the week that was since last week's post has been pretty eventful for the buds. the team managed to go into buffalo and come out with a win on tuesday night, on the backs of huge games from cody franson and matt frattin, who provided overtime heroics with his second goal of the night with under a second left in OT.
two nights later, the leafs hosted the capitals at the acc and achieved victory in spite of going down early, the game winner again coming on a pretty play from frattin and linemate nazem kadri (who we love around these parts)
joe bowen with the call on this game-winning beaut.
ending the month on a high note, the leafs went into saturday night's game with some momentum against a team who was beaten badly, to the tune of 7-4 in their previous encounter (against the buffalo sabres.)
hit that jump, and we'll talk about how the leafs wound up, and a bit about what's going on tonight.
Bruins at Leafs, Sat. Feb. 2. 2013
the leafs record against the bruins last year inspired the exact opposite of confidence with the team losing each of its six matchups against their divisional 'rivals' and rather handily most nights, being outscored at a rate of 36-10. that was last year however, and this is the brand spankin' new 2012-2013 season, in which these teams haven't met.
the tenders for this one are james "i don't have one consistent nickname" reimer up against tukka "the leafs are still dealing with trading me for raycroft" rask. leafs stalwart/invisible man carl gunnarson did not suit up due to a lingering "lower body injury, lupul was still out 'cause phaneuf hates him, and clarke macarthur is still nursing that pinky.
our weekly "national broadcasts need ratings" ceremonial opening faceoff featured don cherry, ron maclean and leaf legend doug gilmour, dropping the puck to commemorate HNIC's 60th anniversary (i think they don't expect to do another, and are milking this for all it's worth). they also played a long ass package, and people were bored.
don kissing dudes never gets old... and his jacket looks like a pair of boots my partner has.
i'm in favour of both things, but i had no idea grapes was.
so after the obligatory super-long-intro-to-start-off-a-weekend-game-against-a-storied-rival-franchise-spiel was over, the officials were finally able to drop the puck (for real) and get the game started. it was pretty clear though that after the long intro to start the game, both coaches thought that a "fourth line energy shift" would liven the fans up. this is obviously code for, "hey, somebody fight somebody" and the players would not disappoint. at 2:42 of the first period, leafs' intercontinental champion mark fraser took on one of the many, many sons of former nhl players the bruins employ, lane mcdermid. knuckles were chucked, jerseys were tugged, and at the end of it all, it looked like fraser got the win.
this didn't really have much of an affect on the overall action or pace of the first period, and the teams would trade shots (or boston would shoot at the leafs) for the better part of the first period, until the leafs game of bend-but-don't-break broke at the 8:54 mark of the first period, when son of hall-of-fame colorado avalance star ray bourque, chris bourque, potted his first as a bruin. (for some reason this is pretty significant).
here's the proud pop celebrating some of his accomplishments.
here's B's hometown NESN with a rundown of the leafs fourth line falling asleep and some other stuff.
it looked as though cody franson (so hot right now) had tied the game up for the leafs about 8 minutes later, but due to rask hitting kadri, or some other such "legit" reason, the goal was called off and the bruins lead stood.
the teams would continue to battle a somewhat lacklustre first period out, and they'd head back to the dressing rooms with the bruins up 1-0 and the leafs on the powerplay as a result of a chris kelly hooking call with 4 seconds left in the frame.
the leafs started the second off on the power play, and though the maintained possession and moved the puck relatively neatly, little pressure was sustained. at one point, back up goalie ben scrivens even attempted to lend a helping hand in the leafs' pp woes.
insert benny hill music
a slight pebble of luck bounced the leafs' way though when it seemed the bruins had extended their lead to 2, after a deflection off of "mr.cool ink" tyler seguin's skate wound up in the back of the net. the goal was later called off as explained by the aptly named "situation room" at nhl offices because the referee was in the process of blowing the play dead due to incidental contact between brad marchand and james reimer.
snake-bitten scapegoat phil kessel had a great chance to tie the game shortly thereafter, entering the zone with speed and putting a quick wrist shot over rask's shoulder, but off the cross bar. a dejected kessel was seen the next day cross-training, in an attempt to double cross this cross bar.
kessel ups - so hot right now.
dion phaneuf would later wind up in the box due to our second least favourite penalty, puck over the glass, but the leafs penalty continued to operate at a rather efficient clip - a welcome change from last year.
with the period drawing to an end, mcdermid and fraser found there way into the same general area again, and as they do decided to drop the gloves. again, many punches were tossed, and this time many helmets punched.
they period ended shortly thereafter, with each team having tied in fights and disallowed goals, but the leafs behind in actual goals 1-0
the third was more of the same, but without a lot of the fighting. things got a little chippy, with russian-darcy-tucker leo komarov taking a healthy run at johnny boychuck, which grew a crowd, leading to epic caveman zdeno chara getting some offsetting roughing called against him.
the buds were presented with two separate powerplay oppurtunities in the second half of the last period, but were unable to capitalize, and ultimately fell to the bruins by a score of 1-0.
the leafs managed to muster only 7 shots in each period (jackpot, nice) and were outshot for a total of 34-21. optimus riem minister of defence managed to stop 33 of 34 shots for a save percentage of .971, but the guy at the other end, who leafs management has clearly never heard of *plugs ears and hums* had a save percentage of 1.00. too bad, because reimer was in top form, and this was definitely a game he could have stolen for the team.
dennis seidenberg lead all players in ice-team, with 24:22. mike kostka lead all leafs with 22:46 - nearly 5 minutes of which was on powerplays the leafs didn't score during. somewhat frustrating. i miss gunnarson, and gardiner.
sadly, this was one of the better performances the leafs have put together against boston in the last year or so, and they weren't rewarded handsomely for it. the play of reimer continues to show signs of improvement, something that could illicit confidence. phil kessel continues to lead all shooters in the league, and it's only a matter of time before something gives.
speaking of something giving,
Hurricanes at Leafs, Mon. Feb. 4. 2013
tonight's game is again taking place at the air canada centre. puck drop is at 7:00. it's being broadcast on television and the radio - you can figure out which channels, they don't need my help.
the 'canes are one of many teams that underwent a little bit of re-tooling in the office season - in that they added another staal to their tool chest - oh, a little semin too. now, as much as "toronto isn't really a hockey market", we understand that adding jordan staal to eric staal makes carolina that much more formidable up front.
there are too many of these staal guys. carolina should just acquire them all to make it easier on us.
they're halfway there already, right?
in their last two games, they've shut out the senators 1-0, and lost 5-3 to the flyers. they're as rested as the leafs, having played last on saturday, but unfortunately, being a team from the southeast that's come into the city in the early week, the leafs are already in dire straights for this one. luckily, this defence corps is much less sizable and frightening, kessel and company may have a little easier time generating offense tonight.
the leafs are 11-13-2 against carolina, and 2-6 in their last 8 meetings against these guys, but as stated about 2012-2013 is a brand new season. who knows what it might bring?
leafs hired goon number 5 frazer mclaren has been tapped to skate on the third line with steckel and orr, otherwise the lineup remains relatively intact from saturday night. james reimer gets the start for the leafs, cam ward for the hurricanes. hopefully the team can manage to put up some offense in front of their perceived number one goaltender, and improve some of their possession numbers. they're currently allowing the 9th most shots, but generating shots in the bottom third of the league. turning this around could see some serious improvements arise.
here's hoping the team shakes its habit of dropping these less than "marquee" games and that phil busts out - maybe both tonight? either way, i miss the whalers.
go leafs go!
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