Okay, that was good. Yeah, the second period nearly put me to sleep, but that was gold. They came up 3 1 going into the second half of the game, we kind of fell over for part of it, and yeah, it was the caffeine that kept me awake at that point–kind of like this morning, but that’s for other reasons to be explained in detail later, but well, four goals to close it out didn’t hurt our case any. Now, let’s see if perhaps we can do some of that winning more than 2 games consecutively for a change. Say, will we make headlines on the Ottawa stations if we win 3?

Oops. I seem to have completely spaced out during the shootout of this game. And promptly didn’t acknowledge that that was exactly where we found our win from. Oh well, a point’s a point. And hey look, .500 in the shootout! At least we’re even in one category.

• Wins: 10
• Losses: 16
• Shootout Wins: 2
• Shootout Losses: 2
• Points: 24

Awesome 1: I actually watched this entire game, in my own apartment, with pizza and coke. Awesome 2: I subsequently got to watch them actually play for a change rather than just kind of flop around like they don’t have a clue. Awesome 3: Two points, and a shootout victory. Booya. Now then. Where’s my cellebratory vodka?

• Wins: 9
• Losses: 16
• Shootout Wins: 1
• Shootout Losses: 2
• Points: 22

Ladies and gentlemen, the team that is ours has apparently gotten lost enroute the Air Canada Center. They therefore were unable to make it to last night’s game–thus explaining the stomping. At least, explaining it slightly better than just saying we sat there like idiots while Edmonton walked in and pasted the net. I turned it off after we switched goalies. I turned it back on for a bit of the third, they hadn’t gotten any better. It stayed off. Folks, I’m beginning not to like my favourite team.

• Wins: 8
• Losses: 16
• Shootout Wins: 0
• Shootout Losses: 2
• Points: 20

Rogers is considering buying the Maple Leafs. Hey, for the past two days, every news outlet in Ontario’s been all over the place with it so there must be some mild degree of truth to it. Considering they already own Sportsnet, which could benefit from more hockey, plus the station that handles the radio broadcasts for the Leafs, good things can’t help but happen. Hell, they own the Bluejays, they own Sportsnet, and living in Ottawa I didn’t miss a single game I wasn’t home for and/or didn’t much care to watch. Hey, one can always dream. Now then. where’d I put my pretend season passes to the ACC?

Was there a recently added law to that list Murphy keeps hold of that escentially says if you play well, you’ll lose in interestingly messed up fashion, and if you absolutely suck, you’ll somehow manage to win? I have to know. Because with the exception of a couple really, really stupid plays, we honestly should have nailed that one. Like for reals. And of course, those bastards from Montreal pulled off another win at the same goddamn time. Figures. I’m going back to baseball. Or at least vodka.

• Wins: 8
• Lossts: 15
• Shootout Wins: 0
• Shootout Losses: 2
• Points: 20

I will accept suckyness during a back to back. I will even accept suckyness on the front end of a back to back. But this much suckyness on this particular set of back to back games? Really? Can anyone tell me where the team ran off to? I’m pretty sure they got lost on their way to Ottawa on Saturday. All except the goalie, who eventually shoed up–just late. I’d like to buy a hockey team, please.

• Wins: 8
• Losses: 14
• Shootout Wins: 0
• Shootout Losses: 2
• Points: 19

I’d just like to state for the record that last night’s game was probably the worst game I’ve seen. And I didn’t even see all of the first period–wherein we promptly imploded and gave up two goals. All told, before 20 minutes was up, we’d managed 5 shots to their 13 and nothing goal-wise to their 2. Not a very good way to start the game. Can we have that back, pretty please?

• Wins: 8
• Losses: 13
• Shootout Wins: 0
• Shootout Losses: 2
• Points: 19

Now that’s how we’re supposed to do it. Latch onto a lead, then run like holy hell’s on your ass. Because if you’re the Toronto Maple Leafs, it probably is. Hey look, we’ve scored more goals in the last 3 games than we have the rest of the month–yes, even if those bastards from Montreal ruined us on Saturday. Now, let’s see. Can we make headlines by winning 3? Related: we’re not that far out of the playoffs anymore! Go us! Yes, I know, I’m far too easy to please.

• Wins: 8
• Losses: 12
• Shootout Wins: 0
• Shootout Losses: 2
• Points: 19

Okay, I can’t find any other way to say it. We played the hell out of that game. We really did. Just once again, we forgot where the back of the net was. Bright side: I now know why we made headlines for winning two in a row. Not that it helps, but can’t have everything. Now, can someone go arange to have some of those bastards from Montreal miss a game or two? Please?

