Nightly Recap – Leaf Nation Needs to Go Away

Montreal 4 – Toronto 3 (SO) – Toronto loses for the fourth consecutive game and are now at the bottom of the Eastern conference. Fans and media have been calling for the head of John Ferguson Jr. Why now? Could they not have seen this coming before the season? It was clear that his team was not going to make the playoffs? Illegal Curve’s Richard Pollock predicted that it would be a difficult road to the playoffs in the preseason. Leaf fans have finally come to the realization that the product on the ice is awful and that something needs to be done. I am sick and tired of hearing about it every time the Leafs lose. TSN, I don’t need to see seven hours of coverage on what should be done to the Toronto Maple Leafs organization. Leaf Nation needs to go away.

Anyways, to the game. Jason Blake had two assists for the Leafs and Alex Kovalev had two goals for the Canadiens. Andrei Kostitsyn scored the shootout winner for the Habs. Super rookie Carey Price stopped 43 of 46 to improve his record to 6-2-1. I don’t have any numbers on hand, but it seems to me more often than not a Leafs Habs game will go into a shootout.

Detroit 5 – Calgary 3 – Pavel Datsuyk scored two goals and added an assist for the Red Wings. Tomas Holmstrom scored his 13th of the year with a helper. Niklas Lidstrom posted two assists and Chris Osgood made 19 saves in the win. After allowing 3 goals on 15 shots, Flames goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff was pulled in favor of Curtis McElhinney who stopped 18 of 20. Jarome Iginla’s three assists was not enough for the Flames who have four wins and nine losses in the month of November.

Vancouver 4 – Anaheim 0 – In the much overhyped return of Todd Bertuzzi to GM Place the Ducks lay a goose egg. After an abysmal season last year, Markus Naslund is returning to form scoring his 11th goal of the year and adding an assist. Ryan Kessler, Henrik Sedin, Mattias Ohlund and Matt Cooke all had two points for the Canucks. Roberto Luongo stopped 26 for his second straight shutout.

Tomorrow’s Games
7:00pm STL@BUF, PHI@CAR, DAL@NJ, OTT@NYI, FLA@WSH
8:00pm PHX@MIN
8:30pm TB@CHI
9:30pm EDM@COL
10:30pm LA@SJ