Thoughts From The Leaf Game (16)

1. Do this team like playing from behind? Another game scored on first

2. After two big wins, back down to Earth we come

3. Is this what happens when you name a starting goaltender in this city?

4. That being said, Gustavsson's defence totally left him out to dry last night

5. Matt Stajan's tenure in Toronto is looking shorter and shorter

6. Where is the pride in singing the National Anthem in this city? Especially for a Rememberance Day game? Even I sing it at home and there are many reasons I should not even care, but I do and am saddened that more people in this city do not...

Thoughts From The Leaf Game (15)

1. Scored first and at home! Is the ship turning?

2. Gustavsson is incredible in goal. He is the single reason the Leafs are turning it around now

3. Kessel finally has the monkey off his back and did it quickly in his Leaf career. Way to stay a step ahead of the curmudegeons in our lot

4. The Leafs look confident, are exciting to watch and look more comfortable playing with each other...that being said

5. After railing on the coaching in the early on and even with a great goalie backstopping the team to success, the coaching has to be applauded for getting the team to stay focused during a very rough start to the season

6. For the first time in a long time a Leaf crowd that showed some emotion. The bandwagon has officially opened its doors

Thoughts From The Leaf Game (14)

1. Another game, another first goal given up

2. Gustavsson looks shaky early on...

3. Great response staying in the game, keeping focused and not giving up,

4. That being said...a goalie that doesn’t give up is of the foremost importance and the key to giving your team the confidence to play themselves back into the game

5. This has still been a very sloppy game

6. A win and in regulation! Something is up with this team...confidence has suddenly started to re-appear.

Thoughts From The Leaf Game (13)

1. Wow this goalie looks good.

2. So does theirs

3. That hit on Kessel almost induced a mass Leaf Nation suicide...

4. That being said he made everyone around him look better last night while taking 18 TOTAL SHOTS! (no goals however, welcome to Toronto.)

5. Two key players, make this team far more exciting to watch

6. It is an indictment on the NHL and their ludicrous post lockout point system that the leafs have a point in all the games they have lost. In competition somtimes there are ties no matter how well one team performs above another. I do not care if it helps the Leafs currently, this point system is a travesty on the nature of competition and what it should take to earn a single point in this league. Simply by tying a game at the end of a sixty minute frame is no reason for an award and this team and many others are very lucky in this “modern era” to be gain in the standings by losing games in overtime procedures.

Thoughts From The Leaf Game (12)

1. Scored First!

2. The Powerplay is coming along quite nicely. Nice to see it in action

3. See what happens when fans get cocky? Nananana,Heyheyhey thanks for getting us back in the game...

4. That being said, a win would have been the sweetest justice for that instead of the night ending the teasing manner it did

5. Two shootout goals, glove side. All year long glove side. All last season glove side. Anyone seeing a pattern here?

6. Without a consistent, reliable hard skating centreman, can Phil Kessel really be the saviour? Most likely a defining moment for Matt Stajan in a Leafs sweater

Thoughts From The Leaf Game (11)

1. Still can’t buy the first goal

2. Another three goals let in by the Monster

3. That being said, he looks fantastic and most of those goals are not groaners

4. These nights at least they are coming to play

5. When taking costly penalties game after game, night after night, isn’t coaching a part of the problem?

6. After 11 years, I miss Nik Antropov. There was a time I never thought I would say that.

Thoughts From The Leaf Game (10)

1. They continue their streak of allowing the first goal

2. Sometimes lucky breaks get you back in, you need a few of those pucks to go in

3. The benched players seem to have gotten the message for now

4. Gustavsson has let in in his three games 10 goals for a not so respectable 3.3 GAA...

5. That being said the Leafs play like a far more confident bunch in front of this goaltender, and he has made some spectacular saves in key moments

6. Someone needs to remind the team that there can still be some hockey played after 60 mins. (They look better though don’t they - sound better too from where I’ve been lately)

Thoughts From The Leaf Game (9)

1. Finally
2. If he wasn’t the annointed one before, Mr Gustavsson took a monster step towards that direction last night
3. Once again, scored on first...
4. That being said, that is how you respond
5. If they had lost while gaining 11 powerplays who knows the amount of lost sleep Leafs Nation would have experienced
6. A hat trick for Hagman, 5 points for Kaberle but most importantly a win. Let’s see if they can bring collective confidence back to Toronto one day soon.

Thoughts From The Leaf Game (8)

1. They still can’t score first
2. Or second
3. If you need a moral victory this early in the season...
4. That being said there is something to be said for at least showing up to fight
5. The perfect coach to have right now, to teach young kids and work from the bottom up is Paul Maurice. Shame really.
6. On a dark cool wet October evening, listening to the game on a radio, in a cottage with a fire , somewhere in Ontario, there is a soft and familiar charm that is just as important to remember as any Saturday night in the city.

Thoughts From The Leaf Game (7)

1. Who's under more pressure, the team, the coach, or the gm? answer: none, it's the upper echelon of management that should be rattled right now. Their gravy train is going right off the tracks.

2. Is it worse Here or Montréal? the age old debate se continuer je spose. But at least Montréal

3. Whenever Don is right he really likes to tell people about it and shove it home. So where is the clip from 2 weeks ago where he said Joey Macdonald would be a star if he was put it?

4. To continue from above, he is right about Schenn. Why is he playing on that side all the time? After 7 games shouldn't the coach change that or is he deliberately trying to see Schenn fail?

