Historicist: "The city that nobody loves"
Elsewhere in the Ist-a-Verse
With all the personnel changes the Maple Leafs made this offseason, it appears little has infact changed on the ice. With the team opening their 2006-07 pre-season against the Buffalo Sabres at the ACC Monday night, it was the same old story for Mats Sundin's team. Excessive penalties, an inability to score, a bleeding Darcy Tucker, average goaltending and Bryan McCabe's goatee each contributed to a performance that was all too familiar to post-lockout Leaf fans. Even with their unsightly new uniforms, the Sabres had no problem picking up where they left off last season. After dominating the Leafs head-to-head in 05-06, the Sabres scored all of their goals on the powerplay, while Martin Biron turned aside twenty-three Toronto shots in the 4-0 victory. Three of those Sabre goals came during a stretch of the second period in which the Leafs committed six consecutive penalties. All-in-all, it was a dissappointing start to what fans had hoped would be a more satisfying season. The team now travels to Ottawa to play the Senators tomorrow night.
New Goalie, New Coach, Same Losers
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i'm with you adorable. i think we as leaf fans should stand against goatees, beards, eyebrows, low-hanging hairlines and any other hair(s) that appear in the facial region.
if i want a sports blog, i'll read deadspin
oh tlk get over it. There is something here for everyone. I certainly could have lived without 10 days of back to back film fest coverage.
and the grumpy jerk of the day award goes to....tik! congratulations. now go make your own blog and we can all make fun of it.
Adrian, if you're going to condemn the new-look Leafs, you might want to gather a little more evidence for your case. Sure, they sucked last night, but a lot of the guys on the horrible ACC ice last night will not be playing for the Leafs in a month. The players are having to learn a completely different coaching system under Maurice, which doesn't excuse their lacklustre play but goes some way to explaining some of the horrific lapses. Maurice actually predicted that the Leafs would suck in their first few exhibition games, given the lack of prep time before the "exhibition season," and sees the sucking as a natural part of the team cohesion process. This may prove to be media posturing, but give the guy a chance. Maurice did amazing things with the Marlies last year and he took the Hurricanes, a team that experts said would not likely make the playoffs, to the finals about five years ago.
As for the bad goaltending: what bad goaltending? Allowing four goals when you're team flubs most its defensive assignments and plays more than half a period two men down does not make you a bad goalie (two of the goals were scored during 5 on 3 powerplays). And implying that bad goaltending is somehow typical of the Leafs shows a total ignorance of how the Leafs, prior to last season, when Belfour fell apart, managed to make it to the playoffs for about seven seasons in a row: by investmenting in top-tier goalies to make up for a lack of team defense. The one positive thing you can say about the Leafs under Burns and Quinn is that they always had an amazing goalie (Potvin, Joseph, and Belfour are not a bad trio). And as bad as the Leafs were last season, they still had the second-best powerplay in the league and finished only a point or two below Edmonton, who went to the finals.
I think the Leafs will be lucky to get past the first round of the playoffs this year, but condemning them to mediocrity based on faulty analysis of past trends and the flubbing of one exhibition is just ... lame.
Goddamnit... when there was no sports people bitched, now that there's sports on the blog people whine. That's it. I hate all of you! Except you Adrian, you I love.
I don't mind a bit of sports on this blog. But I think it's a little harsh to declare the Leafs "losers" based on one preseason game! Let's give the new team a few weeks to gel and get into shape, and wait until they weed out a lot of the rookies who are always called up in preseason but will be sent down when the going gets serious.
Ok James.. Good comments..
my reply:
1. I never said "bad goaltending".. i believe i used the word "average"... if you want to see bad goaltending, look at some of Andrew Raycroft's game tapes from Boston last season.
2. You contradicted yourself saying the Leafs will be unlikely to make it past the first round of the playoffs, and then lashed out on me for "condemning them to mediocrity". this isn't major league baseball.. possibly sliding into the playoffs to be a first round walkover would put you in the same company as the new york islanders, la kings, or minnesota wild... I personally consider that to be somewhat mediocre.
3. I was only comparing last nights performance to the "post-lockout leafs".. i would never call felix potvin a joke. but ed belfour 2006?? you said it yourself.
4. i was quick to point out that it was penalties that contributed to the loss, and noted that all 4 goals were on the man advantage..
5. I'm pretty sure Andrej Sekera or Mark Mancari won't be in the Sabres opening night lineup either, so it washes out with the leaf tryouts.. (despite Mancari opening Darcy Tucker's face last night)
6. The Oilers could score even-strength, and didn't have Bryan McCabe killing penalties.
** I'm just not sure Mike Peca will be the difference
What's even better than Adorable posts are Adorable replies.
Holeee. One pre-season game. It`s sad when movie geeks talk sports.
DRH... Holeee.. It's fine to say only one game now, but it's more than likely that the Leafs don't win a single game this pre-season. 3 vs. Ottawa, 2 vs. Montreal and 2 vs. Detroit. Pick the wins.. 2-6 record at best... and that's being generous.
And for the record, I know more about sports than your mom knows about handjobs.
Movie geeks?
Come on, unless you consider owning the entire Vin Diesel collection and getting excited over the new Jennifer Garner flick as being a movie geek, "the adorable SPORTS writer" is far from being one.
cc. mom
And for the record, I know more about sports than your mom knows about handjobs.
Good to see you're still keeping it classy, Adrian.
as always.
Two wins in a row! It`s beginning to look like "Andrea the Adorable Sports Writer" may actually know more about hanjobs than hockey.
DRH`s mom