Sunday, December 03, 2006

LEAFS BLAME ZAMBONI

I'm not lying.

Uh. Sure. Zamboni. Yeah.

Nonetheless I have magical powers, considering my main concern recently was that the Samsonov rumours were false and I didn't just plot my favourite player's own demise, I am surprised we won. Firstly shootouts are a joke. I reckon the Leafs had this in the bag when I switched the telly on. The Habs aka Habominations haven't fixed anything defensively, not to mention that Huet was a couple of shots away from facing 50 like usual. Toronto is just too good against us.

So when it was 3-1, I started breaking up with each and every single member on the team. I started with Latendresse, because he is the worst first line rookie I have ever seen - sure I haven't seen many first line rookies nor have I seen many rookies. But Latendresse isn't working out. Maybe Carbonneau wants to keep the media happy by leaving him there, however I did spot Kovalev on the same shift as Koivu & Ryder and to me it's way nicer than the terrible kid that actually, I kid you not, checks someone just for the hell of it after the dump. I mean, the only thing he does is check and even when he tries to do some old school driving to the net, the Leafs swat the puck away like they've done it a million times and will do it again. Do you not get it Lats?

Second was the terrible D. Now I have to explain to you, we have our sucky D like Niinimaa and Rivet but they can be terrible. And there's Komisarek who I kind of like for being a bit of a punk. Unfortunately it forces him to get some dumb penalties (which is pretty lame considering Komisarek's just being hot headed after some er... non-calls) and we're shorthanded - again. And Sheldon Souray, what is with all the hype? Sure he's putting up numbers but have I mentioned that he is TERRIBLE defensively? He does some great goals of course but his halloween costume was suggested by fans, to be a pylon.

And Huet. Huet would have much better numbers if he had a better D. Sure he still has the best save percentage but his GAA fell recently. And I recently likened this kid to Markkanen on a good day. He's calm, collected and does his job. However like Markkanen he has some trouble controlling his rebounds. On the line of "this team of jokes need all the help they can get", if Huet could work on that, the forwards wont have to worry so much about fishing the puck out of a tight spot. Which happens way too many times for comfort.

Nonetheless when I was slowly breaking up with them, Samsonov being the last one even though he's not the best player (but I love him lots and will defend him till I'm black and blue), something happened. We tied the freaking game. Now in defense of the team, they started putting a little more pressure and had so much luck it was not funny. And maybe Carbonneau is getting smarter what with Kovalev playing with Koivu & Ryder. He has a total of 20 minutes playing time, the 2nd longest for a forward in that game next to Johnson who's been killing penalties left and right.

Additionally Markov played 30 minutes, which had its ups and downs - though Markov would be a much better signing than Souray in my not so humble opinion in the upcoming offseason. To add fuel to the Samsonov fire, he was on the ice when the first Leafs goal happened and he floundered quite a bit according to some reports. That seemed to affect the coach a bit and he registered a meagre 11 minutes and 35 seconds. Is he trying to phase him out? Or is it just some sort of tactic to address every single need in each shift. I think Samsonov would benefit not playing with Kovalev, Kovalev plays better when there are changes for some reason and I've concluded he's just a nutcase. Carbonneau's obsession with keeping Samsonov & Kovalev like Samsonov can't do anything without another Russian style player on the line is bugging me. Not to mention that I'm willing to see him on the third line just to get him away from Kovalev.

The OT period was on-the-edge-of-your-seat gripping. A lot of oohs and aahs up until the shootout. I'll be honest. Souray scoring? Wow. He did a nifty faker, pretending to prematurely shoot forcing Raycroft to move out of his net and he sauntered past him and knocked it in. Props to Koivu though he gets enough praise from the worshippers already.

And another reason to mindlessly hate the Canes? They have the same amount of points as us. I'm going to be mean and stick pins through dolls. I kid, I kid. I just get competitive with points. (goflames*cough*)

Oh can I as well say I hate the instigator rule over and over again? I mean. MAN.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

As a former Zamboni driver myself, I can confirm that the Leafs are completely full of it. Just in case anyone wasn't already sure of that.

Heather B. said...

The instigator rule freakin' blows!

Shan said...

Samsonov shouldn't be playing with Kovalev. Remember when Sergei was a star? He played with Joe Thornton. There is no one similar to Thornton on the Habs, and sure, Thornton can make a star out of many players. However, they need a strong centreman to play with Samsonov. Kovalev should play with Koive and Ryder. Line 2: Samsonov, Plekanec, Latendresse (or Johnson). There are a lot of options, I don't know why it seems as though there are few.

Same old story: Habs fight back in the last 5 minutes.

Shootout was nice. Lay off Souray, he is rebounding from last season and doing a great job. They should re-sign both him and Markov if possible.

Teams I hate: Canes. Devils.

Anonymous said...

once higgins comes back there are more options for re-arranging the lines. right now i'm not sure there are any great choices. in theory i like the idea of kovalev with koivu, and i suppose ryder, but the problem with that is that both ryder and kovalev have been giving up the puck like it's their job lately, which is not so much a lovable quality in a first line. anyway, i'm not sure what latendresse would do on the second line that he ain't already doing. the lack of options stems from the fact that the 3rd line is working so well, maybe the only thing that's working consistantly well on the team right now, and without breaking them up, there aren't many configurations you can try that carbonneau hasn't tried already. last game opened with begin-murray-kovalev. creative, huh?

anyway, i've got to disagree about the d- markov and komisarek, especially together, are quite impressive, and i think dandenault and boullion are pretty good as well. souray is, unfortunately, 'defense' in name only, but hey, someone has to score on this team.

Jordi said...

Considering Souray & Markov are both going to be UFAs, they could try a last minute trade off of Souray and resign him in the offseason. Sure it'll look bad but if we're still desperate for more line combinations it could work.

I think Markov & Komisarek are our best workable Ds, Komisarek with the best +/-. I think with the huge overration of Souray right now, he might fetch a good price. He's scoring goals sure but his good sometimes tends to overshadow the abyssmal.

Sergei spent a lot of time not playing with Joey really, but he did play with Allison. I think he's workable on other lines or at least without Kovalev because from what I see from the times, the players have varying times that aren't always affected by what line they're on. (save for the 4th line which is... not ok.)

I think Boullion has already established how tough he is with that hit on Tucker he managed. I loved watching him when he came back and had half a mind to write an "I LOVE BOULLION!" post. I think he's not amazing, but he's wonderfully okay.

HG said...

Jordi, welcome to the ups and downs of loving hockey, especially a certain team. You gotta stick with them through thick and thin. Getting mad at them certainly does make you feel better and then when they are winning it's the best.