{"id":21,"date":"2007-10-11T20:29:51","date_gmt":"2007-10-12T00:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/2007\/10\/11\/live-blogging-leafs-vs-islanders\/"},"modified":"2007-10-11T22:11:51","modified_gmt":"2007-10-12T02:11:51","slug":"live-blogging-leafs-vs-islanders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/2007\/10\/11\/live-blogging-leafs-vs-islanders\/","title":{"rendered":"Live Blogging Leafs vs. Islanders"},"content":{"rendered":"

7:30 –<\/strong>\u00a0 I tune in to Leafs TV and\u00a0bemoan the fact that although the signal is being offered in HDTV this year, my local cable company has elected not to provide an HD feed.\u00a0 Learn that Andrew Raycroft is starting in goal.\u00a0 Reflect on the fact that as a Leaf fan, I may consequently not want to have that clear a view of this game;\u00a0 standard definition will do fine.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

7:35<\/strong> –\u00a0The puck is dropped and the game is on.\u00a0 I am told by the talking heads that the Leafs’ brass are hopeful that the insertion of Simon Gamache, Wade Belak and Andrew Raycroft into the previously moribund Leaf lineup will inspire the team to a great victory.\u00a0 The enormity of this insanity begins to slowly sink in and I begin to have a better appreciation of the way in which this organization has failed to produce a champion in forty years.<\/p>\n

7:45 –<\/strong>\u00a0The Leafs are on the “power” play and Pavel Kubina has smashed a shot in the general direction of the net.\u00a0 The puck deflects off Nik Antropov’s stick and past Isles’ goalie Wade Dubliewicz.\u00a0 1-0 Leafs.<\/p>\n

7:50 – <\/strong>The Leafs have scored a goal directly off the face-off;\u00a0 apparently Ian White has propelled the disc into the net past a startled Wade Dubliewicz.\u00a0 No doubt Wade was as startled as everyone else in the Air Canada Centre that the Leafs won a face-off.\u00a0\u00a0 I say that this has “apparently” happened, because Leafs TV – the network specifically dedicated to televising hockey games in which the Toronto Maple Leafs participate, the network that earns the bread with which to buy its butter by ensuring that a maximal quantity of Leaf-related information may be disseminated to the millions of ravenous Leaf fans throughout the country – has missed the goal entirely.\u00a0 They were showing a replay of people not scoring goals at the time.\u00a0 Keeping in mind that Leafs TV is as much a creature of Leafs management as the hockey team itself, I am not surprised.\u00a0 Certainly not as surprised as Wade Dubliewicz, anyway.\u00a0 Nevertheless, it’s a 2-0 lead not halfway through the period.\u00a0 I begin to think, “This team is unbeatable, they are dominant, we must immediately commence planning the parade route.” There is a close-up of Andrew Raycroft standing in the Leaf net and I snap out of my dementia.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Obviously, the question will be whether Raycroft can manage to play well enough to convince his team-mates that he’s not going to cough up a hairball now that they’ve staked him to an early two-goal lead.\u00a0\u00a0 This should be easy, provided that the Islanders do not carry the puck past the red line.<\/p>\n

8:00 –<\/strong> So much for the two goal lead.\u00a0\u00a0 Even I can’t blame this one on Raycroft, it’s a tip-in on a shot from the point.\u00a0\u00a0 This whole team has been guilty of surrendering leads very easily over the past few – um – generations.\u00a0\u00a0 That particular trend doesn’t seem as though it is about to come to an end anytime soon.\u00a0 Sigh.<\/p>\n

8:15 –<\/strong> First intermission.\u00a0 Time for me to take out the garbage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

8:32 –<\/strong>\u00a0Game update: second period underway.\u00a0 Garbage update:\u00a0still in the house.\u00a0 I confess to being riveted to an intermission feature that dealt with Leaf Winger Jason Blake’s recent diagnosis with a form of leukemia<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 Joe Bowen is talking, as the puck is dropped, about how Mike Comrie had 14 points in three pre-season games with his new Islander linemates, Billy Guerin and Ruslan Fedotenko.\u00a0\u00a0 Joe is telling me that with Fedotenko’s first period goal, these guys have collected nineteen points in a little more than four games.\u00a0 A peek at the stats at www.nhl.com<\/a> confirms this assertion is not, as you might suspect,\u00a0a hallucination\u00a0but rather actual fact.\u00a0 I wonder why the hell I don’t have any of these guys on my fantasy team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

8:41 –<\/strong>\u00a0Tomas Kaberle has scored on Dubliewicz.\u00a0 Nifty move, Tomas!\u00a0 Also, the family dog has developed – rather abruptly, I might add – a case of astonishingly odiferous flatulence.\u00a0 The fans at the ACC are giving Mats Sundin a lengthy standing ovation for eclipsing Darryl Sittler’s all-time points record (as a Leaf) and I can barely stand to stay in the room.\u00a0\u00a0 Bad dog!<\/p>\n

