I live in Devils TV territory, just outside of NYC (though on the opposite side). Last night the Rangers, Islanders, Knicks, and Devils all played which ruined my chance to see the Leafs in HD. Crud.
Luckily for me the game was worth watching. I turned on my TV at 7:30 to find out it was a 7:00 start, and Grabovski and Hamilton had already lit up Brodeur's glove hand. I also realized that Devils fans don't go to hockey games and I should have bought tickets to see the Leafs one last time this season. Double crud.
The real story of last night was Martin Gerber, who singlehandedly lifted the Leafs up on his Alp-like Swiss shoulders and stopped 47 of 48 shots. This wasn't an easy game for Gerber at all, as if the shot total didn't give that away. Gerber made a number of saves sliding across the crease to the far post that he had no business making.
After a shaky Philadelphia outing and a "not good" game against Montreal Gerber came back with a vengeance. New Jersey's lone goal came on an ugly giveaway by "Boy Oh" Boyd Devereaux. Langenbrunner caught a pass and took a low wrister that bounced around Gerber's five hole area like two high school kids at lookout point before trickling into the net. I'm sure the Gerberzerker would like to have that one back, but the New Jersey Devils would probably like to have scored eight or nine of the goals that Gerber absolutely robbed them of.
With Gerber's two points and Atlanta losing in Washington, the Leafs have mathematically eliminated themselves from finishing 13th in the East, and have only a 7% chance of finishing 11th.
Grabovski scored his 20th of the season and Habs fans don't miss him one bit. They have tons of guys with more than 20 goals like Kovalev, Kostitsyn and uh... actually that's it. Grabovski joins Hagman, Poni, and Jason Blake in the "Leafs 09 20 Goal Club" which I hear is very nice and serves complimentary Sosa-sola.
Christian "Brought His Toys With Him" Hanson scored a nice tap in goal off a great effort by Blake to drive hard down the wing and get a shot on net. With 1 goal in 3 NHL games, Hanson projects out to be a 500 goal scorer if he can play 1500 games. Not too shabby for something we got for free. (Take a deep breath, it's a joke.)
