who didn't play way above of way below his average was in a loss against Marc Andre-Fleury. On average, the opposing goalie posts a save percentage that is .032 higher than their season average! Tack on .032 to Toskala's save percentage and he's the owner of an almost respectable .897 save percentage. Do you know how hard it is to make Toskala almost respectable? Yeah...that's how our luck at home has been.

On the contrary, we are shooting a dismal 4.94%. To put that into perspective, remember how bad Jason Blake was his first season here? Well, he shot a mere 4.5%. We are basically watching a group of Jason Blakes!

Remember when the Yankees dug up their new stadium to get rid of that Ortiz jersey? Well, they ended up winning the World Series. My only explanation is that somebody buried a Georges Vezina or Jacques Plante jersey here and the curse is finally taking effect. That or Ken Dryden's stench is still in the building. Blow up the ACC is you have to, this must end. Until the Leafs get a new arena, we can only hope that the law of averages eventually evens things out because I am getting sick and tired of playing against what looks like a Vezina candidate night after night.

Highway 61

Highway 61. Often called the Blues Highway because it runs through the heart of blues country, the Mississippi delta.
To quote a great bluesman

"If it wasn't for bad luck
I wouldn't have no luck at all"

-Albert King

Oh yeah. Fuck off, Vesa.

Fuck This Shit

Another game, another loss. This time it stings even more because it was to the now second last place Canes. That's right, we're last AGAIN. We couldn't even beat a team who had ONE win in their last sixteen coming into last night. A team who signed Manny fuckin Legace because Cam Ward got hurt. A team with Paul Maurice as a head coach for god's sake...

This has got to be the unluckiest team I have ever witnessed. Up 3-0 in the first and we manage to let the Canes right back in to it with 2 real stinkers in the 2nd period. Sorry, Gustavsson. The honeymoon is over. Get your shit together and control a fuckin rebound.

Thanks, refs for giftwrapping this game to the Canes. That four minute penalty to White was just terrible. If you're going to make such a game changing call late in the game, make sure you get it right and don't call one just because you see somebody falling to the ice.

No biggie though, Ian White will redeem himself! That moustache isn't just all show, you know. What do you know? He scores with 30 seconds left! Pop the bubbly because there's no way we can blow this. Not when it's against the pathetic Hurricanes...

FUCK YOU ERIK COLE

How the fuck do you let the Carolina fuckin Hurricanes score in 28 seconds? I could centre a line with my grandmothers on wing and my sisters on defence and that wouldn' happen. Seriously...What. The. Fuck.

Ah well, at least we got the extra point in OT.



Huh? Intent to blow? How does anybody rule this? How does anybody besides the fuckin ref know he really intended to blow the whistle? If you watch the video, the ref clearly is in place and even has his whistle in his mouth the entire time. Why are you going to wait almost 2 fuckin seconds after the puck crosses the line to blow it?! Nobody was in the crease wacking at the puck. The only guy in there was Hagman and he got bowled into Legace by Erik Cole! Is Ian Wallace the son of Kerry Fraser? FUCK!

Eh, the game went to shoot out and we all that the Leafs have a clause in their goalie contracts that states they must be terrible in shoot outs...

FUCK THIS SHIT

Game Review: Lightning Strikes

People say that when it rains it pours and this Leafs season is looking more and more like a fucking monsoon. The Leafs have played well during their road trip, they're coming back to home ice, Phil Kessel is back and they play against a very winnable team...this is an automatic two points, right?

The glass is half full

• Phil Kessel looked great. He was a lot quicker than I thought he would be and he created a lot of scoring chances for himself.
• Oh Jonas, how I love you. You are such a steady wall back there. Let's never speak of that other guy again.
• We drew 8 penalties. We were 2nd in PP efficiency coming into this game. If we keep this up, we'll eventually win another game.
• We got another point and as a result we aren't the lone last place team anymore!
  

Fuck off, it's half empty

• Jason Blake is a Leaf...
  
• Its only been one game but let's end this Stajan/Blake with Kessel experiment. Let's put him with somebody who can set him up (Hagman/Grabbo) or somebody who can capitalize on all the rebounds he produces (Ponikarovsky).
• The PP went 1/8! We did have some good scoring chances but there wasn't enough traffic in front of the net. The wingers are playing too far out along the boards which allows the PK to keep the puck on the outside.
• Gustavsson's puck handling...so the last time he got a penalty for venturing out of the trapezoid. This time he coughs it up instead of letting Ian White skate it up!
• Apparently, knocking the puck in by pushing the goalie into the net and dislodging it after the initial save is a legit goal in the NHL...
  
• Jason Blake is still a Leaf...fuck!

Dishing out the Hardware

The Jonas Hoglund Award: Awarded to the player who suffers from the worst case of stone-handitis.

Matt Stajan - What the fuck, Stajan?! You had an open net to shoot at in the first but gave it up. In the third you had a glorious chance to slide the puck in on the PP only to shoot it wide. Then in OT you give up the puck in the offensive zone which led to the winning goal.

