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.