The Real Opening Night

Get out the chalk

Mark the streets from Bloor, east and west

Mark the streets from Yonge, north and south

Mark the beginning of a long awaited parade

Cover every inch of this teeming metropolis

Fly your flags, sound your horns, chant the old refrain

Wear your hats, your toques

Wear the jersey proud, defiant, loyal

Crack the champagne, sip from the cup of victory had and

victory to come

Show those ink hands how wonderful hope is

Show them all how hope rebels, how hope can be the margin of victory

Show them, you young men of our brigade how our hope is in their youth

Show them why it still matters for this city, this city of cities, of nations and men

Show us young man, just enlisted, now deploying, what it is to be a hero as a child

Speak soft for the moment, guard your exuberance, play like a storm that has fooled the earth

Take this place, this time, this town by its flaming devilled horns

Arrest its motion

Shine bright, shine long, shine forever, shine among these bright city lights, over these Babylon towers

This city, this city, is all yours, all for you to take,

Be princes be kings,

Become Gods,

Among these hallowed streets of people and places, you can

legend,

you can become ghosts and walk among the saints of our nation,

blue and white

Help us believe once more

We do nothing better, we want nothing more

Nice game last night, well played defensively for the most part. I'm hesitant to not give the leafs their due, but I wonder if the wings didn't take the leafs lightly, and perhaps not play to their potential while the leafs perhaps exceeded their. That being said, the leafs played really well, really hard. The threw the body, fought for pucks and position and played a solid solid defensive game. It was fun to watch. Toskala once again looked solid.

Ten minutes before Don Cherry tore into the Leafs Management, I was thinking the same thing he was about to say. In fact, in my head, I was thinking I hope Don goes off on MLSE and then BAM! it happens. Spot on Don. Ron Wilson is a good coach but the decision by management to team up drive a steamroller over its players is cringe worthy. Shameful. Like Don, I feel sorry for the young men who have to hear that replayed over and over in this city, that they suck and aren't worthy of playing junior.

On the other hand,this could be the sly-est manoeuvre they could make. Tell the kids they are going to talk ill of them in the media but let them play beyond expectations with everything to gain. Reverse media psychology might be the best thing to happen to this team.

Those cuff links Don was wearing...i want them. Sooooo nice.

Jim Hughson is still the best play-by-play we have in this country for any sport. The colour guy from last night was pretty awful, but Jim Hughson can take a gam on his shoulders with sock puppets doing the colour.

One of the biggest complaints I hear about our dear Bob Cole is that he has become so senile that he refers to players other than Leaf players by their numbers often because many players these days have names he can't pronounce. I think that for this Leaf season, he might just have to start referring to Leaf players by their numbers...names like Grabovski, Kulemin and Finger are sure to trip him up. Hilarity will ensue. Can't wait for Saturday night.

You know during the yankee VP debates everyone was waiting for Palin to lay an egg along the lines of saying "darn right immigrants need to be shot, it will provide American jobs, and Joe Pubilc, Russia is invading my backyard" before Joe biden mauled her and beat her over the head with a mike? Similar to last night's Leaf game. Everyone was waiting for the leafs to roll over or collapse, make some serious gaffe and for the Wings to exploit them without mercy. Funny thing is, like the Palin debates, the Leafs surprised, held their own and the other team was as flaccid as a nursing home.

Wait did i just compare a republican vice presidential candidate debate to the Leafs?

Did I just compare American politics to the Leafs? You now have permission to fire hockey pucks at my head. Someone save me.

This is such a great time of year in this city. We are buzzing with Leaf talk. The chatterbugs are out in full force on the radio. The air is crisp, the trees look pretty. Autumn has finally taken hold of this wonderful city and Hockey Night In Canada is one day away. Basketball season is less than three weeks away and the NFL is in full swing. A beautiful time if there ever was.

Oh, and the con/harper attack on Dion is just puerile, childish and speaks volumes on how the conservatives view anyone who cannot speak english as if it were their mother tongue. I am flabbergasted by how low some people can sink. Does our leader need to be able to speak English? Yes, there isn't a doubt about that. Is Dion's English perfect? No, that is obvious, it is not his primary language. He has done well enough so far in English, and if elected Prime Minister, his English will get better, he will be forced to learn the language better and probably get tutoring. He didn't understand the grammatical complexities of a question. This was bound to happen to someone who is primarily a French speaker or even a speaker of another language as primary when confronted with an inquiry in secondary language. Harper himself didn't know the french word for "trillion," (it's actually billion). If Harper had to conduct the greater part of his interviews in French it is logical to conclude that at some point he would make a grammatical error and/or grammatically misunderstood. However it stands to the character of others (except maybe Duceppe) that they would not stoop to petty parlour tricks a defame a man's character based on linguistic quirks and misunderstandings. They would show class, something the cons sorely lack, something i believe they long ago pissed away. That stunt by the cons was deplorable and shame on them.

peacelovefreedomjustice

-s

"this has been a moment of delirium from the Free City."