5. How long until the ACC is only half filled? 2 more losses? 3 tops and if is happens on national television...

6. How long until the the debate for and against national Leaf games on the EnglishNationalMouth appears in print?

turns out most of my thoughts led to more questions...such are our Leafs this year.

Thoughts From The Leaf Game (6)

1. This looks like a team playing to get their coach fired. There doesn't seem to be any explanation for that

2. No goalie is going to save this team, especially with a defence that has more holes than a bawdy house.

3. If they cared about playing here, maybe then some players would attempt to block shots. With that said, there is no excuse for highly paid professional athletes to not block shots and play with some semblance of heart and pride.

4. This team would have been a Stanley Cup contender if it was assembled pre 2004 lockout. And then only with Mats Sundin leading the way.

5. The bandwagon has already written off the season, good to see that they are in full force early in the season.

6. A kid is in divorce court and the judge asks him to choose which parent to live with. The child, with some fright looks at both his parents and then smiles looks at the judge and says "neither." The judged, perplexed asks the child to explain, whereupon the child says I want to live with the Toronto Maple Leafs, they can't beat anybody!" Yeah it might be time to bring that old joke back. A part of me is sad, the other part just can't help laughing and laughing. If you're a leafs fan, that just might be the only thing to do.

Thoughts From The Leaf Game (5)

1. An embarrassment on so many levels and at this point shouldn't some of that embarrassment be put on the coach? Has a coach ever lost his team 5 games into the season? Ron Wilson's seat is starting to heat up.

2. Time for a new goalie experiment! At this point, a pylon is an upgrade. I still feel bad for Toskala though, a shame through and through.

3. Forget urgency, where is the pride on this team? Don't you want to play at least to show people you aren't doormats?

4. When Sean Avery is scoring goals that make him look like an all-star, your defensive experiment has failed

5. You cannot use the "goalie is injured ploy" in order to play another goalie and give the other guy some time to think about his commitment level two years in a row. That being said, we should not be falling for this two years in a row, Toskala just might be done if needs the same excuse 2 years running.

6. Dreading watching Leaf games for a diehard like me is uncharted waters. This feels very weird yet oddly empowering. Thank God I still love hockey itself, or I might be starting the trumpets to open the 7 seals.

Thoughts From The Leaf Game (4)

1. This defence really sucks, it takes the crown right out of the game. Even Kaberle looks normal. Maybe he's getting tired of being the only semi-luminescent thing on this team.

2. How can Toskala really stop any pucks playing behind a terrible defence like that? Most of the goals aren't his fault, they are the result of a lazy, slow, outclassed and out muscled team in front of him.

3. Why is that any time there is something worth criticizing and calling out, then only person ith any guts to do so is Don? Good call grapes on the ridiculous need to have an ice level replay colour man and good on ya for mentioning TSN by name. That between the benches tabloid style of game presentation is awful way to present hockey.

4. All those fights look staged and the leafs should be embarrassed to be poorly that all they can do to catch their breaths is send some goon out there to rough up some people. That is not hockey and more importantly that is not good hockey fight. You want fighting in the game fine, but have some class when doing so.

5. That last sentence believe it or not can be achieved, and it comes about by actually being able to play some hockey first and proving that a fight might help you somewhere down the road.

6. At this point Ron Wilson doesn't seem to have control of this team, they play some awful undisciplined hockey. People should really stop showing up if this continues much longer and perhaps this city will show some resolve and support this product from their living rooms and radios until they merit physical presence at the game.

Thoughts From The Leaf Game (3)

1. Is this really how Brian Burke envisioned the start of the season going?
2. The Leafs sure seem determined to be as undisciplined as possible in the early season
3. The Toronto media has made it their collective task to make every issue surrounding this team as nanoscopic as possible.
4. The internet makes the achieving the above statement as easy as possible
5. Matt Stajan, 3 goals in 3 games...see what anyone can do with 22 minutes of ice time, but he is working very hard and is a pleasant surprise (about the only one) so far.
6. For a battle of Ontario, that was as limp a crowd I've ever seen. They barely booed Alfredsson, and were as quiet as a graveyard. This is partly because the Leafs are a thoroughly un-exciting team to watch right now and partly because the ACC is one of the grandest graveyards every built to watch hockey in.

Thoughts From The Leaf Game (2)

1. The Leafs are really really good at playing one period of hockey
2. Vesa Toskala just might be done, not just with the Leafs but as a legitimate starting goaltender in the NHL
3. Even though he let in 3 goals, the Monster looked as sharp as he could behind a lazy defence
5. Two games in, Beauchemin and Komisarek have not been worth the press or respect their salaries command
6. In a city like Toronto, two games in is a lifetime
7. Alexander Ovechkin is a joy to watch

Thoughts From The Leaf Game (1)

These are the things I learned from the Leafs game last night

1. The ACC crowd has to be coaxed into singing National Anthem, way to go Toronto
2. Leafs v. Habs is still a great Rivalry
3. When Matt Stajan is your first line centre, expect greatness only by virtue of insanity
4. That being said, currently Matt Stajan is tied with Alexander Ovechkin for the league lead in goals
5. The Leafs still can't score
6. Don Cherry is still the best mistake CBC ever made, he is the gift that keeps giving
7. it is still a sadistic experiment in self-loathing to be a leafs fan yet it is strangely enticing