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.