• Wins: 7
• Losses: 12
• Shootout Wins: 0
• Shootout Losses: 2
• Points: 17

For the first time this season, I missed the game not because I slept through it/forgot it was on, but because they saw fit to air it on a channel we don’t get over at the parents’ place. And, because they generally frown on me hiding out in the basement all evening, I didn’t see fit to stick around down there to stream it. Too bad, really, seeing as I hear I missed a good one. Including at least one more powerplay goal from the department of nonexistent powerplay goals. Nifty. Couple more like that and we’ll bt almost back to .500.

• Wins: 7
• Losses: 11
• Shootout Wins: 0
• Shootout Losses: 2
• Points: 17

I’m not exactly sure which hockey game I watched. Seriously. That sure as hell wasn’t the team I was used to seeing. Okay, I’ll admit it. When we were down 3 nothing near the end of the first, particularly after Nashville had scored two ten seconds apart, I kind of got that “we’ve already been there” feeling. Hell, I had that feeling even after we ended the period down 3 1. Then 4 1 in the second. But what the royal fuck happened? Did the old team leave and call in replacements? Since when do we walk away with goals on the power play? Most noteably, 4 unanswered ones? And no third period implosion–even after Giguere left the ice with some kind of groin thing going on? Since when? No, seriously. I wanna know. I also want good things like this to keep happening–but I know better than to ask for such things. But, hey, if it could possibly be that we were that good rather than they sucked that bad, I’ll take it. Hell, it’s a couple points we didn’t have two days ago–I’ll take it anyway. But I’ll keep my dilusions, thanks.

Related: Why the hell is it every time we play like we might actually want to give not collapsing in on ourselves a try, one of us gets banged up? I swear it’s an NHL conspiracy.

• Wins: 6
• Losses: 11
• Shootout Wins: 0
• Shootout Losses: 2
• Points: 15

And we were doing so well, too. Two quick goals in the first, and early. And we actually played like we wanted to win for a change. At least until the second. Then we lost the lead, lost the tie, got back the tie, and lost the game. I’m really developing an alergy to being a Toronto sports fan. Oh well, maybe next time. But probably not.

• Wins: 5
• Losses: 11
• Shootout Wins: 0
• Shootout Losses: 2
• Points: 13

We got one. Just one. That’s it. For the rest of this entry, see Leafs V. Lightning, day before. I’m going back to my pizza and coke.

• Wins: 5
• Losses: 10
• Shootout Wins: 0
• Shootout Losses: 2
• Points: 13

We had the awesomest of awesome starts. 4 and 0. First in the division. Hanging around top of the conference. Then we imploded. Fell apart for 3, pulled ourselves together for 1, and back to imploding for 6. Oh yeah, and losing a product of probably last year’s biggest trade to injury in the process. And, hey, we occasionally slapped one or two into the back of the net for posterity. Oh, the joys of being a Toronto sports fan. You can stop the NHL any time now. I’d like off, please.

Ow. That was painful. Just… Ow. Did we even show up last night? I’ve just run out of ways to say we sucked. Have this instead.

• Wins: 5
• Losses: 9
• Shootout Wins: 0
• Shootout Losses: 2
• Points: 13

Another game, another lead, another shootout. Wanna guess at the result? Yep, another loss. Sigh. Well, we once again didn’t suck. Well except that part where we imploded. Hey, at least it was a good game. Right? Right? Anyone? … Bring on the reshuffle.

• Wins: 5
• Losses: 8
• Shootout Wins: 0
• Shootout Losses: 2
• Points: 13

I don’t know how much more of that I can take. Once again, they did everything right. Only this time, that included scoring. Both teams played the hell out of it, and matched each other point for point in regulation. Toronto lead after a period by 1, then Washington took over 3 to 1 in the second. I half expected the thing to just end right there like that. But, hey, occasionally they’re full of surprises. They were during that game. Midway through the third, it was 4 3 toronto. Naturally that wasn’t good enough–so Washington sent us to overtime. And then a shootout. And then we flopped. Officially, 5 4 was the score for the other guys–but unofficially, we beat the hell out of them. This is the type of game I don’t mind losing. Can we keep that up for next time?

• Wins: 5
• Losses: 7
• Shootout Wins: 0
• Shootout Losses: 1
• Points: 12

Ok, it could have been worse. It *was* worse for most of the game. We did damn near everything right but score for most of the show. At one point, we were closing in on 200 attempts on the net without a goal over the past 3 games. Then, of course, we got 2 back while I was freezing my ass off with a couple muts of my own. But, hey, they got a couple. I should probably stop complaining. Yeah, even if we’re in Washington without Captain D. Now, maybe we can hold onto this scoring thing? That’d rule.

