LEAFS WIN BIG

That was quite the game played between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens at the Air Canada Centre on Hall of Fame weekend.

Unlike the first meeting between these two teams earlier in the season when the Leafs got beat 6-1. They were actually in this game and outplayed the Canadiens to win 6-3.

If you think the heat in this rivalry was down, well then, it went up a couple of notches after tonight. This game started out chippy and ended that way. This game was truly a throwback to the days when the Hall of Fame inductees played.

In the first period, the Leafs started out skating and beat the Canadiens to a lot of pucks. Just for that a bonehead play was made by Tom Kostopoulos of the Canadiens as he ran Mike Van Ryn into the boards, face first. And he knew he was in trouble and got some licks in from Carlo Colaiacovo. After the scrum, Mike Van Ryn was lost for the game, to what appeared to be a broken nose. Kostopoulos got a ten minute misconduct penalty, five minute major for boarding and a two minute roughing penalty.

Ian White filled in for Van Ryn on defence for the remainder of the game.

On the five minute power play the Leafs opened the scoring on a smooth rush through the neutral zone and around a Montreal defender by Mikhail Grabovski. Who continued his hot streak and dished off a saucer pass to Niklas Hagman who scored.

The Leafs had plenty of time left on the power play too, and then were given a 5-on-3 advantage. Nothing was made of the opportunity, due to good shot blocking by the Montreal penalty kill, and an errant pass by Nik Antropov.

Things were set up nicely, and Antropov made a hard cross ice pass that was banked off the boards and out of the zone.

An early goal in the second by Grabovski put the Leafs up 2-0, but it appeared the Leafs slacked off for a bit. They got burned, as Montreal scored two quick goals to tie the game.

First it was Robert Lang off a rebound, who was left all alone in front of the net on the power play. Then Tomas Plekanec scored, also on the power play.

It was a shootout in the second period, as both teams scored three goals each, and the Leafs were up 4-3 going into the third.

The Leafs’ Niklas Hagman scored on the power play, which made the score 3-2 Leafs. Then Saku Koivu came back to tie the game, as he walked out of the corner all alone and scored one high, glove side. The Leafs answered back and it was Nik Antropov who scored off a mad scramble in the crease for the lead.

You just knew the third period was going to have a frantic finish, and it did. The Leafs added some insurance goals to put the game out of reach for Montreal.

This time it was Pavel Kubina who scored on another power play to make the score 5-3, and Alex Ponikarovsky added another to seal the game. It was a great goal too, as he worked hard in the defensive zone, and eluded his man to create a 2-on-1 rush with Antropov. Nik made the pass, and Ponikarovsky did the rest with a nice forehand fake, and scored on the backhand.

Montreal had a goal waived off due to a high stick making contact with the puck. If that goal had counted, or was scored legally, the score would’ve been 5-4 Leafs at a crucial point in the game.

With the game all but over, some of the Canadiens players got testy. Most notably Andrei Kostitsyn, as he received a ten minute misconduct. He was acting like a total jackass towards Grabovski, whom he charged earlier on in the play to create the shouting match. And those Belarusian’s went at each other nicely, and if it weren’t for the referee’s holding them back, everyone would’ve been treated to a nice scrap.

Even Saku Koivu, the so called ‘classy guy’ that he is, acted like an asshole towards Grabovski as well, and started talking shit to him for no apparent reason at the time.

Overall, the Leafs played a good game both offensively and defensively, and out shot the Canadiens 41-20. In the past 11 out of 12 games, the Leafs have out shot their opponents and have had at least thirty shots in those games. Montreal only had three shots in the first, twelve in the second and five in the third period. The three goals that were scored, were tough ones to stop, and would’ve been goals no matter what, except for the Koivu goal.

This time around the Leafs power play was much better, going 3/8, while Montreal went 2/6.

Once again the line of Hagman, Grabovski, and Kulemin was the best on the ice from either side. The line combined to score five points, with two goals coming from Hagman, a goal and assist from Grabovski and an assist from Kulemin. Nik Antropov the slumping forward who had only one goal and assist in his last four games had a goal and two assists on the night.

Look for the hate created in this game to spill over in the next match up between these two teams.

To note, the Montreal game misconducts taken, were complete cheap shots and classless. They were done by stupid players, and one of which is now somewhat of a tough guy after tonight’s game, and he knew exactly what he was doing while in the motion of running Mike Van Ryn into the boards. Andrei Kostitsyn is a punk who can’t fight and tried to act all tough while hitting Grabovski.

If anyone says the Canadiens are a strong team or have gotten stronger, well they aren’t. They are cowards. They all give hits and cheap ones too, their captain talks a lot of shit and no one looks forward to the consequences. They’ve been getting away with too much and will get their just desserts soon time. The signing of Georges Laracque to add toughness was a bust. Where was he in all this, because he was brought in to defend his teammates? He did none of that, and Montreal is too small and with no grit whatsoever.


The opinions and thoughts expressed in this or any other article written by 12nadnuk are of his thinking and what he thinks is correct or close to it in the sporting world. If there are any problems by anyone, 12nadnuk is open for rebuttal and what not, and honest criticism. There is also a comments section, so feel free to post what is on your mind about the article. Thank you for reading.