Relax Kids, it's just One Game!

Holy cow, the boo birds are out, ' Tank Nation ' is rearing it's ugly head and the rest of the Leaf's fans are calling for Toskala's head and for the rest of the team to be sent down to the Marlies! And don't even get me started about the media!

Ok, so the Leafs lost the first game of the season 4-3 in overtime to a Montreal Canadian team who, for all intents and purposes, could really go either way this year, greatly depending on the play of their obviously bi-polar goaltender, Carey Price.


First, let's deal with Toskala. If you've been reading me for awhile, you know by know that I neither like, nor dis-like the man. I refuse to throw him under a bus because he let in one bad goal. Un-timely though it may have been, it was one bad goal. For the most part, what I've seen of him since the beginning of this camp to now, the first game of the year. He has looked better than he did last year. His lateral movement is better and faster, he challenges shooters more rather than standing on his goal line and hoping the puck hits him somewhere. As un timely as the bad goal was, it wasn't the end of the world.



I am not however a big fan of Rickard Wallin as of yet. He did nothing in the pre-season of note, and he was little more than a ghost tonight. I know I'm sort of beating a dead horse here, and I understand, and agree with the wisdom in sending Kadri back down, but if it was a choice between the two? Wallin is still, at 29 years of age, a relatively un-proven player in the NHL. Looking at his numbers though, he does have some up-side. But, alas, after ten years as a pro, he has yet to reach the 20 games played in the NHL plateau. Curious.

Anyway, enough of all that, there were some positives to take away from tonight's game. They out shot the Habs by a 46-27 margin, and were six for eight on the penalty kill. The flip side of those two positive though, is Price stood on his head, and the Leafs have got to be better on the PK, if they are going to continue to exert themselves on their opponents. It's ok to take eight penalties a night if you can kill at least seven of them.

``I think we were the better team tonight, and fell short,'' said Komisarek. ``We didn't get two points. Next time, we find a way to win and get the two points.

``Good start, could have been better, but we'll take the point and take the positive out of it.''

The Leafs are looking good, and I can't wait to see them in action Saturday night in Washington, as always, you can hear all of the action, live, right here on Bench Brawl!

Until next time, you kids play safe!