After getting bailed out by their goaltenders for the last week, the Leafs skaters decided that they might as well try and play if they were coming to the rink anyways. The result was a dominating win over a tired Red Wings team that had almost every player playing well. The notable exception was the first line, which was the only one below 50% CF.

Onto the links!

First, the Leafs - Wings Links:

TLN Game Recap

TheStar Recap

PPP Recap
The best of the three, obviously

Lastly, we have this tweet from Chris Johnston

As mentioned above, the first line sucked. Kessel and JVR got points PP, but somehow, the line featuring two 30 goal scorers and a capable offensive center is our worst.

LFR From Dangle
Turn your headphones down

SHL Highlights of our Two Future Stars

Modo Game Recap + Highlights
If you want to see Nylander's goal

Frolunda Game Highlights
If you want to see Andreas Johnson's goal

Media being Stupid

Don Cherry thinks Doughty Deserved Lou Marsh Award
Meh, whatever. Let the bobsledder (who apparently is quite impressive) have her moment in the sun.

Teams being Stupid

Pavelski likely to be named next Sharks captain
Kind of weird to talk about a culture change and identity shift and then give the captaincy to a 31 year old player on the back nine of his career.

via /r/hockey - Cody Hodgson now a healthy scratch for the Sabres

And finally,

Too bad they don't fit into the Bruins System.

NHL Being Stupid

Talk around Vegas Expansion team heating up
So, so, so, so, so fucking stupid. Also stupid: the rumoured name, 'Black Knights'.

Boston front-runner to host 2016 Winter Classic
Does Boston really need another one of these? On the other hand, LOL Minnesota

World Juniors!!!

What an awesome tournament. I'm excited to go watch it myself (going to 2 of Sweden's group games to stalk see Nylander play and fangirl over him. Tickets right now are relatively cheap for round robin games on the secondary market, so if you're in Toronto or Montreal and want to catch some decent hockey without paying NHL prices, it's worth it IMO.

Canada's Junior team beats CIS selects, 10-3
McDavid still not playing. Robby Fabbri and Jake Virtanen were the stars of the night, with Gauthier apparently performing well too.

WJHC: Players who made positive impacts Saturday - Video - TSN
TSN talks about the players who made an impact in the game.

Team Canada running drills on blocking shots
I don't really understand why that's a point of emphasis

Top 50 WJHC Moments
TSN is compiling a list of the best WJCH moments. They're on #7 now, but you there are links to the other 42 that have been posted.

Everything else (sports and non sports)

USA Hockey Implements New Fighting Rules for Junior Hockey
This is an old story, but I didn't see much, if any, talk about it.

US Senate agree to see if they agree on implementing a bill
The bill is regarding the $1.1 trillion bill to fund the US Government.

Our Ability To Digest Alcohol May Have Been Key To Our Survival

It's definitely a key to mine

More Steve Lepore

The writer of this post was a victim of his creeping a year ago, but no one seemed to notice

Unsolicited Book Recommendation of the Day

The Teleportation Accident: Ned Beauman

Unsolicited Album of the Day

Foster the People - Supermodel

Feel free to recommend your own favourite books / albums in the comments. I need some holiday reading / listening.

From The Branches