christmas
Waffle Guy of The Checking Line wrote his own rendition of the Night Before Christmas, but based it on the Leafs and waffles. I thought it would be a nice little read for all of us for the holidays. Merry Christmas and happy holidays. Hopefully Santa can bring us all more wins.
Twas the night before Christmas, when all through Leafs nation
Not a fan was cheering, and no standing ovation;
The players were stung by a pair of quick goals,
And had hopes of digging themselves out of their hole; [more…]
It's that time of year again. Â The most wonderful time of the year. Â No, not Christmas, and no, you won't see any of those silly Staples commercials.
It's time for the NHL playoffs.
The annual spring tournament that features some of the most exciting hockey of the season.  It's  triple overtime games that rage on long into the night, games so long that you'll hope you saved some sick days.  It's players skating through pain, all for the common goal of lifting Lord Stanley's Cup.
And the great fans of the NHL, well they have the best seat in the house.
Around this time of year, especially the first round, marriages are postponed. Â Assignments are left on desks unfinished. Â Scheduled are cleared, or built around. Â Kiss your wife or girlfriend, and tell her you'll see her in a few months, a better person than when you last saw her.
With just 6 more games to go for the GFWE contest, get in your predictions and shoot for the chance to win some Leafs tickets! Let's all hope our team gives us a late Christmas present by taking the win tonight against Pittsburgh.
To all in the MLHS and Barilkosphere community. Thanks for your continued support, and I look forward to what we can accomplish together in the [more…]
I really tried to get this posted here, but for some reasons the pictures keep shifting the text over. If you'd like to read this [more…]
For the second time in a week, the Maple Leafs have felt the wrath of the Boston Bruins on home ice, only this time there were distinct differences from Saturday's 7-2 beat down.
The Leafs, after sleepwalking through two periods of the hockey game, decided to bring their game in the third and made things interesting with goals by Mikhail Grabovski and Nikolai Kulemin to pull them within a goal of the Bruins. Â A late, costly penalty by Leafs winger Jason Blake sealed their fate however, as the penalty kill sagged once again, and Mark Recchi scored with under three minutes left to ice the game for the Bruins.
**Inspired by Eric Engels' question blogs**
After a night of burning police cars Montreal Canadiens jerseys in celebration of the Toronto Maple Leafs' 3-0 victory, here's a list of questions for you all to answer.
It started off as a fast paced and strong two-way game for both clubs, but the Maple Leafs just could not keep up with the Wild's pressure for a full 60 minutes. Minnesota came into this game to make a statement, much like the Leafs did on Saturday night against the Red Wings. There were key chances for the Leafs to score, but a few bad breaks, including costly penalties, and missed opportunities cost the Leafs their 7 game point streak in a loss against the worst team in the Western Conference.
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Jonas Gustavsson. Phil Kessel. Matt Stajan. (Ok that last one was just to mess with you). The Leafs continued their point streak and began a hopefully lengthy run of wins with a victory over the visiting Red Wings tonight. It was an admirable performance across the board tonight as followers of this Maple Leafs squad hover in a state of trepid excitement. One thing we can be sure about is that Gustavsson has given us a level of goaltending not seen in these parts for quite a while.
It has been reported that Patrick Roy, who has been hovering around Denver these last few days, has been offered the head coach position for the franchise. I know what you’re thinking, “but doesn’t Tony Granato have that job?†No, not really. He’s been fired but everyone forgot to call him. I’m sure he’ll figure it out when he opens the paper sometime in the next few days and reads that he’s been replaced, unless he’s somewhere hockey isn’t mainstream. I hope he is, for his sake, because Day 1 of training camp would be awkward if no one bothers to let the poor sap know of his circumstance.
That brings us to the Worst Firings in Hockey History.
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Brian Burke:
On the implications of the Leafs' recent turnaround:
"I'm proud of the guys, they're working their butts off and that's important for a lot of reasons; a lot of what we're trying to build here and reward our fans and our season ticket holders. They're important wins, and I know people are saying we're messing up our draft choice but we'll happily accept that; we'll take that trade off any time. If I could make a deal - I said this last week, and I'll say it again today - if I could make a deal today that would put us in the playoffs, I would do it, as long as it was consistent with our long-term strategy. Those type of deals right now are not being presented, so I don't think it's going to change our approach."
"Oh well, screw it. It's time to go on to the next one."
Rinse and repeat Justin, as these words left the Toronto tender's mouth after getting shelled for six goals in a loss to the Minnesota Wild last week. One would hazard a guess that the young goalie will need some more of this good humour after seeing a similar fate tonight. Likely exhausted from the extensive bus ride to Buffalo, the Maple Leafs as a team did very little to support their rookie netminder.
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