kipwinger

If I were a betting man I'd obviously put my money on the Bruins. But we've beaten them twice this year and both times were legit wins. Nothing flukey. Further, the Bruins aren't playing their best hockey right now. They're 3-4-1 in their last 8 games. If we can play tight defensively and get a little Kane/Debrincat magic on the powerplay we might be in this one.

It's encouraging to see GR heading in the right direction. You'll all recall earlier in the season I mentioned that Watson (the new GR coach) was relying heavily on his veterans and they weren't really getting the job done. It seems like he's recognized this, or at least his evaluation period is over, and he's decided to mix and match line combos to get younger players in bigger roles. As a result you're starting to see GR winning a little bit more, and you're starting to see guys like Johansson, Wallinder, Kasper, Hanas, and Mazur hitting the score sheet with more regularity. It's been good to see some changes after a slow start and to see the team back in the playoff picture. Excellent news for the organization overall.

I'm almost afraid to say anything but that was a really solid period by our guys. Carried the play for most of the period. I'm pretty happy with the effort.

And there's the bad side of Patrick Kane. Bails on the play to go for a change and his guy scores. Yuck. Thank god he's scoring enough to overlook that stuff.

Nice goal by Larkin there. Good to see him staying hot.

I hope the boys are wired tight tonight because we need a win badly. Our offense absolutely HAS to perform tonight because our defense is bad and our goaltending is worse (somehow). If we don't score 4+ goals we probably don't win this game. I'm here for it.

What an absolute b*tch. Max Domi cheapshots Jeff Skinner and tries to start a fight down 9-3 with 1:05 left in the game. That's Toronto Maples Leafs hockey in a nutshell.

Is nobody else watching this Toronto game? This is unreal. Yowza. 9-3 Buffalo with 5 minutes to play in the 3rd.

Anybody who thinks we were overreacting last night should hear the Leafs broadcast team having a MELTDOWN right now. Buffalo scored 6 goals through two periods and these guys are losing their minds.

Buffalo and Toronto are scoring like crazy on each other tonight. Apparently nobody in the Atlantic Division plays defense very well.

I'm still on the ledge. Talk me off of it. What's the upshot?

It's true though. It's like everyone in the NHL sphere is mesmerized by guys that are flashy. They can be absolutely terrible, but if they can stickhandle then everyone thinks they're good. It drives me absolutely crazy.

This is what I'd do when Perron and Kostin are back. Copp gets back in the lineup when someone gets hurt or f*cks up so bad he's even further in the doghouse. Dcat-Larkin-Ras Veleno-Compher-Raymond Kane-Fabbri-Perron Kostin-Fischer-Sprong Copp

I cannot believe Lalonde just said he "liked our 3rd period". He also answered "consistent play" when Trevor asked him what would spark the team. I hate everything about this guy right now. I swear to god I'd walk into the locker room before the next game and tell Justin Holl he's getting in a fight after the opening faceoff or he's scratched the game after. "Daniel Sprong, if you don't have 4 shots on goal by the 3rd period you aren't playing one single second. Go get em son".

That was humiliating. They were literally skating circles around us at the end of the game. They showed a closeup of Seider's face and he was completely disengaged. Like he wasn't even really paying attention to what was going on around him. Just looked overwhelmed. Get these dorks from behind the bench and get someone in there that will let these horses run man. There's no reason that this team shouldn't be playing big and fast.

Same, I was so pumped before the season and through the first 20 games and now they're 180 degrees different.

Our entire powerplay strategy is now "let Kane dick around with the puck". That's the plan. Hire Joel Quenneville for f*ck's sake. I guarantee he won't let dudes like Daniel Sprong not finish their checks.

Like, how much do you have to pay Ben Chiarot to hit someone? He's huge, fast, and mediocre to bad at everything else? Why isn't he throwing his body around? What does HE think he's getting paid for?

We need to offload every single milktoast, Babcockian wet dream, 200 ft., do-nothing with a quickness. If you're Olli Maatta and your claim to fame is that nothing every happens when you're on the ice you've gotta go. Same for Andrew Copp. Holl. Petry. Gone. Gone. Gone. Beat, sure. Embarrass a team that SHOULD be desperate for a win? Nah.

I hope Steve Yzerman shoots (with an military grade assault rifle acquired by an illegal immigrant) the next Red Wing that turns the puck over because they lobbed some half-assed casual pass because they clearly don't give a s***. For most of the season we WERE the big, fast, hungry, team. What the hell happened?

f*** this game makes me crazy. We have the talent to win this game. What the hell happened to the team that spent the better part of the first 20 games beating the s*** out of everybody?

Walman and Seider are having a rough night. Yeesh.

Not sure what Walman was doing on that goal against. Yikes. Jesus Christ, this f*cking team.

Sweet assist by Kane, and nice finish by Debrin...errrr...Maatta? Okay then.

Edit: I know this isn't the right place to put this but here goes anyway: The thing that drives me insane about carrying three goalies is that because Husso and Lyon got hurt it's going to justify in the minds of management that it was a good idea to have two goalies sitting on the bench every night and not roster players. Like, they'll gloss over the fact that all three goalies suck and so the difference between two s***ty goalies and 5 or 10 or whatever is a difference of quantity and not quality. They'll also point to our top of league offense and conclude that we didn't need the roster spot (Berggren) without acknowledging that by this rationale we also didn't need it on Kane either, or an 8th defenseman that didn't completely suck.