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Leafs fizzle in the third; shooting at intermission

October 9, 2019, 9:02 AM ET [256 Comments]
Lucas Neilson
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The Leafs played a quality game on Monday night losing by just one goal to the Stanley Cup Champions from just a few months back. It was a back and fourth game with a lot of good scoring chances and some big saves. The Leafs had trouble capitalizing in the first period as Jordan Binnington made some quality saves and kept the Blues in the game.

You can see how Binnington led the Blues to their first cup in 50+ years; He’s something special.

I was fortunate enough to attend the Leafs game on Monday night and there were a number of Blues fans attending the game. Some real proud fans of their team right now I’ll tell you that. It leads me to believe to fully change the positivity in Leafs Nation they will need to hoist the big prize. It amazes me how many negative comments you hear just going to the washroom from other Leafs fans. Complaining about Marner’s pay, Babcock’s ice time with X player last game and so on.

We’re four games in and we’re still missing Dermott and Hyman. Dermott will be a nice upgrade over whoever he replaces and Hyman is a key piece to the Tavares line and overall depth in the Leafs lineup. Not to mention he’s a penalty killing machine. It shouldn’t be too much longer before Hyman is in the mix.

2-1-1 isn’t exactly a horrendous start. The Leafs are looking forward, as am I. A few new players and some state-of-the-art strategy takes time to work out the kinks, with a few practices under their belt and a busy schedule to start the season I have faith Babcock will have the boys grinding and get back to their winning ways in no time.

The atmosphere was electric for a Monday night game. The rink seems louder these days than it was in years past and you can feel there is certainly some excitement in the air.

Tyson Barrie is certainly garnishing a lot of attention as his play has been spectacular in the early going of the season. Leafs new Captain is still searching for his first goal of the season and you can bet when he puts one in they will start to find the back of the net more often. It’s always nice to get the first one out of the way and get the monkey off the back.

Toronto will face Tampa Bay tomorrow night and it should be one hell of a game between two of the Eastern Conference’s best.

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So what’s this all about shooting at intermission? Well it just so happened to be my lucky night. Not only did one of my best friends take me to the Leafs game but I was also lucky and got hand picked to do the shooting on Maple Leafs ice after the second period ended! It was an epic journey down to ice level, signing my life away so that I could step onto the ice and fire the puck at the net.

The buzzer sounded and on I went to shoot the puck. I had to score from the hash-marks, blue line, center ice and then all the way from goal line to goal line. The pressure was on!

I let the first shot rip and hit the back bar, shocking the Leafs commentator with the microphone. He loved it, gave me a fist pumped and off we went to the blue line. I buried this one no problem and off to center ice we went. It was a long way from center, certainly seemed even longer with all the people watching and what not. So I missed the first shot! I only had one more miss and then I was finished, so I ripped the second one after adjusting my release point and bingo, right in the middle. Off we venture down to the other end of the rink, the lights dim, the spotlight comes down and there I am in the middle. What a moment! I better bury this thing is what I’m thinking in my head. So with a quick salute to the crowd and adjusting my Leafs hat, I took a look at the net and fired that puck right down the middle of the ice. Boom! Right in the net! The Leafs goal horn went and the crowd cheered as I won the contest. Free pizza to our entire section and I got twelve free pizza’s with some Leafs swag. Not a bad haul I’d say!

I returned to our section after the second period intermission was winding down and the section was pumped that I got them all pizza slices. It was classic, I was a hero for 15 seconds. I’ll take it!

It was an exciting game to be at, unfortunately they didn't win. But it was certainly a night I will never forget.

Thanks for reading,

Leafs Nation.
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