The Leafs host the Boston Bruins tonight in what is shaping up to be a horrifically boring game. The Bruins tend to love to plant five players in front of the net while they wait for the Leafs to make a mistake. Unfortunately, the Leafs discovered how well that strategy works Saturday night so they can be expected to at least attempt to repeat that winning formula. Of course, they are the Leafs so they'll probably go back to running and gunning with optional backchecking for the forwards.
Actually, I could care less if it looks ugly. I just want some wins. I finally figured out why Devils' fans could not care less about what is said about their team as long as they win. Although now that they aren't winning that often the goodfellas might get a little restless.
Anyway, Paul Hunter does a good job of giving us a peek at what the fowards lines might resemble tonight:
Ponikarovsky - Sundin - Blake
Antropov - Bell - Tlusty
Pohl - Wellwood - Tucker
Steen - Stajan - Devereaux
That seems a little harsh on Chad Kilger but not Bates. If you don't hit everything that moves then you get no sympathy from me. And all of a sudden Bell looks much less like a throw-in on a brutal trade and more like he might be leaning towards another successful reclamation project for JFJ. Not that that should save his job especially considering that Bell will be in jail at the end of the year.
Since I didn't read anything about the defence I can only assume that Maurice thinks that it's a better idea to ride four defencemen hard with the other pair getting the best seats in the house rather than calling up a competent defender to help round out a third pairing.
Oh, and Tuukka Rask might get the start tonight. I see no way in which this could possibly turn out bad for the Leafs. Nope, none whatsoever.
Vesa Toskala racked up another Player of the Game nod with his 24 save performance. Remember to put your guesses for who will score take the first shot, get the first penalty, and score the first goal in the comments. I'll keep a running tally of the results in the right sidebar. For the sens' game the winning predictions were: Shot - Antropov, Penalty - Simplex (Surprise surprise), and Goal - Tucker. This is also getting tracked in the sidebar. Right now it's a two horse race but there is definitely room for a newcomer to get themselves in the hunt.
As always, the comment section is a wonderful place to vent and rage between periods or make hopeful predictions that you can tout in the future if they happen to come to pass. Each period and overtime/shootout gets their own section so just reply to the relevant section's main post and as much as it hurts try to refrain from swearing despit Herpes' best efforts to make you turn the air blue. All you need to get started is to set up an account to comment so register and share your thoughts.