Formidable Opponent

My pal sent me the following in an e-mail and I figured that it would make a nice guest piece since he has chosen to highlight some of the lowlights of last night's game with no regard to all of the, umm, highlights. Maybe it could be a recurring theme. Of course he does not know so it is a test of just how good of a friend he is because if he sucks he will not notice. Surprise!

Plus

Mats, Peca and Raycroft all played well. Raycroft can maybe be faulted for one of the goals but he had no chance on the two others.

Minus

• McCabe did not show any improvement from last year. ie- still turning the puck over, missing defensive assignments. I know it's just one game, but at the salary we're paying him he can't be taking games off like last night.
  

• Defense in general was a little shaky (Belak and Wozniewski especially). This shouldn't be a problem going forward with Kubina, Kronwall and Bell returning. I'm still wondering why Maurice put Belak on defense given his troubles with Ottawa last year and the fact that Harrison was available to play. (Editor's Note: I watched the game with a good friend of Jay's and he was livid everytime Wozniewski or White made a mistake. It was pretty entertaining.)
  

• Too many shots missed the net, and the shots that made it through were always low or into the crest. I seriously failed to see one shot that made it to the net that was over a foot above the ice. Obviously Gerber played pretty well but I think the Leafs made him look better by not going high. (Ed.'s Note: The Leafs had 19 shots blocked and 16 that missed the net in addition to their 34 that ALL hit Gerber's crest)
  

• Lack of discipline. The Leafs cannot afford to give up 6 powerplays against the senators.
  

• Where was the crowd enthusiasm? I bet the decible level at the ACC never rose above 80 db's all night. (Ed.'s Note: It was almost embarrassing. The platinums were, predictably, empty in the first five minutes before and after each intermission. This will drive me insane during the three games that I will watch from the purples.)

All in all, I do not think the Leafs played too badly as a whole. The sens were just able to capitalize better on the Leafs' mistakes than the Leafs were to the sens'. I am looking for a much better effort out of the Leafs tonight but I am thinking that the sens will be firing all out as well.

Leafs 1 v. 4 sens: It's a marathon not a sprint

Game Recap
Scoresheet
Statistics

The best part of this game was the opening ceremonies. I guess standing around made both teams a bit sluggish because almost simultaneously my two friends and I looked at each other and noted what a terrible game it was turning out to be. TO has shown that too much bad press can cause "allergies" so in order to keep Leafs Nation from the embarrassment of having their PR reps overreacting to their empty bottles of painkillers here are 5 reasons to smile today:

1. Andrew Raycroft looked really good. He made great breakaway saves on Dany "The Tomahawk" Heatley and Jason Spezza to keep the game close. The third goal was a bad bounce and, while the first one came off a huge rebound, where the hell was McCabe? Did the vacant space behind the net really need covering? FOCUS! Positive thoughts..
2. The first period! The Leafs were on top of the sens and created some really good scoring chances. Once the players stop grinding their sticks to dust then the scoring question can die. Once the Leafs can keep this up for 60 minutes they will be a difficult team to beat.
3. Faceoffs - The Leafs won 64% of them. This is a good sign for the season because puck possession is, obviously, vital. It is much easier to kill penalties when you can clear the puck immediately. Following on, it is much easier to set up your powerplay if you do not have to lug the puck all the way up ice. Sundin and Peca will be vital to keeping this stat up.
4. Paul Maurice showed that this is a different Leafs team. He benched players for long periods of time, he swtiched up lines that were not clicking, and he played Mats about 3-4 minutes more than he averaged under Pat Quinn.
5. The NHL regular season is a marathon not a sprint. While last night's game was disappointing (from both sides' point of view) there were enough good things to keep everyone's wrists safe.

The funniest incident in the game occurred after a Raycroft save when the new go-to goat Hal Gill gave Spezza a nice noseful of stinky glove. Spezza proceeded to try to get at Gill but was stopped by his teammates. What are the odds that he was whispering "do not let me go guys" while yelling "Let me at him! I am going to kill him!"?

With a new spin because I hate how predictable the mainstream media is about sports (ie. choose a story, repeat ad nauseum, do not take opposing evidence into account) here is the bloggers' view of last night's game in...

The Final Word

How many times am I going to hear "who's going to score on this team?" before I start clenching my jaw and talking back to the little voices in my head. I get it. We all get it. Is there any one on the planet with a remote interest in hockey that hasn’t heard this trope? Can we somehow form a goon squad to make announcers and analysts put a loonie in a jar every time they offer this up? We could raise the GDP of a small country for a worthwhile cause by the 10 game mark. Let's figure out how to make this happen.
Bitter Leaf Fan agrees that something has to be done about the myopic press

Toronto would have been up a few goals if not for Martin Gerber during the first 10 or so minutes of the game, and were the dominant team in the first period, however, they were unable to sustain that pressure and fell apart in the second, allowing Ottawa to blow the game wide open by capitalizing on their mistakes.
Chris McMurtry giving the Leafs more credit than anyone name Damien Cox

Hockey's Back!

Hostilities Renewed

The Battle of Ontario kicks off the 2006-2007 season tonight at the ACC. This game, and the return matchup tomorrow, will be used as a touchstone for the media, Leafs Nation, and the anti-Leafs. Paul Maurice sees it in a slightly more low-key fashion,

“It’s only important if you end the season on a winning note,” Maurice said this morning. “It starts tonight. But it will be no indicator, regardless of the score, as to how this team is going to finish. We’re moving forward from today.”

But the truth remains that this is a team that has been written off by everyone in the media. Here is a sample of the season previews for the Leafs:

• 11th in Sports Illustrated
• 9th on ESPN.com
• 11th on TSN.ca

Those are just three of the big ones. The general consensus is that the Leafs are doomed. Much like last season's run was fueled by a lack of pressure I think that going in with such low expectations will be a benefit. Despite the mis-givings that Maurice has with making any predictions based on this year's team, the truth is that these two games are important. Their performance against a team that beat them in every way imaginable, from a shootout to a couple of anhilations, will not define the season but it will give a barometer as to how much the lessons of training camp and the pre-season are sticking.

If we lose both games but play hard, work the new systems, create chances, and generally do not embarrass ourselves then at least we can build on that. Lose 8-0 twice and well...it won't be the end of the world but it won't do much to instill optimism in the legions of Leafs fans.

Five hours to go...