• Wins: 5
• Losses: 6
• Shootout Wins: 0
• Shootout Losses: 0
• Points: 11

Ladies and gentlemen, what we have here is a failure to score. We played the hell out of that game, and all but tore up the shot clock. Not that it helped a whole lot. Oh well, at least we didn’t suck.

• Wins: 5
• losses: 5
• Shootout Wins: 0
• Shootout Losses: 0
• Points: 11

What happens when you watch a game, get busy doing things of ageek nature, and don’t get around to blogging about the afore mentioned game until two days later? You wind up having to remind yourself just how bad the game was. What happens when your team pretends to try, then just falls over and dies? You end up having to write an entry like this, after reminding yourself two days later how bad it actually was. They scored in the first, scored in the third, we didn’t score at all. Got a crap ton of shots on goal, though. And hey, this one we can’t blame the official’s for. Okay, I’ll say it–Tim Thomas was solid. Okay, that wasn’t too painful. Now, can someone drop kick a couple of Montreal’s players so we can get ahead of them in the standings again? Oh, yeah. And, defense? Yeah, that thing. More of that. Thanks, guys.

• Wins: 5
• Losses: 4
• Shootout Wins: 0
• Shootout Losses: 0
• Points: 11

Okay, I’m big enough to admit when we didn’t suck. And during this last game, yeah, we didn’t suck. At least, not as bad as we’ve been known to. It took us two tries to keep a lead, but we never let them get one so that counts for something. Importantly, we actually woke up. I was wondering when that’d happen. Completely different atmosphere than even the game on Saturday. Hell, I actually enjoyed watching this one. Here’s praying it continues.

Update: Twitter has very politely informed me I wasn’t exactly accurate on the score. That’s what I get for watching the game and messing about with Linux at the same time. We actually ended up winning 3 1–hey, even better! I also, apparently, fail at math. We do, in fact, stand on ground equal to that of those bastards from Montreal. Thanks for the nudge in the right direction, John.

• Wins: 5
• Losses: 3
• Shootout Wins: 0
• Shootout Losses: 0
• Points: 11

That thing goes way beyond words. I have nothing to say.

• Wins: 4
• Losses: 3
• Shootout Wins: 0
• Shootout Losses: 0
• Points: 9

It took me two days to come up with this post, and all I can say is where were we for most of Thursday’s game? We weren’t there at all in the first period, and New York got both their goals a minute and 1 second apart as a result. Defense? Nuh uh. Offense? I don’t think it showed up. Same with half of the second pariod. And most of the third period. We got one back towards the end of the third, but really, by then I was considering just turning it off. I’d say here’s hoping for an improvement, but then, the Flyers just scored so well, unless you know something I don’t, I’ll just sit back and pray. Bright side: it could have been 6 nothing by now. Right? Right? … Right? Anyone?

• Wins: 4
• Losses: 2
• Shootout Wins: 0
• Shootout Losses: 0
• Points: 9

I’m going to start off by saying, right now, if I ever meet these officials in a back alley, I’m probably going to go to jail. Holy crap. Okay, now that that’s out of my system. We had two disallowed goals that should have been easy in. One *was* in, but they wouldn’t go for a video review to confirm it. The other was in according to the ice officials, but they went to a video review anyway and called it out. Both were absolutely stupid calls, in my honest opinion. Otherwise it would have been 2, if not 3, to 1 in favour of us–sans overtime. Instead, we ended up in overtime and, uh, where was the goalie? Did he even see the shot that ended it? Inquiring minds are dying to know. Oh well, I got to watch a nifty little Kessel goal that guaranteed us at least a point. That’s gotta count for something. Now, to go find my small army and nail us some on-ice officials. In the meantime, bring on the next one. And this time, can we bring our own officials?

• Wins: 4
• Losses: 1
• Shootout Wins: 0
• Shootout Losses: 0
• Points: 9

Sadly, I didn’t watch this game either. It was Jessica’s last night in town–more on that in a later entry, so I decided to spend it with her. Apparently, that cost me in the ability to see a hell of a game, though. Including what I’m gathering was a pretty awesome overtime goal to end it. I’m almost sorry I missed it. Almost, that is, except for the afore mentioned fiance’s last night in town. Oh well, that’s why I subscribe to LeafsTV. Wonder if they’re still replaying it.

• Wins: 4
• Losses: 0
• Shootout Wins: 0
• Shootout Losses: 0
• Points: 8