So You're Saying We Have A Chance?

Well my facts served themselves to be accurate, as the Leafs beat Buffalo 4-1 on Friday then Ottawa 5-4 on Saturday, both very exciting games.


Both games were without both captain and leading scorer Mats Sundin, and second in scoring Nik Antropov, but the Leafs still pulled through for their 2nd and 3rd straight win. The Leafs improved to 7-3 in March and have now gone 8-0-1 in their last 9 road games.

I watched all of the Buffalo game but I only caught the 3rd period of the Ottawa game but all I can say is that I haven't seen these Leafs play this good in over a year.

The Buffalo game saw Anton Stralman get his first NHL goal, while Toskala played by far his best game of the year, allowing just one goal on 36 shots and making some incredible and timely saves. Stralman, Blake, and Stajan had a goal and a helper a piece.

After losing the first three games of the season series to Ottawa, they have now won four straight against their division and provincial rivals. Down one goal heading into the third period, Tlusty and Stajan scored 42 seconds apart early to put the Leafs ahead 5-4 which would eventually be the final. Staffan Kronwall played in place of Colaiacovo for these two games and had his first career fight against Shean Donovan, but it didn't last much longer than Mr. Bone does having sex. HEY-O!

The two wins moved the Leafs just four points back of 7th place Philadelphia and 8th Boston place, still with Buffalo (81), Washington (82), and Florida (81) sitting between the Leafs and a playoff spot. The Leafs playoff chances will be decided by a home and home series against Boston this week on Tuesday and Thursday. The Bruins have lost their last three games overall and 4 out of their last 5 on the road. The Leafs are now 8-0-1 in their last 9 road games, so they should at least take that game. Once again the odds are with the Leafs to win both games, and the odds worked out pretty good this weekend so hopefully they pull off a couple wins this week to come into a tie for 7th place, depending on how the other teams fair.

Mats Sundin and Boyd Devereaux will both likely be back in the lineup Tuesday, which means a decrease in ice time for Matt Stajan who played #1 centre both weekend games and played 25 minutes Saturday, the most ice time of his career. In the absence of Sundin, Stajan had 2 goals, 1 assist, and a game winning goal Saturday night. I think they should stop riding the 37 year old captain so hard and give the younger players more opportunities, seeing as how they will be the leaders of this team in years to come.