If Marc Pouliot is ever the victim of a headshot or any sort of dirty play my mind will wander back to early in the first period and I'll think that karma has once again settled the score. Mike Van Ryn, sporting the 'A' and seemingly back to full health after being one the receiving end of a dirty play from a filthy Hab, was once again targeted by a piece of shit player. The slew foot on Van Ryn would have been bad enough but it was made worse by the awkward landing that wrenched his recently injured knee. Shockingly, the newspaper reports refuse to identify the hit as it deserves to be labelled: Filthy.
In a complete surprise Jonas Frogren's injury also came when he became 'tangled up' with Pouliot. The TV networks didn't show a replay but I feel safe in assuming that the aforementioned piece of shit pulled another slewfoot. I have no idea when the scrub might get his comeuppance but I can only hope it's on par with ending Van Ryn's season.
As for the rest of the game, the lack of a sniper highlighted the Leafs' inability to score more than 1 goal despite dominating the Oilers for most of the game. They were repeatedly able to pin the Oilers in their zone but found themselves constantly stymied by Dwayne Roloson and the at times fortuitous shot blocking efforts of the Oilers. Before the game MacTavish was asked by Elliotte Friedman if he saw any similarities between the 2006 Oilers that made it to the Final and this year's edition. It looked like it was all he could do to stifle laughter as he admitted that while that team had an issue in goal this year's team struggles everywhere else and it showed against the Marlies last night.
The line of Jason Blake-John Mitchell-Jeff Hamilton was especially effective inasmuch as they didn't score a goal. The two wingers used their speed to recover pucks and cause troubles for the Oilers' defence while Mitchell tied his speed to his size to do the same. I have to admit that I had a bit of a mancrush on Mitchell but it's growing. The bandwagon is getting sluggish so I have had some trouble driving it lately.
Martin Gerber had a rough night as the three goals he allowed came on only 17 shots. The first two were breakaways and he could not come up with the momentum-swinging saves that he did Thursday night. The third was one of those ridiculous deflections that somehow ended up top shelf.
The end result is that the Leafs move one step closer to getting back in the draft lottery while the players' played fairly well. The injuries will give a window to Burke to evaluate more of the players on the farms as he moves towards his first draft and free agency period as GM of the Leafs. All in all a decent result I guess.