The Bryan McCabe Award: Awarded to the player who makes the biggest defensive gaff of the night

Mike Komisarek - Why did you go after the puck instead of sticking with Malone in OT?! This gave him a straight path to the net allowing him to bowl over Gustavsson for the game winner.

The Vesa Toskala Award - Awarded to the Finn that royally screws us

Antero Niittymaki: Stopped 40 of 41 shots...and a good number of them were good scoring chances too. He was in perfect position all night. Square to the puck, left few rebounds and the rebounds he did give up, he kicked to the corners or his d swept them out of danger. Simply put, we ran into a hot goalie tonight.

The Ray Charles Award - Awarded to the blindest motherfucker in the house

Anybody who thought that OT winner was a legit goal...

While we are looking better and better with every game, we need to start winning soon. We'll be heading to the quarter-season mark soon and having only a couple of wins by then just won't cut it.

Three Blind Mice

Highway Robbery

The Shogun Assassin tonight was not the almighty Dragon but it was the three blind mice judging the fight. Not since the Bisping/Hamill fight have I seen such blatantly bad judging. Just ridiculous.

The reactions to this fight tells the whole story. During the introductions, Machida was greeted with a loud ovation while the only noise Shogun received were a couple of boos. As the fight shifted, the crowd seemed to back Shogun. When the final bell rung, Shogun and his camp raised their arm victoriously while Machida rose his to save face. The facial expression on both men said it all. As they both awaited the judges' decision, Machida hung his head low while Shogun had his up high. When Bruce Buffer made the announcement, I couldn't have been more shocked. The fans were just as equally as displeased considering the same fans who stood and cheered for Machida's entrance is now booing the result.

Shogun pressed the attack, landed way more blows and out-countered Machida. I have yet to see a media outlet score the fight in Machida's favour. Yahoo gave it to Rua, ESPN gave it to Rua, Sherdog gave it to Rua, their forums gave it to Rua, Dana White gave it to Rua, Joe "Daddy" Stevenson gave it to Rua and Anthony Johnson gave it to Rua. Instead of seeing articles on Machida "winning" the fight, it seems like writers are trying to justify the judges' decision instead.

Now some will state the whole "You have to beat the champ" bull shit. 1) If that's the case then Forrest should have never won it from Rampage. 2) Shogun did beat the champ! Sure, Machida wasn't a bloody pulp nor did he look like John Fitch after the fight with GSP but The Dragon still got controlled in every which way.

Fight Metric has their full analysis up and has Rua winning the fight 49-47. The strikes were 82-42 in Shogun's favour. EIGHTY-TWO TO FORTY-TWO! How does somebody land twice the amount of blows their opponent did and still lose by decision? Were the judges watching the same fight? Did they mix up the fighter? I had Machida winning the second round and MAYBE the third only. No matter how you slice it, there is no way you can say Machida won this fight with the straight face. But unfortunately, it looks like there are only three people who can and they were the ones judging the fight at ring side...

The Real Story Behind Toskala's Injury

So as you may or may not have heard, I won tickets to Monday night's Leafs and Rangers game. The contest was hosted by EA Sports to promote their new Be A GM Mode in NHL10. I got to fly down to New York with the team and sat in the manager's box to watch the game with Burkie. Well, you saw the game. It was a complete shit show and Burke definitely wasn't happy about it. After the game, Burke took me down to the dressing room. I'm glad I brought my camera because you would have never believed me if I told you what happened.

"Hey Vesa, great game today.
I know we didn't get the win but it wasn't your fault.
You put together a solid effort!
I saw you go down in the 2nd. How are you feeling?"

"Thanks, Mr. Burke. I was a little sore earlier but it's no big deal. I'm ready to play again tomorrow!
I bet you already regret signing The Monster with me in net"

"...Are you sure you can play tomorrow?
Are you sure you're not hurt?
I don't know...your groin, maybe?
We should get you checked out in case."

"No need, sir. I'm feeling fine.
I'm just going to go down to 5th Ave. and do some shopping. I'll be as good as new after a good night's sleep.
Hey, who is tha...."

"Vesa, I'd like you to meet my new free agent signing, The Bear Jew. You two will be roommates on the road. I'm sure he'll take good care of you"

"Huh? Where am I?
What are you doing with that duct ta..."

"HMMMM!!!
MMMMPPPPHHHH!!!"

Downs Syndrome

Doc in the Bullpen

This week simply hasn't been great for Scott Downs but before I get into that, I guess I'll have to talk about Friday's game.

The rain was out but we didn't care, we were on a mission to see Doc and a little precipitation wasn't going to stop us. After a hot dog and a little pre-drinking, we were ready to enter the dome to see our hero take the mound (at least) one last time.

We got to our seats a half hour early and the good Doctor came out (to a small ovation) to stretch. Arnsberg and Barajas made their way from the clubhouse to the bullpen to catch Doc. Arnsberg was drinking a Red Bull.

