Rebuilding Team 2 at Stanley Cup Contender 5

In the midst of all the hoopla surrounding Ron Wilson's return to the Shark Tank after being fired nearly seven months ago, it became all too easy to lose track of another subplot that threatened to slip under the radar: Joe Thornton's third anniversary in Teal.

Lest anyone forget, Jumbo Joe drove home the reminder with 4 points in the first period, sending the Sharks well on their way to a 5-2 victory over Wilson's Toronto Maple Leafs, not to mention a 21-3-1 start, tying the 1943-44 Montreal Canadiens for most points ever in 25 games.

Mr. K, Fear The Fin

Hey, looks like someone has senatorsitis!

The bright side? The Leafs won 2/3 of the game against the best team in the league!Of course, that first period was quite the stanza for the Sharks. Joe Thornton showed why the Bruins got a new GM a couple of years ago as he was in on all four goals. How's his year been going so far?

Pretty good. Much like in the Lightning game earlier this year star power played a big part in deciding the game. Now, some of you are familiar with this 'tanking' strategy that suggests that the only way to get a player of that quality is to draft them. Down Goes Brown previously took a look at that theory and found that there is, in fact, more than one way to skin a cat. What does that mean for the Leafs? They need a Joe Thornton and need to exhaust every avenue to get one.

As for the game, here are the highlights for the people that listened on the radio and fell asleep during the third period...

1. Dear God that first goal was awful. That is not the way to start against the league's best team although at least it was 18 seconds better than last game. Baby steps.
2. How is there no penalty on the second goal? jrwendelman described it as a division of Panzers rolling over poor Vesa Poland. Sounds about right.
3. Antro, I love you, but you can't be chicken scratching like that.
4. Wow. The Sharks are sick. Notice they are wearing their third jerseys though. No better time to market them eh boys?
5. I love everyone on the Lemonade Line.
6. Tomas, we need to talk. When you mess up all I can think about is Jeff Carter so either get us another Jeff Carter or stop messing up.
7. The video is broken so I can't see the second Leafs goal but I saw it on Yahoo. Nice play.
8. Luke Schenn is becoming a hard-hitting beast! Although the Leafs should make sure that if every team is going to get their panties in a bunch on a clean hit that they put Deveaux out with the kid.

This isn't a game worth worrying about too much. Everyone gets a mulligan. Except Hollweg who blew down the little piggies strawhouse with that wild whiff.

Thanks to everyone that came out until the early morning hours to hang out in the game thread. I am hopefully less than a week away from never missing another one. Until then, enjoy Chemmy and dream of better days.