In the interest of bringing you Fair and Balanced coverage of the Toronto Maple Leafs, the day after a game PPP and I are going to show you coverage of the Leafs from people who don't like the Maple Leafs.
NOTES -- Petr Sykora, Ruslan Fedotenko and Evgeni Malkin scored for the Penguins last night, while Alexei Ponikarovsky and Mikhail Grabovski beat goalie Dany Sabourin for the Leafs. ... Center Sidney Crosby (groin) was held out of the game as a precaution, but said he expects to return when the Penguins visit Toronto tomorrow.
This is the entirety of last night's game coverage from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. I know Pittsburgh is a happening place to be on a Wednesday night and all, so it's understandable that their newspaper couldn't write more than a paragraph.
A new Arby's probably opened or something.
From SBNation's own Pensburgh:
the Penguins' forwards at least showed that they can handle the workload up front. Evgeni Malkin, Petr Sykora and newcomer Ruslan Fedotenko all lit the lamp, while Jordan Staal and Miroslav Satan each dished a helper. Malkin tagged one as well on Sykora's first-period goal.
While true, I think this paragraph should read closer to "After the Leafs scored two own goals, Anton Stralman decided to fall down in his own end rather than make a play anyone would have described as 'adequate' , leaving Staal and Malkin alone with Justin Pogge to play their version of monkey in the middle."
But then Toronto fans had another cheap thrill towards the end of the game when Mikhail Gribovski popped the second and final Toronto goal with the extra skater and only 11 seconds left on the clock. Pens hang on 3-2.
Big improvement from last year, The Leafs are already making teams hang on to win against them, rather than letting them come from behind to win. Think about what that means!
The Toronto Star has plenty of negative drivel for you to shovel up this morning:
Yes, the mighty Leafs, led by the likes of Nik Antropov and Alexei Ponikarovsky, couldn't beat the crummy Penguins who only iced loser players like Evgeni Malkin, Petr Sykora, Jordan Staal, Brooks Orpik, and Marc-Andre Fleury. What a bunch of losers how could Toronto get blown out 3-2 to that lineup full of AHLers?
Malkin and Staal victimized Toronto with a shorthanded goal in the second period, a marker that represented a rude undressing for young Leaf defender Anton Stralman.
While that goal was embarassing for Stralman, I would hardly call blowing a tire a rude undressing. If you want to see a rude undressing, ask Mark Eaton what the back of Mikhail Grabovsky's jersey looks like.