D.O. from Die By the Blade kicks us off today:
Usually the Sabres and Leafs play exciting hockey games at the HSBC Arena. Tonight was anything but exciting. It was nice to see the Sabres get a 5-0 victory and plenty of nice things happened but it was painful to watch. It should be fun beating the Laughs but this game was almost as fun as a root canal.
This is a mostly accurate statement. The title of this post is "Sabres Win a Laugher", I think a lot of Leafs fans last night were laughing based on how much they drank watching that trainwreck of a game.
As good as the Sabres were, let's not give them too much credit. The Leafs must have been still sulking over their overtime loss on Tuesday because they did not show up tonight in Buffalo. Every time the Sabres let us down with a poor effort, we can always fall back on the fact that we aren't Leafs fans.
The Leafs looked like they couldn't be less interested in playing hockey but even still I can't sit here and let a Sabres fan insult our fanbase. Come on your city has never won anything and it went to the Super Bowl four times in a row. Don't even make me bring up why Brett Hull's goal in 1999 was legitimate.
On a night when it was almost impossible and improbable to make a favourable impression, Justin Pogge made one anyway.
"Thank God for Justin Pogge, he had an outstanding game. He made some great saves or it would have been ugly," Leafs coach Ron Wilson said of his rookie netminder's third career NHL start last night.
Mark Zwolinski of the St... wait did I quote the right article? A complimentary article about Pogge after a 5-0 shelling? Hit Ctrl+D to bookmark that page so you can show your grandkids that this really happened.
Ready, yes, at least that's what the players said last night about their pre-game dressing room, where they insist they talk about avoiding their season-long shortcomings, paying attention to detail and playing a simple game.
But Pogge truly was the only bright spot in this ugly effort. Something obviously gets lost from the dressing room to the ice.
I'm calling it right now: Vesa Toskala and the Leafs are betting against themselves and making sure they beat the spread. The team hangs Pogge out to dry because they know he'd win games if they didn't.