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Merry Christmas and Welcome Back Leafs |
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Merry Christmas everyone. I hope all of you reading have had a good time or will continue to have good times with your loved ones. I've had two separate too much turkey days and look forward to a third on the 29th. It's a time of sacrifice and of giving. My giving was my wallet to my wife for her presents and a new chair, plus all of the Christmas and Birthday gifts for my soon to be 8 year old nephew.
My sacrifice, wallet aside, is living in Ottawa and having to be in Tiny Ontario from the start of the tournament to the last two days of the tournament. I have tickets for Semifinal 1...so...uhhh...I hope it isn't crap? I would have liked to have gone to more games, especially the less expensive ones. I have 67's season tickets and junior hockey is still a passion to watch.
Speaking of the WJC's. The Leafs have some involvement! Some might promote that it's the amount of prospects represented in the tournament as an indication that your teams future is bright…this can be misleading. I’m not saying it isn’t great, but if your team has 5 prospects on Canada/America/Sweden for example vs 9 in a slew of Germany/Slovakia/Switzerland etc. you’re not in the same realm. Even then if you have Canada’s 6th defender vs a German player like Stutzle as an example, it’s night and day. That said, the Leafs have two players representing their countries.
Easton Cowan for Canada and Miroslav Holinka for Czechia
Easton Cowan is the Leafs best prospect by far and has dominated the OHL since his draft season. In a usual move for the Knights, he played in a second line role in his draft year (Connor McMichael etc.) and became a later first rounder in part because of that. After winning the OHL Most Outstanding Player and the Playoffs MVP, his less gaudy numbers this season might seem discouraging, but I would disagree. The team doesn’t have the forward skill it did last year in their run and is primarily a one line team with some great defenders…a pair of which are on Team Canada. Big things will be expected of him this tournament in an elevated role from last tourney and a goal against Finland was a good start.
Miroslav Holinka is a bit more of an unknown. The fifth rounder joins a pretty strong Czechia side that has some quality depth, a few stars and the goalie most believe to be the best in the tournament in Utah’s Michael Hrabal. The winger has had a slow transition to North American hockey as the 19 year old only has 10 goals and 21 points in 23 games for the Oil Kings, but here’s hoping some international angst will give him a boost. Playing on the first line and PP with Eduard Sale (Czechia’s best player) should help. He scored a goal and added an assist against the Swiss in a comfortable 5-1 win.
Tonight the Leafs play the Red Wings who just fired their Head Coach. MERRY CHRISTMAS! They hired veteran angry man and former Wings 2000’s coaching dynasty that seemed to plague the NHL for so long Todd McLellan. The Wings lost three straight before this move and their season has not gone the way they would have hoped. Every year we hear that this is the year X/Y/Z will make moves in the Atlantic and yet, only this amazing run by Ottawa and an unbeatable Ullmark has ever threatened the status quo for the past few years. We’ll see if he gives them the new coach bump.
The Leafs meanwhile have been 5-5 in their last 10, but while the .500 record isn’t terrible…the play kind of has. The Leafs have gone through some really inconsistent stretches in the last 10 and the less said about the two losses in a row the better.
Auston Matthews has died again for our sins, so here’s hoping for a swift resurrection. Anthony Stolarz will be gone for a while so we’ll see the revolving door of has been and hopeful. While the only really great things going on have been Nylander’s chase for the Rocket, Domi scoring…twice?! Omg…and Nick Robertson adding some offense…which he needs to do because that man does not understand positioning. Speaking of the Rocket. If William Nylander wins it, would that be the first time the Rocket went back to back to different players on the same team? *Quick Google* Yes, yes it would be. I’m not sure why I even looked that up, 90% of them are hoarded by OV and Matthews. Well, that would be neat.
Looking forward to the game and hiding in the basement while my dad mentions Trump every other sentence, my mother is confused about the trans and my wife bites her tongue at the table while a cute 7 year old runs around with his Batman RC car and Pokémon stickers! Happy game day Buzzards!
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