Game 33 - Habs roll over Leafs...again

Steve says:

Wow...we looked awful out there...so many defensive breakdowns...on the Koivu goal, both our defencemen were standing still in the high slot! He just walked out from the corner and deked Toskala for an easy goal.

It was painful to watch after they have been playing so well.

Speaking of painful,...McCabe went down hard in the third with a broken hand (broken in 3 places!) so he'll be gone for about 6-8 weeks. That could be the difference on our defence and could be the difference in our season ....of course, this is McCabe...so maybe somehow this will actually turn out as a benefit for us...

From last night, 5 of the teams we needed to win did,(Yotes, Canes, Penguins, Wings, and Sens) but the most important of all those wins did not happen. That puts us back in 9th again. Points wise we are tioed with the Penguins, but they have a game in hand. We are 1 point out of 6th place...

So tonight we need a few things to happen:
Devils over the Flyers
Yotes over the Rangers
Blackhawks over the Panthers

That will keep everybody close and help us out with those games in hand...

and hopefully the boys can regroup around that loss in Montreal....

Kubina out

Steve says:

Will we ever have a full lineup?
Kubina has re-injured his MCL...he'll be out for weeks...argh...

Injury Report

Chris says:

I'll take a knee to the groin for a thousand please Alex.

Tucker is out indefinetly from undefined ligament damage in his right knee. So that doesn't tell you much, but really it's all you need to know. Ligament damage is never good and it almost always means a long time on the bench.

This is not good news. Tucker may not post the highest numbers but he provides a lot of heart and soul to this team. With our unessecary and ongoing goalie baggage, and our continuing lapses at defence, I think it might be time to jettison one of goaltenders and fish around for a Tucker replacement if it looks like he'll have to ride the pine for any length of time.

Look at it like found money. Personally, I feel okay staying with Toskala.

busy day off

Steve says:

Hartly got fired in Atlanta. Talk of Pat Quinn or Pat Burns taking his place.
Poni expected back on #1 Line with Sundin and Blake on Thursday.
McCabe getting roasted by hockey media.
Leafs spend entire day working defensive zone coverage drills.
Flames lose a 4 goal lead and lose the game in shootout.

whew!

Chris says:

The rumour mill has it that Wellwood could be making his first appearance of the season on Saturday. I have yet to be wowwed by Wellwood, but that's primarily because he's injured so often.

Colaiacovo is apparently on the mend as well.

Poni sits

Steve says:

Poni is sitting out tonights game after running into Kilger during practise.

D'oh!

Chris says:

Apparently yesterday saw a fairly spirited practice as the team tried to work of the stink of failure from the Carolina game, which is how Pony got hurt.

Keep working boys.

We won't get fooled again...

Chris says:

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

The Leafs have decided to bench Colaiacovo for the remaining Pre-Season games in fear of exacerbating his sore knee. Granted I’ll take sore knee over lingering concussion symptoms almost any day of the week.

But wait, isn’t this the same Leafs organization who was resting Wellwood because of a sore groin that they didn’t to get any worse?

“Sore” doesn’t begin to tell us if Colaiacovo just pulled a muscle or if it’s something much worse.

Steve says:

The injuries are already starting again. When can we get rid of some of these guys who spend half the season at home injured and get some guys in who can actually manage to show up to work for a full season.

Crazy thinking isn't it?

Under the Knife

Wellwood goes under the knife again.

Remember how great Kyle Wellwood was playing last year? Neither do I. The oft injured Wellwood is apparently out for the count, at least for the beginning of the season.

The culprit? More groin surgery.

(Ouch)

Wellwood is often touted as the Leaf’s next “playmaker” a role that’s gone unfilled in the organization for quite some time. Unfortunately he hasn’t been given the chance to live up to his tremendous potential as he was riding the pine for what felt like the majority of last year. When he did come back last year it was too little too late as the Leafs weren’t able to put together a big enough string of wins to get us to the holy land.

What makes it worse is that Wellwood didn’t even make it to the Pre-Season before he had to go for surgery. Benched, with an undisclosed tightening of the groin muscles MLSE downplayed the sitch until they were forced to come clean by curious reporters.

With no return date set for Wellwood, who knows how long we’ll have to wait and see whether or not this man can live up to all his hype.

Steve says:
There should be some kind of insurance off the cap when a player has this many injuries. Losing this guy this many times has put in the financial hole without even a whiff of a chance to make it worth it. Frustrating to say the least.