Free entertainment when we lose.

We get all the negativity

Then we get all the “we outplayed them” but got goalied


Then we get “it’s all the goalies fault”


Hours of glorious reading
- Garnie

Tonight's game is a dream, because if they win it was against a decimated team, if they lose they can't even beat the AHL Pens and they drop below . 500. OMG Dubas, you got a date tonight baby!

I love how people are able to handle different volumes of alcohol however people try to define alcoholism by a strict number.

I like my beers as well but I can easily decide not to drink any day as well, and that’s not what alcoholics are capable of… trust me I know from all my time in bars over the last couple of decades (as a musician)
- Dozzer

I can too, but I changed jobs in the last year…get home at 9pm every night…shower - tuck the wife in and head downstairs for a few pints/have a puff and play some git - watch tube etc. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Tonight's game is a dream, because if they win it was against a decimated team, if they lose they can't even beat the AHL Pens and they drop below . 500. OMG Dubas, you got a date tonight baby!
- Zezel

We shouldn’t lose tonight, top 6 is due to get multiple point night.

Unless they move the 🦒 off line 1 and put Ritchie back there

Did you watch the game?

2 of the goals were weak as hell and came right after the leafs scored. So horrible timing to let in weak goals as well.

It wasn’t a good game by him, and I think it effected the team’s confidence as well.
- Dozzer

Yes I did. The 3 I mentioned he basically had no shot on.

Add to the fact he made an unreal save that kept it 3-2 just after that on pass out from the corner to right in front..

You forgot to include the small fact that a Hutchinson failed to catch a 10 mph floater and dropped it in front of his net. He was putrid, Hill was very sharp.
- winsix

For sure that was a bad goal.. And Hill was sharp.. but all this at Hutch's feet to me misses a bigger point about the coverage by both F & D -

Not too many songs song around the campfire with guy and his bass
- Garnie

Smoke on the Water

GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGCCCBbGGGGGGFGb

that’s literally the bass line

I can too, but I changed jobs in the last year…get home at 9pm every night…shower - tuck the wife in and head downstairs for a few pints/have a puff and play some git - watch tube etc. 🤷🏻‍♂️
- Garnie

Those beers sound earned

Yes I did. The 3 I mentioned he basically had no shot on.

Add to the fact he made an unreal save that kept it 3-2 just after that on pass out from the corner to right in front..
- dozerD10

A few good saves never make up for letting weak goals in.

Plain and simple. The team was only down 3-2 in the first place due to his poor play.

Yes I did. The 3 I mentioned he basically had no shot on.

Add to the fact he made an unreal save that kept it 3-2 just after that on pass out from the corner to right in front..
- dozerD10

Hutchinson was garbage, shaky all night, no rebound control, panic every time a SJ player had the puck in the Leaf zone. Hill was excellent, allowed no cheapies, unlike Hutchinson.

Just to clarify from the last blog . . .

I am not piling on you when I talk to you. Part of the reason I would go out of my way to talk to you, fifty and Drunken Canuck is that I generally respect and understand your takes on hockey as a whole and they are not baiting or trollish (I sometimes wonder about DC, but . . disappointment and disparagement come across differently from different people!) - you're just looking for something different than this team is going to do. They aren't smushing people into the ice or the boards. They are also not trading Marner anytime soon, so whether they should have or shouldn't have is irrelevant. I mean if we really want a time machine, then they shouldn't have signed Tavares (but they still should have traded Kadri!).

I'm attempting to illustrate why I think there's time for this team to really impress. They have shown little physicality - but they have players who can do it. The lines aren't consistently performing - but they will. The defense has been at times porous with poor gap control - especially in the middle (something they had worked to fix last year; Bogosian wasn't the glue that bound that together!).

If you go read your comments in the last blog, are they specifically negative? They feel that way, but they also sought response because I don't buy it.







That was why I was addressing you as well, because I think all three of you (as well some others like Barb, and so on) are really early to condemn the team and the system in place.

Look I can obviously be wrong here, but possession hockey has won cups and tournaments for generations - but it needs to be done right. Possession hockey isn't the problem - the problem could be getting the right people with the puck to do the right things at the right time. So far some of key distributors and key contributors have not been doing their jobs.

I mean someone earlier (not you; I think it was DrunkenCanuck) had asked how Shanahan could condone our style of play when he didn't play that way - except the team he won multiple cups with DID play possession style hockey. But if Yzerman wasn't making setup passes, Lidstrom wasn't engaged, or Shanahan wasn't cashing in, then the possession style for them also wouldn't have worked.

Bottom line (imo): It's 5 games; it's a new team from last year; the struggling guys will stop struggling; the system is actually working without the best players performing, but without the top guns shooting, we're getting the wrong results.

(Note: Edited the first sentence because I didn't think it truly expressed what I was trying to say)
- Monkeypunk

Really appreciate the nuanced take!

To be clear, I have not been happy with the performance this team has generally put forth this season (sans the Rags game). We are only 5 games in and, as I've mentioned in some other posts, I believe it's not too late to right this ship. Sometimes it takes time for team chemistry to be figured out -- there are a lot of new faces on this team (Kase, Bunting, Ritchie, Kampf) who are figuring out the system along with vets who are trying to tweak their games this season.

I totally get it.