8:45 –<\/strong>\u00a0I think Simon Gamache has taken an interference penalty.\u00a0 We’ll find out after the commercial.\u00a0 I think I’m going to open a door.<\/p>\n

8:46 –<\/strong>\u00a0Gamache’s penalty is confirmed.\u00a0 Leafs TV is showing a replay that\u00a0clearly shows\u00a0that Sundin never touched the puck on Kaberle’s goal, making one wonder how the hell he’s being credited with the record-breaking assist.\u00a0<\/p>\n

8:49 –<\/strong>\u00a0Penalty killed.\u00a0 Actually a pretty decent job by the Leafs on that one.<\/p>\n

8:59 –<\/strong> The Digital Video Recorder wants to change the channel on me (to record Grey’s Anatomy and The Office), the dog wants to go outside (thank God!) and the Leafs have been assessed a minor penalty.\u00a0 I am suddenly a very busy person.\u00a0\u00a0 I let the DVR change channels so it can record according to its instructions, let the dog out the back door and scramble upstairs with Spouse’s laptop under my arm to continue watching the game.\u00a0 Technically, at this time I am consuming three television programs and<\/em> using the Internet.\u00a0 I love technology, which makes this all possible.<\/p>\n

9:04 –<\/strong> Matt Stajan has scored a short-handed goal for the Leafs.\u00a0\u00a0 With the dog outside and a three goal lead, things are really looking up for me right now.<\/p>\n

9:09<\/strong> –<\/strong> Alex Steen has scored in the final minute of the period.\u00a0 All in all, things have really started to go well for the Leafs since the dog started trying to kill me with his intestinal gas.\u00a0 I am hoping this is mere coincidence and not evidence of some sort of infernal price that must be paid\u00a0to ensure\u00a0Leaf success.<\/p>\n

9:12<\/strong> – Second intermission.\u00a0 I really have to do that garbage now.<\/p>\n

9:35<\/strong> – I return upstairs, having completed my allotted mission, with a sense of mixed anticipation and dread.\u00a0 I know that I have missed the first few minutes of the third period – you know, the period in which the Leafs perenially surrender previously insurmountable leads – and I almost can’t bear to watch.\u00a0 Clicking on the TV, I see that five minutes have been played in the period – and a Leaf goal has been scored!\u00a0 Wow, the score is 6-1, and we’re not on the singleton side for a change!\u00a0 As I type this paragraph, the official scorer is correcting the information on the fourth Leaf goal.\u00a0 Mats Sundin is now going backwards and has\u00a0NOT broken the record.\u00a0\u00a0 After a commercial break, Leafs TV shows video of Mats lobbying with everyone to take away the assist because he didn’t touch the freaking puck.\u00a0 The guy is a class act.<\/p>\n

9:45 –<\/strong> Well, Sundin is DEFINITELY going to get credit for this one.\u00a0 Leafs TV almost missed it again, fooling around with replays and shots of things other than the play on a face-off, but there he was in\u00a0on the Isles goalie, making a nifty little pass out front and it’s off Brendan Witt’s skate and in the net for\u00a0the record-breaking goal and point.\u00a0 The crowd at the ACC goes absolutely apeshit.\u00a0 Cool!<\/p>\n

9:56 –<\/strong> Simon Gamache has scored to make it 8-1.\u00a0 It was a wrist shot on which Wade Dubliewicz didn’t even move.\u00a0 Joe Bowen and Greg Millen are talking about the energy that has been injeted into the lineup as a result of Gamache’s play.\u00a0 Let’s not get too excited, the guy scored the crucial eighth goal in an 8-1 shellacking of an opponent of dubious – though similar – calibre.\u00a0 Nevertheless, reflecting upon my snide remarks about the decision to insert him in the lineup, I resolve to take back half of the nasty stuff I have said tonight about Leafs management.<\/p>\n

10:05 –<\/strong> We’re going to finish the game two men short, unless the Isles score on a 5 -on- 3 power play.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

10:06 –<\/strong> They don’t.\u00a0 The game is over, and the Leafs win by a touchdown.\u00a0 The Molson 3 Star selection is next and Sundin is the third star, the second star AND the first star.\u00a0 Nice touch by the boys in the press box.\u00a0 There is another standing ovation as Mats takes a twirl around the ice and Paul Hendrick almost ruins the moment by sticking a microphone in Sundin’s face to ask him a stupid question or two.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Time to head downtown and see if I can’t get some video of a jeep smashing through a building on the set of the Hulk 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

7:30 – I tune in to Leafs TV and bemoan the fact that although the signal is being offered in HDTV this year, my local cable company has elected not to provide an HD feed. Learn that Andrew Raycroft is starting in goal. Reflect on the fact that as a Leaf fan, I may consequently […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,8,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heroesinrehab.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}