I decided to sneak to the seats down by the bullpen to watch Halladay in action, up close and personal. Now I've been to live ball games plenty of times before but watching a pitcher from a distance, you really don't get a feel for the velocity in the pitches. Doc's fastball is in the low 90's and man that was quick. His breaking stuff kept catching the outside corner too. I would hate to have to stand in the box and try to get a hit off him. I managed a couple of pictures (sorry for the crappy quality. I should really invest in a camera) and got a few decent videos of his bull pen session.

As I was making my way back to my seat the anthem started playing. Now I never understood the reason for the anthem at sporting events but whether you like it or not, it's there. Which also means, give it some respect aka shut the fuck up and take off your fuckin hat. As I stood at the top of the stairs, I could see three or four hats on people's heads in that one section alone. I'm 24 years-old so I'm hardly from Don Cherry's era nor am I like your crazy Uncle who starts every third sentence with "Back when I was in 'Nam..." but I am a proud Canadian and that just made me sick.

As the game got on it's way I noticed that the crowd was a little small considering the circumstances. I was expecting a much larger turn-out like 35,000 or so but the attendance was at a little more than 24,000. Pretty lame, Toronto. Luckily for us, we sat behind a loud and obnoxious (and probably the only) Marlins fan. He kept ragging on how his team has won three World Series since '93 (umm...buddy, if you were such a die-hard fan, you would know that the Marlins only have two championhips). I got to give him credit though; I'm shocked he was even aware of the Marlins' existance considering he looked like he was still living in 1988. He wore black acid washed jeans, a Marlins jersey (probably with a Poison or Guns 'n' Roses t-shirt underneath), a black bandana with hair that would have made Kenny G jealous.

Doc was a little uncharacteristic early on, giving up a hit and issuing a walk in the first but he managed to get out of that mini jam unscathed. He wasn't as lucky in the third. After giving up another walk to Bartlett, Bossman Jr. pushed the runner to third on a double with no outs. Both runners ended up coming home but only one earned against Doc as Upton got to third on a pass ball on Barajas. The Jays ended up getting those runs back in the bottom of the inning on a Scutaro single and a Hill double. Once the score was tied at 2-2, Doc settled down and was pretty much vintage Doc from that point onward. Well, until the 9th anyway. In the 9th, he gave up another walk (third of the night) and then a single to push runners on the corners with two outs. It's okay, this is Doc we're talking about. He ended up getting the next guy to ground out to end the inning.

As Halladay was making his way to the dug out, the crowd was up on their feet giving him a standing ovation. Not only for the great game he pitched today but also for the past 11 seasons. Doc was all business as usual. There wasn't a tip of the cap, but that's okay, we understood; the score was tied, there was still work to be done. Once Doc got to the bench Cito trotted over and shook his hand. After a brilliant 9-inning, 116 pitch effort, the book on the Doctor was closed. His line was definitely impressive (9 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 3 BB, 10 K). C'mon Jays, let's get a run in buttom of the 9th to give Doc the win, walk-off style.

Hill started it off. Garza threw a slider down and away. Ball 1. Next pitch was a fastball down the middle that blew right past Hill. One and one. Next was a hanging breaking ball...and with one crack of the bat, Hill deposited that off Windows restaurant. That was it! Jays win! Everybody came pouring out of the dug o...I felt a nudge from my buddy. I woke up just in time to see Rolen go down swinging. Garza just struck out the side and we're headed to extras. Fuck. The 10th is just something I don't really want to get into. To sum it up: Scott Downs had two on and two outs but gave up two runs too many. Jays lose 4-2.

I'm sorry, we couldn't get you your league-leading 12th win, Roy but thanks for the memories.

On to yesterday's game. I don't have much to say on it since I didn't see the whole thing. I was watching it during lunch and left the restaurant before the 5th inning. But hey, Aaron Hill looked more like Hank Aaron and the Jays were up 8-0. What me worry? I had better things to do than watch a blow out; like pick up a suit for a wedding. So off I went. An hour later, I get a text message from my friend that read "Jays blew a 9-1 lead. Game is going to extras" WHAT. THE. FUCK?!

Scott Downs comes in in the 12th to blow the game again...

I really hope BJ Ryan syndrome isn't contageous

I really don't know what's up with Scott Downs but he just hasn't been the same after his toe injury. In the last week, he's had an abysmal ERA of 15.00 and a WHIP of 3.33 (no wonder my fantasy team's ERA is over 7 and WHIP is over 1.50). I know filming 500 Days of Summer must have been fun but please remember that you're still a major league closer. Perhaps The Blue Jay Hunter was right, maybe Cito should have sat Downs yesterday and put in Frasor. The Blissfully Oblivious Bench Boss with another questionable decision in a year which many were made (not moving Vernon and Rios down earlier in the season, keeping Millar vs lefties, not hitting Overbay higher when he was hot, etc). Regardless, the way the Jays' luck have been, we would have eventually gone to Downs and he would have lost the game in the 15th instead of the 12th. I'm with eyebleaf though. I still believe in Scott Downs!