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.