Toronto Musings, In-Game Scribbles
March 21, 2009, by Homme De Sept-Iles
Toronto 5, at Montreal 2
The newswire tells us the following before the game:
Out: Matt D’Agostini, Max Pacioretty
In: Georges Laraque, Gregory Stewart
Out: Patrice Brisebois
In: Ryan O’Byrne
First Period
Early seeming-goal. A Toronto sneaker. Looks like it went in but it’s not conclusive.
No goal.
But the instant replay suggests strongly that it did. But because the visual itself, the precise motion imagery is inconclusive, they cannot count it. Montreal is very fortunate.
Some time goes by. Some hockey takes place.
Leafs get a goal. O’Byrne is beaten on the blue line. Doesn’t get rid of the puck properly. Leafs come in on a short-track, dragster two-on-one and show us the textbook.
1-0 Toronto.
Grabovski scores a lucky goal. Halak mishandles a routine shot. Very sharp angle. Goes in off his extended left pad. Grabovski shot from Halak’s right side.
2-0 Toronto.
Montreal gets a power-play for the ruckus that immediately follows the goal. Plekanec line starts.
Another lost power-play.
Can’t CBC French buy the rights as well? Listening on the laptop and watching on CBC. Maybe online radio will work better. I’ll see in the second period.
O’Byrne takes an unfortunate tripping penalty. Guy tripped over O’Byrne’s stick. It’s time for a short-handed goal but the team stopped doing that well, months ago. If it comes, it will be Higgins or Plekanec.
Metropolit has to watch his stick. He’ll take a needless slashing penalty otherwise. Toronto is held to very harmless plays by the Canadiens’ twelfth-ranked penalty-kill.
I finally notice the throw-back jerseys. The ancient “CA”. The letters would look better if they were thicker. But it’s not Edited Throwback Night. It’s just throwback night.
Montreal kills the penalty without threats. Either direction. Toronto looks like a team that is waiting for a spanking. Despite the two-goal lead.
Referees give Montreal a break on what could have been a trip.
Grabovski’s hair looks almost as messy as this writer’s. I should wear a helmet while writing.
Koivu on the faceoff deep and he wins. Tanguay has to be frustrated at this point. He has played very well since his return but doesn’t have the points to show for his strong play. Higgins, meantime, loses the puck in another overconfident trip across the top of the slot. Two Leaves relieve him of the disc. Higgins is a liability on any trio.
The Leafs could be up 3-0 if they count the goal that went in undetected by the camera.
Second Period
Tim Hunter is an assistant coach for Toronto. Another genius to Southern Ontario.
Leafs score.
3-0, Leaves.
Latendresse goes to the box. Tripping. Seems accidental. Tripped Salming, I mean Finger.
Schneider takes a boarding call. Another power-play for Toronto. Another power-play for the opponent. Legit call and Montreal (once more) cannot yell at the cop for writing them up. Next time, check the traffic signals.
Toronto scores. On an unimpressive backhand.
4-0, Leaves.
O’Byrne is not NHL-ready.
Bell Central crowd is booing. And not the isolated muppet-heckle type. Medium to full bowl booing.
Perhaps the commercial break will end it. What a national humiliation. With Lord Cyclops Cherry presiding.
Thomas (Plekanec) nails someone. First time I’ve seen his annoyance manifest itself so physically. Good night for it with Laraque around. Pierre Houde says one has to start somewhere. Legal hit.
Montreal is capable of outscoring Toronto to come back and win. And they seem to have decided to do just that. The Montreal tempo takes a noticeable upswing that goes from the initiating shift to the next.
Canadiens score.
Higgins to Lapierre. Higgins didn’t want to do the hard work of going to the net, reversed direction and tried a last-ditch, no-look back-hander that somehow finds its way onto Lapierre’s stick. Good finish. Lucky set-up.
4-1, Leaves.
Lapierre scores again. Very soon after. Unlikely angle shot. Great set-up, though. From Tanguay.
4-2, Leaves.
Canadiens put some brief but intense pressure on Toronto but Gerber survives. The worst goalie in the NHL looks like one of the best. For now. Yes. The worst. I can’t think of anyone weaker.
Now Montreal goes on the power-play.
Koivu, Kovalev and Tanguay. Best combination possible. Koivu hits the post.
Power-play shows great control keeping the puck in the Toronto end for most of the power-play. But no goal. Some very good chances. Gerber survives again. He’s wearing Palmateer’s number. That shouldn’t have been allowed. I’m not saying retire the inconsistent goalie’s number. Just don’t let people like Gerber wear it.
It’s sort of like Jacques Chapdelaine being permitted to wear Keith Baker’s jersey number (which never actually happened). Or Kerry Watkins wearing Chris Armstrong’s (which did happen).
Montreal gets a few more quality chances to close out the period. No goals but a good premise for the third.
Second Intermission
Bergeron and the other guy think Lapierre is the best Francophone player this season. Actually best Franco player since Lafleur. No, since Richard. Better than Lemieux.
Oh wait. Wait. I’m reading body language, only. In words, it’s different. What they’re actually saying is something a little less grandiose. They’re saying Lapierre scored two goals and that he showed the want that a player should show in these situations. I should write that down somewhere.
I remember his name now. The other guy is Dave Morissette. No idea how I could have forgotten his name.
Third Period
Following a puck freeze by Halak, some physical babbling from a Leaf (#22) who decides to waggle his arms like a large, violent infant mummy.
Toronto gets a power-play sometime thereafter. Latendresse for a high-stick. A just call. Referees are calling a smooth, quality game.
On the power-play, transplanted local Jason Blake gets an unfortunate and unexpectedly accurate high shot past Halak. Strain of Fluke. Mario Lemieux couldn’t have done it better. I don’t think Mario could have done it, actually. Blake for Conn Smythe.
Now Blake becomes ugly teen fanatic who’s glimpsed Britney Spears. Or like a blonde born-again Christian on his first drunken binge. Mouth open, arms out and down like the Gingerbread Man, screaming in celebration at teammate Grabovski. What’s he yelling? Perhaps, “This is Caaanadaaaaa!”
5-2, Leaves.
Toronto should go to Shamrock green and white. Would suit them better.
Montreal goes to the power-play. With 8:46 left, it’s probably not enough time. Not enough circumstance.
Markov falls at the Toronto blue line and grubbles around on the ice and prevents it from getting worse. Toronto’s Matt Stajan does get a shot and forces an ugly man-advantage freeze.
Power-play ends and Montreal doesn’t threaten. Pacioretty still cares about the outcome. Same with Komisarek. But not everyone is on this list.
Five minutes and twenty-two seconds remaining.
And it ends 5-2 with no further threat from our team in red.
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