[Open Thread] Toronto Maple Leafs v. Pittsburgh Penguins

If you haven't had a chance, check out the 5 Questions for tonight's game. Also, the Festivus Contest has ended so remember to vote for your favourite.

I was updating the upcoming schedule in the right sidebar today when I realized that MLSE was trying to extend the holiday period by giving Leaf fans a belated Christmas gift. Seven of the fourteen games in January will be carried by LeafsTV which means that you can get a third of their twenty scheduled games for the cost of one month's registration. Of course, LeafsTV does not have quite the broadcast region of Sportsnet and TSN. So if you live outside of the Leafs television region MLSE's gift to you is a big F-U.

Anyway, the Leafs travel to Pittsburgh tonight where they are 8-2-0 in there last 10 visits which is kind of ironic because in one of those 2 losses the score was 8-2. The Penguins are fresh off of a victory in the Winter Classic which was in no way scripted to get Sidney Crosby to score the game winning goal.

Here are the home and road splits for some stats that might be considered either interesting or scary. The Leafs road penalty kill is at complete odds with the home version. On the road it looks like it belongs in the NHL and at home it looks like even Team Canada could score on it (good luck against the USA tomorrow!). It would be nice if the Leafs' powerplay could start working it's way out of the cellar since it's now actively costing the team games just as blatantly as when it was giving up a shorthanded goal every game. (I don't even take that sentence out of the preview anymore) Look at the OT/SO records. If the teams swapped then the Penguins would be in 12th and the Leafs in 5th. But let's still cancel the season.

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.

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 question how the team can look so good one night and so bad the next or even from minute to minute within the exact same game. Whatever you want to say all that you need to say it is to set up an account to comment so register and share your thoughts. I might actually be around tonight but for those listening on the radio (here) you can discuss how you imagine the play actually going. I find that my imagination never matches the highlights.