Puck Drop: 7PM SNET-O
The Leafs played the Panthers on November 27th and found themselves down 2-0 two minutes into the game. Momentum shifted after that; Phil Kessel scored to make it 2-1 and the Leafs scored three in the third to take the lead and a 6-4 win.
The last Leafs - Panthers game also saw the introduction of LEAFS MAN!!!1 whose luck will be with us tonight. Leafs Man isn't often defeated; his tenacity and winulence are renowned.
Starting in goal for the Panthers is Tomas Vokoun who stopped 27 of 32 (.843) last time around. Vokoun's save percentage on the season is .921 however. Maybe it was Leafs Man who inspired our shooters to obliterate one of the league's better goaltenders or maybe it was an isolated bad night by Vokoun. Either way let's hope for a repeat of his goaltending performance if the Leafs want to have any chance of beating the Panthers tonight.
My fantasy opponent "Fuzzy Bunnies" has Tomas Vokoun tonight which means based on my terrible luck I fully expect him to shut out the Leafs. If anyone wants to place a $100 bet at Proline for me that says Vokoun will end up with a save percentage over 0.900 tonight that might help to cancel that out. In the meantime you should all yell at whoever's in charge of the Fuzzy Bunnies in the PPPPP to sit their goaltender tonight.
Jonas Gustavsson gets the start tonight and I hope we're past the "win and you're in" bullshit that saw us throw away a game in Edmonton behind Toskala because he wasn't as bad as Fleury was in the Pittsburgh game. In his past eight starts dating back almost a full month Jonas Gustavsson has been on the ice for 19 penalty kills and has only been scored on twice. That's almost a 90% kill rate. Gustavsson's save percentage on the penalty kill is 0.881, Toskala's overall save percentage is 0.869. That hurts.
Niklas Hagman and Phil Kessel ran wild on this team about a month ago, they've been quiet lately so with any luck there's something about Florida that gets them scoring and they'll pick up their play soon. With Mike Komisarek out today and tomorrow with a shoulder tweak the Leafs are going to need to score early and often. Also on the injury front John Mitchell rejoins the lineup tonight.
Remember your SPG picks and go Leafs go!
