The Leafs are on pace to win 0 games this pre-season

In their first pre-season game of the year, the Leafs lost to the Oilers 3-2 in overtime.

Both teams were missing a significant amount of talent, so it is tough to take too much away from the game. On the winning team, Robert Nilsson was clearly the best player, despite a 3-point performance by Shawn Horcoff.

As for the Leafs, I noticed three players that stood out:
[1] Matt Stajan - If you've ever read The Blue & White before, you know that we show very little love for Stajan. Very little. About the same amount of love you'd get from a girl if you got gum in her hair. Last night, however, Stajan looked stronger and faster than ever before. He was getting through checks and winning battles for the puck that he previously wouldn't have, and looking much more confident all around. His best play was at 11:15 of the first period, when Stajan split the Oilers D and drove to the net, forcing Denis Grebeshkov to take him down for a penalty. It was a strong, confident play that Stajan is not known for. Could the reports of Stajan's off-season workouts making him a better player actually be true? I fucking hope so - having the Matt Stajan that played last night stay with the team the entire season would be a gigantic improvement over the Matt Stajan of years past.

[2] Justin Pogge - In this, his first NHL game, he simply looked like he belonged. He made several very solid (although not spectacular) saves throughout the game. He was well-positioned and looked much more comfortable in the crease than what I saw of him last season with the Marlies. He too seems to have benefited from a productive off-season. He did take the loss, however he probably deserved better. The first Oiler goal came on a 5 on 3 and the puck took a bit of a weird bounce right onto the stick of Trukhno. Overall, a good game for someone likely trying to shake off the butterflies.

[3] Simon Gamache - Not as impressive as Stajan, but stood out nonetheless. This is a guy that is fighting for a job on the Leafs, and has made no bones about the fact that he badly wants to play in the NHL over the AHL. I've not seen Gamache play very much before tonight, and was quite impressed by his speed and grit. His career numbers show that he has offensive upside to go with what I saw last night. Watching Gamache, I found myself saying "How do they not give this guy a shot on the big team?" Reports around training camp have Gamache impressing both the coaching staff and the players. It seems that if he continues down this road, it'd be quite difficult not to find a spot for him, especially considering Mark Bell's 15 game suspension to begin the year.

Random Game Notes
- Both Toronto goals were quite nice. Ponikarovski scored on a breakaway with an amazing head fake to backhand move, putting the puck over Garon's blocker. Exceptional puck placement. McCabe's goal was as nice as any I've ever seen him score. He used Tlusty as a decoy, skated in, and blasted a slap shot over Dubnyk's blocker. Another perfect shot placement; made a nice sound hitting the bar on the way in.

- Anson Carter apparently suffered a concussion in last night's game. There was one sequence wherein Belak and Carter were battling for the puck, and Newbury skated in to hammer Carter off his feet. Carter immediately took a retaliatory penalty, and during the delay before the whistle was blown. Belak knocked him down again with a solid check. I reckon this is where the injury took place.

- I hate to start on Harry Neale already, but since the lockout he has been incorrectly identifying plays more and more often. Last night, Ponikarovsky took a holding penalty in the Edmonton end when he hooked/held the D-man that had the puck. After the ref had signaled a holding infraction, Harry actually made a point of saying (paraphrased here, but reasonably accurate), "I don't understand this call; giving an interference penalty for chasing the puck carrier..." Well, I suppose it's easy not to understand the call, because there was absolutely no indication of an interference call. Obviously not a huge mistake, but a very common one for Neale. Fuck, I correctly identified the call from my couch after 6 beers - it wasn't like decoding KGB spy messages. It may be a long season, as Harry will be doing the colour commentary for the majority of Leaf games.

Next Game: Wednesday, September 19 (tonight!) vs. Phoenix (in Winnipeg)