First off, kudos to the one who calls himself the "Unholy Goalie" as he predicted a 5-2 Atlanta win last night.
Here's a recap of what happened at the ACC last night. Hal Gill, hooking penalty. Ian White, delay of game penalty. Leafs blow a 2-0 third period lead. That's about it. Andrew Raycroft went from being the first star at the end of 40 minutes to giving up three goals on three shots and coulda, woulda, shoulda been yanked. Full marks to the Thrashers for not giving up. I'm sure the play of Raycroft in the second period was frustrating, considering Atlanta had six power plays in the second twenty-minute session and Raycroft was stopping everything. One penalty I'd like an explanation on and so would Paul Maurice and Hal Gill. How does Gill get a hooking penalty with one hand on the stick? I've never seen that called before. Things were looking good heading into the third period for the blue and white but then Glen Metropolit took it up a notch, a nice deflection goal, some great fore-checking leading to a couple of nice passes and once again, the Leafs saw a two period lead disappear. The Toronto Maple Leafs, the best 40 minute hockey team in the NHL. Too bad they play 60 minutes, might want to mention that before Thursdays game and have the players write that down.
Here's a bad joke, followed by a good one. At the ACC they put a picture of the Leafs on the backs of cups at the end of two periods, because the entire team is missing. I'm sorry.
The one liner of the night, and perhaps the year, came from Harry Neale. He said "Kovalchuk takes more shots then Ben Johnson." Oh my. Nice one Harry.
See what happens when you get touched by Alexander Ovechkin? It's like some of his goal scoring machismo oozed out of him and into Daniel Briere. Briere's first career hat-trick last night. I think Briere should send Ovechkin the puck or stick from the game. Plus maybe some flowers, or a fruit cake.
Have you picked up the Twisted Sister Christmas CD? Not too shabby. Makes sense they put out a Christmas disc, since their hair is made out of tinsel.
What a goal last night by Pierre-Marc Bouchard in the shootout. Not sure if the spin-a-rama was a tribute to Denis Savard who was looking on from the bench. But a beauty, none-the-less. It just goes to show you, that in the shootout it's not always the goal scorers that are the best guys to use. Just because you're a goal scorer doesn't mean you're any good on a break away. See Gretzky in the 1998 Olympics. Some teams, like the Leafs, need to work on their shootout techniques, a little razzle dazzle perhaps, bring in Brian Orser and Brian Boitano to help the Leafs with the shootout.
We decided to go with an artificial tree in the living room this year and a real one in the basement. So we picked up a ten foot pre-lit artificial one on the weekend and put it up last night. 1,800 lights, I have to wear sunglasses in the living room now. I think some air planes were confused by the light and going to land on my street. Tree should be called the Griswold.
Columbus beat the Avalanche in regulation for the first time in franchise history last night. A record spanning 22 games. The BJ's once beat Colorado in OT but never in 60 minutes. Anson Carter had a goal and an assist in the 3-0 victory, he's a free agent in 207 days. I really like the name of the sports channel in Colorado, Altitude. That's great marketing. Write that down.
Book update, it goes to print on January 22nd. So you still have time to pre-purchase and get your name in it. Drop me a line for more details.
Mike Dunham might be the number one goalie in Long Island right now, but we'll see where he is in 14 years. Maybe GM?
That's all I have for today, tomorrow I'll talk about egg nog.
On This Date
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. 25 years ago today the game between the Bruins and Leafs at the Boston Garden is cancelled because of two feet of snow in Boston. Toronto had started to fly to Boston's Logan Airport, but were forced to turn back to Toronto around Syracuse as the airport was closed in Beantown. I wonder if the Leafs will get snowed out tomorrow in Boston? At the end of two periods would be nice. Maybe we could get Crash Davis to get the Leafs a rain out for tomorrow. OK, that's the last of the negative waves about the Leafs play.
Trivia
Name the two brothers with the initials RR who belong to the same NHL team that were born in different countries? answer below.
Little Known Fact
Talk about your playoff challenges. The Chicago Blackhawks lost 16 straight playoff games from 1975-79. Six of those games were against the Islanders. Chicago ended the skid by sweeping the Blues. So Chicago was involved in a lot of playoff sweeps during a five year span.
Offside
Do you know somebody that has to always one up you? Even if they're full of crap, they still say they have a better and or bigger version of something you have? I don't get it. Just be happy with what you have. Besides, we all know the truth. There's this thing called, eye sight, which allows us to see what you have and to know the quality of what you got. So when I say I have an Atari 2600, and your come back is, I have the Atari 2700, I know you're fibbing, no such thing.
Trivia Answer
Robyn Regehr, Brazil and Richie Regehr, Indonesia.
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