All I can think of is that Nike goalie ad. The one everyone knows. "Are you Swedish sir! Good! Cause I'm not picking up Swedish people. They remind me of Mats Sundin!" In truth I wanted to say snappy catchphrases like "Bring it." or "It's ON!". But I had nothing to bring, and nothing's really on.
Simply put, we deserved a regulation time loss more than anything this time round. But Samsonov decided to be a hot shot and score two goals. And what is up with the OT games/shootouts? Are we like, leading the league in them? We've had 4 of them already, having only played 10 games. If they keep doing this, there'll be like 34 OT games? (Of course it wouldn't happen but we have terrible luck).
The lines seem to be shuffling a bit more as the game happened, which seems to wash down better than "SAMSONOV DEMOTED TO FOURTH LINE FOR A ROOKIE HAR HAR". The first line seemed to not be doing so great, which is alright but was fustrating at the same time. Defensively they're still getting stuck in this limbo of not being there at the right time and ending up a second too late. This ended with Abby facing 51 whole shots while the Leafs were shooting him like a pinball machine. However interestingly, Kovalev seems to be unofficially a center now. I remember some article saying he'd do it if he had too and he's not too bad at it. By doing so, he demolished the need for a center between him and Samsonov and Carbonneau added Perezhogin to the line which seemed to get a lot of lucky shots. I'm still not sure if this is the definitive line but I'm hoping it will solve the "center woes" problem, thus forcing people to see the real problems with the team. However who knows, maybe it'll just collapse.
If we're going to see a lot of OTs, especially with teams we'll be seeing alot of (Leafs), we need to get good at it. OT-wise we're good, we take stupid penalties but that's why our PK is probably one of the best (I think it was 2nd last time I checked). However shootout-wise we suck terribly. It's so simple yet so hard at the same time. When shootouts roll around, I get excited because it's sort of fun but I get disappointed because no one on the team can really be decent on the shootouts. If the goalie chokes early, we're done. Huet didn't seem to face the pressure that well compared to Aebischer, who tonight played really well. I mean, 51 shots! And the shootout was definitely not his fault. I'd get tired too if the other guys couldn't really seem to score.
| Toronto | Tomas Kaberle shootout goal | |
| Montreal | Sergei Samsonov shootout goal | |
| Toronto | Mats Sundin shootout saved | |
| Montreal | Alexei Kovalev shootout saved | |
| Toronto | Darcy Tucker shootout saved | |
| Montreal | Michael Ryder shootout saved | |
| Toronto | Alexander Steen shootout saved | |
| Montreal | Mark Streit shootout miss | |
| Toronto | Matthew Stajan shootout saved | |
| Montreal | Saku Koivu shootout saved | |
| Toronto | Alexei Ponikarovsky shootout saved | |
| Montreal | Christopher Higgins shootout saved | |
| Toronto | Kyle Wellwood shootout goal | |
| Montreal | Alexander Perezhogin shootout saved |
Thank god Wellwood ended it or else we'd be asking Carbonneau to get out and try for us.
Oh yeah Samsonov and the coach are "working things out" apparently. That's speak for "we're sorry we made you worry" or "you're right Latendresse shouldn't be anywhere near the 2nd line for now". Maybe they're trying to appease the angry 3.5 million beast. I mean after all he got first dibs on the SO. And trust me, even if he played decent last time he never even got a shot. But he should stay on the SO, he seems to have the hang of it.
Overall we're now joint 4th with the Leafs in the conference. It was a somewhat sad game. Here's to hoping there's less suck. I think the lines are going to be more like this, since they were like it this game:
Higgins - Koivu - Ryder
Perezhogin - Kovalev - Samsonov
Latendresse - Bonk - Johnson
Begin - Plekanec - Downey/Murray?
Next game is against the darling Sens. We'll beat you guys. Even if I have to rig it.
2 comments:
I was waiting for an excuse to vent about the game without making another post.
We're on our 6th OT game now (we've played 12). We keep blowing leads. Our shootout is unimpressive.
And it can't be all Kubina's fault.
After watching tonight's game, I have a new conclusion, based on anecdotal evidence:
The Leafs don't stickhandle. Ok, they *have,* but they don't like to make a habit of it. They treat the entire game like a powerplay and just pass until someone feels lucky and takes a shot. This would be all fine and dandy, of course, if they were consistently good at passing.
So ok, we won. But they had to made it look like it was one of those things that you shouldn't get used to expecting too often.
Bottom line: I am also hoping for less suck.
And you know, the Habs deserved a point at least. You guys scored the same number of goals as we did with way fewer shots. Less effort, yet more production.
It is tough to find a good centre because, frankly, it's not an easy position to play. Every player knows they won't get as much freedom as centre because they don't want to get caught. It's more mentally exhausting than anything because you can't just foreheck like crazy, you need to make so many decisions. It doesn't seem favourable, but I think this team will be better if there is frequent rotation in the lines.
To get totally outplayed like that, I'm happy we salvaged a point. But then, it's the Leafs, and I don't like having to hear any Leaflovers gloat. Fortunately, we will play them several times in the season. Bad luck with Streit in the shootout, and I was expecting Koivu to score too. Kaberle scored the nicest goal in the shootout.
Trade for JP Dumont, I say.
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