WOW! Dontcha love it when the Leafs come to town? We got the game of the season… so far… on Thursday night. Dontcha just wanna keep Hanzal’s parents in town too. Marty went ghettofabulous in their honor.
But let’s start at the beginning shall we? It is so much more fun. Sit back and let Onyx tell you a story about the night the Leafs fell in the desert, how the Breezer got his groove back and what happens when Hanzal gets hot. No, I’m not mixing metaphors, these are all elements in the story people… now just read on.
The teams were quite evenly matched that dark, cool night in the desert. The Swedish Wolf was guarding the net for the side of right. The former Shark Toskala was minding the Toronto bastions. But out of nowhere came 2 fierce warriors determined to prevail. Hanzal struck first after Toskala was lured nearly out of the net. 1 - 0 for the good guys. Then the Russian scoundrel known only as Poni, struck back, hammering rebound after rebound back at the Wolf until one finally went into our net. 1 - 1. No, no don’t despair, the intrepid Hanzal strode forth once more to do battle against the arch villain Toskala. With a mighty backhand, our knight in red drew blood once again, giving us back our lead. 2 -1 Yotes. Alas, the blue clad villain Poni returned fire and tied the game again. 2 - 2. Stride for stride these two behemoths jousted throughout the 1st round.
A brief intermission ensued and the war was once more enjoined. The hero Hanzal marshalled his reserves and although outnumbered and besieged, slew the Toskala with a shorthanded goal. Helms, chapeaus and head coverings of all kinds showered down upon the jousting field, honoring the Hanzal’s briiliant achievement… 3 - 2 Yotes. But the vile villains of Toronto refused to give up, repeatedly crashing through our countryside until one despicable knave named Blake managed to slip past the Wolf’s defenses to tie the contest yet again. 3 - 3. Well good king Wayne saw that the forces for good were starting to lag and the Wolf, though fully capable of finishing the contest with valor, could use some respite. So he called upon the knight errant Bryzgalov to relieve the Wolf and bring a lift to the hard battling yet beleagured heroes.
Thus started the third and final round of the contest. The valiant desert host rallied round the new net guardian, showed him love, and began to battle with new earnest. First came Sir Rhino with his fearless comrads Morris and Doan to break the tie and infuse new will into the stalwart warriors. 4 - 3 Yotes and a chalupa feast was assured! Again Sir Rhino charged forth, the audacious Morris and plucky Mueller at his back for yet another raid on the flagging Toskala, bringing the score to 5 - 3. There was no pity to be had as the brash and cheeky, Tiki, unselfishly setup his stalwart paladin Fedoruk for the coup de grace in the waning moments of the game. 6 - 3 Yotes. And THAT children is the conclusion of the story of how the Leafs fell in the valley of the sun.
hey! okay, a lil wonky but thats basically what happened. In between all that knightly crap, there were the weakest boarding calls I’ve seen in quite some time. Minor dust ups including DC getting his first misconduct of the season (whoa! wild thang is truly back and thank goodness for it). TGO made a crazy intuitive goalie decision and pulled Telly for Bryzzie and rallied the boys up for the final push. brilliant! (I guess the old saw is true, when something crazy suceeds you are a genius, when it doesn’t you are a goat). Z played like an insane maniac AGAIN! goin down in front of the over extended Bryz to block yet another shot and actually hand pass the puck out of danger in a crease scrum (does my baby not have ANY sense of self preservation?) Hanzal was simply and completely amazing. Rhino showed the young Leafs some new tricks.
The only bad thing I could find in this game was the PP and the FO… again.(12-11-2) over the .500 mark again! Thank god for home games. Now if we can take at least 2 of these 3 totally winnable games on the road trip, all we be well in my world and maybe by the time the boys get back I will have shaken this truly heinous cold.
If you want the unmedicated version of this post mortem try Odie over at five for howling or the refreshingly honest pension plan puppets take. Schenn is going to be a fantastic defenseman. Kaberle apparently shoulda stayed home and is probably regretting his NTC decision to stay a Leaf. Gotta love Poni.






