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.

Paul Pierce is a Douchebag

Whether you are dropping down to block a slap shot or standing in the lane to take a charge, it takes cojones to play pro sports. You wouldn't know it from the following clip though.

This whole video just makes me sick. Let's break it down.
1. Rasho Nesterovic is guarding Paul Pierce on an ISO play. How the fuck does this happen?
2. Paul Pierce's dirty fuckin slam on Bosh. Now when I say dirty I don't mean it the same way the hip kids do. The way he sticks out his knee out to catch CB4 in the nuts is plain dirty.
3. The stare-down. You're a real tough guy, Pierce. You didn't posterize Bosh, you kneed him in the balls. Need I remind you that you're the same guy that did this?

4. The score. It was 87-72 before the dunk. The dunk was totally unnecessary.
5. The Kevin Garnett pan away. From one big douchebag to the biggest douchebag.
6. 4 fuckin Raptors who stood around and did NOTHING!

Rasho Nesterovic, Jose Calderon, Hedo Turkuglo and Jarrett Jack should hang their head in shame for not standing up for their team leader and all-star, Chris Bosh. None of them even wanted to make eye contact with Pierce. This is why teams like The Celtics aren't afraid to step all over the Raptors. They know that they won't have to face the consequences if they do. I haven't seen a Raptor get animated over a play since Charles Oakley. What this clip doesn't show is the only guy who stood up for Bosh, the only guy who gave a shit, the only guy to go after Pierce; that guy was Raptors head coach and good ol' Canadian boy, Jay Triano.

Speaking of balls, Phil Kessel might only have one but he is the fuckin man.

When was the last time you remember seeing a player going coast to coast and scoring a beauty like that on the Leafs? As great as Sundin was, even he didn't have that speed and quick release. There's only one possible reaction to a goal so pretty.

Movembrance Day

In Niklas Hagman's last 4 games he has 4 goals and is a +3. Now Hagman isn't a bad player by any means but he won't be a 50 goal scorer anytime soon so why the sudden surge? Well, roughly around that time, he decided to go the way of the White and grow a stache. Due to his blondness, it isn't very visible in the above picture but take a closer look. There is indeed some fuzz above his upper lip.

Some might consider it a mere coincidence. After all, it's just facial hair, right? Wrong! Is it a coincidence that Ian White goes from marginal NHLer to top four status after growing his moustache? Is it a coincidence that Wendel was always awesome because he was born with a stache? Face it, ladies and gents, the stache does wonders for your NHL career!

In case you didn't know, this month is the month of Movember. Now I could attempt to grow a moustache but it would look worse than Sidney Crosby's...when he was 13. So instead, I went out and purchased the Stache Generator 2000 and ran the Leafs roster through it. Can you say greatest Leafs team of all time?

It all starts with a good front office

Followed by solid goaltending

Continue building from the net out with the defence

Top it off with some skilled forwards

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.

A Tribute to Vince Carter

So you may or may not have heard but Vince Carter was apparently approached by the Raptors before Sunday's game to be honoured for their 15th anniversary but he declined the invitation. I don't blame him, why would he accept it? He's not going to win over any fans and will just be serenaded by boos. He's also playing on the opposing team! C'mon, Raptors...I mean are you really going to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the team? Most superstars that played on the team are still in the league! Wait another 10 years when some of them actually retire!

Make no mistake about it though; Vince put Toronto on the NBA map. Along with Mats Sundin and Carlos Delgado he headed one of the deadliest triple threats the sporting world had seen in the early 2000s. This is why I would hate for him to not get the recognition he deserved. Luckily I know a guy who knows a guy that works in the Raptors media room so I got my hands on the tribute slideshow. I present to you the Raptor's tribute to Vince.

It all started in the draft of '98
Picks were swapped and the rest was fate
At 6'6 Vince was quite the high flier
He had no fear. He dunked over guys 7 foot or higher
In the year 2000 the Raptors were still a relatively new addition
But Vince put us on the map by winning the slam dunk competition
However, all wasn't rosy as the team still went nowhere
I'm sure Vince knew it. He had a great view from his chair
But let's not turn this into a rant, we're not here to pick you apart
Because no matter where you went, Vince, you played with the
same
heart.