As Dozzer alluded to, perhaps I should post some positives for this team as my early opinion has been balanced heavily on the glass is half-empty side of the ledger:

- Campbell has been absolutely fantastic
- Sandin is looking like the real deal - love his wheels and he hasn't been as weak on the puck as I had expected he might be
- Lilybust we've only seen very briefly but I'm thinking he's a regular next season and a decent replacement player when there's injuries
- Kampf has been solid
- I'd like to see more from Kase offensively but I'm liking his two-way game and he had a really nice goal last night
- AM34 looks engaged and I hope he dials in his accuracy
- Willie's continued evolution into a more complete player has been fun to watch. He's been our best player by a country mile.

There's definite positives. If Marner can find his game and Muzzin/Holl can get out of their weird slow start, this team could get a few wins in a hurry.

I'm going to have a few beers tonight and hope the Leafs can put together 3 periods of hustle.

A few good saves never make up for letting weak goals in.

Plain and simple. The team was only down 3-2 in the first place due to his poor play.
- Dozzer

IMO nothing demoralizes a team than pounding the poop out of the opposing goalie then play comes into your zone and your goalie coughs up a cheapie.

My fav right now



- Garnie

Oh, hells yes! Low Hanging Fruit and Blood Moon are phenomenal sours!

Those beers sound earned
- Dozzer

Trust me, I switched careers at 50…quit the financial business after 30 years and now I’m a labourer - zero stress but run off my feet by 8pm.

(frank)

IMO nothing demoralizes a team than pounding the poop out of the opposing goalie then play comes into your zone and your goalie coughs up a cheapie.
- winsix

Or even worse scoring to get back into the game then your goalie lets in a weak goal just a couple minutes later

That would be so damn deflating. Coupled with the fact line one still needs to get going as well. If line 1 gets going tonight and produces and Campbell keeps playing like Campbell I’m guessing the leafs win.

If line 1 doesn’t get going I could see the pens winning a close one, 2-1 or 3-2 type thing. Or 3-1 due to an empty netter after pulling Campbell at the end.

Oh, hells yes! Low Hanging Fruit and Blood Moon are phenomenal sours!




- mjones242

Wasn’t a huge fan of the blood moon. I really liked the Mill Street Key Lime Pie but they stopped after 1 summer and changed their nitro beer to MangoMilkshake or something like that…it wasn’t very good

Trust me, I switched careers at 50…quit the financial business after 30 years and now I’m a labourer - zero stress but run off my feet by 8pm.

(frank)
- Garnie

I know what you mean, my civil engineering tech career was ripped from me once my doctor’s medically suspended my license… I tried to keep working labour jobs but eventually I had to go on disability and have the lobectomy. This February will make it a year so hopefully I get my neurologist’s blessing to start looking for work cause man oh man I’ve been bored as hell.

Or even worse scoring to get back into the game then your goalie lets in a weak goal just a couple minutes later

That would be so damn deflating. Coupled with the fact line one still needs to get going as well. If line 1 gets going tonight and produces and Campbell keeps playing like Campbell I’m guessing the leafs win.

If line 1 doesn’t get going I could see the pens winning a close one, 2-1 or 3-2 type thing. Or 3-1 due to an empty netter after pulling Campbell at the end.
- Dozzer

I agree with this, as CC pointed out earlier, its very tough to win if you have the second best goalie in a game, and he is second best by a huge margin.

I know what you mean, my civil engineering tech career was ripped from me once my doctor’s medically suspended my license… I tried to keep working labour jobs but eventually I had to go on disability and have the lobectomy. This February will make it a year so hopefully I get my neurologist’s blessing to start looking for work cause man oh man I’ve been bored as hell.
- Dozzer

I wish I was bored

Wasn’t a huge fan of the blood moon. I really liked the Mill Street Key Lime Pie but they stopped after 1 summer and changed their nitro beer to MangoMilkshake or something like that…it wasn’t very good
- Garnie

Never got a chance to try the Key Lime pie. I was actually pleasantly surprised by the Mango Milkshake IPA.

I know what you mean, my civil engineering tech career was ripped from me once my doctor’s medically suspended my license… I tried to keep working labour jobs but eventually I had to go on disability and have the lobectomy. This February will make it a year so hopefully I get my neurologist’s blessing to start looking for work cause man oh man I’ve been bored as hell.
- Dozzer

Pulling for you dozzer.

Never got a chance to try the Key Lime pie. I was actually pleasantly surprised by the Mango Milkshake IPA.
- mjones242

Meh

All these fancy beers are (frank)ing pricey though.

Pretty close to $100/case

Smoke on the Water

GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGCCCBbGGGGGGFGb

that’s literally the bass line
- Dozzer

2 5 7 2 5 8 7 2 5 7 5 2. 👍

I agree with this, as CC pointed out earlier, its very tough to win if you have the second best goalie in a game, and he is second best by a huge margin.
- winsix

The timing of the goals too. Just minutes after scoring I mean man… that’s like poking a balloon with a pin

Letting in a bad goal: ok it happens
Letting it in right after the team is gaining confidence: ouch and deflated they become

I wish I was bored
- Garnie

I’ve found that I’m willing to talk to our older neighbour about yard work over the fence now, I think he’s a good guy, who puts up with me lol

Being bored still has its ups and downs lol

Pulling for you dozzer.
- winsix

Thanks man, I’m doing much better now and it feels like I’m still heading upwards