Great Expectations?

Jonas Gustavsson makes the most of the limelight, or lack thereof. After losing that limelight to the surprising James Reimer midway through the 2010-11 regular season, Gustavsson journeyed between bench-warming duties for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and goaltending duties for the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League. At the start of the current campaign, fans and management entrenched the "Monster" as the backup goalie after Reimer received a big three-year contract. However, James Reimer went down to injury (whiplash) in the away contest against Montreal last Saturday (10/22/11), and coach Ron Wilson had no choice but to rely on Gustavsson, who had low expectations from most in Toronto. In that game against Montreal (OTW 5-4), away games against Philadelphia (L 4-2) and New York Rangers (W 4-2), and then at home against the Pittsburgh Penguins (W 4-3), it was time for Jonas Gustavsson to surprise his critics with impressive performances against perennial playoff talent. I am still apprehensive whenever the "Monster" skates between the pipes for my Maple Leafs :( Perhaps it is the memory of his 68 goals allowed in only twenty regular season games from last year that makes me nervous, but after living through great Leaf backstops like Allan Bester and Peter Ing...I'm willing to overlook those statistics...for now. So far so good for the Monster; here is hoping he makes the most of his opportunity :) The next two games for the Maple Leafs are away contests against the Scum, I mean, Senators on Sunday and New Jersey on Wednesday, November 2nd. Already, I'm nervous o_O

(Special thanks to NHL.com for source data and video)

Saturday Shootaround #2

This is still very touch and go. I'll see how many girls read this and make a decision later.

1. If I don't watch, they will win: Much to my surprise, the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the New York Rangers 4-2 at Madison Square Garden in New York. From what I gathered from the replays, the Leafs grabbed their win on goals scored against the flow of play, or at least on the counterattack. As expected the Rangers, who celebrated the opening of the 2011-12 campaign in their stadium, opened the scoring with a scramble of a goal by Dan Girardi. However, two disallowed goals by the Rangers soured what was to be a jubilant evening on Thursday. Forward Ryan Callahan engaged with streaky backup Leafs goaltender Jonas Gustavsson while Ryan Del Zotto blasted the puck home from the point, and then as teammate Derek Stepan stuffed home a goal mouth scramble. When the game ends in a 4-2 loss, while you know you should have two more goals on the scoreboard, defeat can be tough to swallow. It's like going to a community rink to watch your friend Bryan play city league hockey twice, and leaving the rink with a cold and two ties. He promises goals and a trendy new goal celebration in your honour, but you don't get to see what a winning team looks like (Yes, I did just tell that story, BRYAN, and I STILL WANT MY FOUR DOLLARS...WITH INTEREST)! I may still have some issues over that incident, but so does Rangers head coach John Tortorella in his postgame interview. Something else I noticed about the game: Not only did I not watch it, I also didn't know it was happening! Absolute obliviousness to the Maple Leafs = Improbable victory by the Buds? So far, the theory holds true, but as interest grows will they start losing. Well, without "St. James" between the pipes I don't know if the theory has any teeth. Unlike most of the leaves in autumn, these Leafs did not fall...yet.
2. Fantastic Fantasty Fit o_O I think: Earlier in the week, the Winnipeg Jets defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 9-8 after Flyers' goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov badmouthed the city of Winnipeg as a "boring" place. He proceeded to allow four goals on ten shots against the Jets in just over thirty-four minutes of gameplay, but something I couldn't find were highlights of the game or his press conference afterward on NHL.com o_O Instead, I received this: CONSPIRACY! How does that happen? I don't know! Bryzgalov did apologize through the media for the poor performance, but the former standout for the Phoenix Coyotes does not need to look far for support. His team is behind him, and he remains the starter for the team as he should: 36 wins last year, 2.48 GAA, and .921 save percentage are all good numbers from 2010-11. A kid in his hometown of Sweden went home to see his father after a game with tears in his eyes because his team lost 9-8; he scored all eight goals, but was sorry the team didn't win. His name was Peter Forsberg; I guess you must lose 9-8 before you can be great. My computer is going kooky, so now would be a good time to wrap things up; I'm a PC, what can you do about it?