I had mentioned during the open day game thread in the Carolina game that it seemed like the 2007-2008 Leafs were back. They'd come out hard, stake an early lead, and then we'd all sit at home and watch while it all fell apart.
How forward thinking of me.
The first period looked great. Stempniak was left all alone in front of Hedberg, and pivoted after a Kaberle wrister from the point to slide home an easy goal that got the Leafs on the board.
Luke Schenn let a rocket go that Dominic Moore tipped down and into the net, and a minute later Grabovski streaked down the right wing and got the puck to Antropov who dished to Hagman. Hagman stuttered and fired a puck in and out of the net before Hedberg moved.
After the first period it was Kari Lehtonen time. The Leafs didn't score on Kari Lehtonen, but the Thrashers picked Toskala apart. The first Thrasher goal was a wrist shot from Kovalchuk that Toskala was too short to save. The third Atlanta goal was Toskala way out of his net leaving Kovalchuk all the ready to fire a puck home. I played a lot of goal growing up and honestly from the time I was six years old they always told us to hold the post tight. The puck carrier may not have had a shot there, but he had a pass through the crease. Ugh.
The eventual overtime winner was a soft shot by Kovalchuk that Toskala couldn't hold on to, surprise surprise. Really disappointing effort by the Leafs, but at least they've gone two games without giving up a goal in the first, or on the first shot.
The Leafs get the weekend off to celebrate Jason Blake Day, hopefully by being forced to hammer rocks to pieces. On Monday night we'll see Caroli *yaaaawwwwn*
