Some thoughts about the game tonight................
I made the trip to Montreal tonight with my wife and son to see what I hoped would be an entertaining and impactful game. When Columbus knocked the Habs out of the playoffs, I knew that the game would not have the same meaning to the teams any longer - but it meant a lot to us, having spent $900 on tickets + hotel room + transportation (+ my wife’s shopping ), so I still had high hopes for a great game.
Overall, it was actually a very fun, albeit very frustrating game to watch. Montreal is a great city, and the experience of being at at game at the Bell Centre - the atmosphere, the history of the team (which they shove down your throat every chance they get), and most of all, the passion of their fans, makes it an unique hockey experience that I hope that all of you will get a chance to enjoy some day.
The final score was obviously a big disappointment - although being in the building, you could feel the 5th Montreal goal comming. The Leafs - to me - mailed it in this game. They seemed to be going through the motions, trying not to get hurt, and trying to score on individual rushes rather than the creative, dynamic offence that they showed earlier in the year. Montreal, on the other hand, always seemed to be dangerous, especially with the Keystone Cops defence of Marincin and Ozhiganov on the ice, along with the abysmal 4th line. You could feel the goals against comming - which they did twice.
The decisions to rest Hainsey / Zaitsev / etc.... was the right one of course. You could make a strong argument that several others should have been rested as well. But despite having our 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th best defencemen on the ice tonight, I still expected better. I do understand why the players would be cautious as well - who wants to get hurt in game 82 after all - but that was not the only thing that I noticed watching them live tonight, as well as at Scotia Bank Centre against Carolina on Tuesday.
There is something wrong with this team.
We fans have all identified countless things that have driven us crazy this year: the defence of course, the coaching decisions, the personnel decisions, etc... - but - there is something deeper than the obvious above issues that we have rightly criticized the team for the entire year. The Leafs just seems ‘out of sync’. Their passes don’t connect, they don’t seem to realize when there is an open man to cover, they make tepid, weak passses that get picked off.
They make mistakes - the same mistakes - over and over and over again .
Perhaps the playoffs being a ‘new season’ will allow the Leafs to just ‘flip a switch’ and turn it on like we’ve all been waiting for.
But I just don’t see it.
I am sorry that I can’t be more optimistic - I ‘d really like to be. I hope that the fans out there who see the glass half full will pick me up and keep me positive. I don’t know - I might just might just be bitter because I can hear that ***damn ‘ole’ song through my hotel room window.
I so wanted to be the one singing it tonight.
Oh well.
GO LEAFS (PLEASE) GO
