Hoping for a Win Tonight!

I feel I am not giving enough love to the Leafs lately. I love the Pens but the Leafs are my true home team. That being said, I'm not pleased with them (actually, I'm quite pleased with them forcing a shootout against Washington after being down 1-3, so more specifically about the game this past Saturday) but hey, lots of teams have slumps and they are sitting at 11th in the conference (I think they were a tiny bit lower last season...) so hey, we are already improving! I have high hopes for the game tonight against Tampa Bay. Yeah, the Bolts are really good, but they are currently on a bit of a losing streak that I would like to continue.

Anywho, just wanted to give some Leafs updates. As I mentioned before, Colby Armstrong won an award for all the charity work that he's been doing since arriving in Toronto and Monika (I was careful to use a 'k' there) from LeafSpace talked to him about it:



(PS I was at Yonge and Eglington on CokeZero Fans First day to meet him and uhhh yeah, it was beyond crazy. Plus ahh does anyone remember the heat wave we had this summer? Could you please imagine that heat, plus like 300-ish [at least] people jammed together, trying to get into the Mobile Leafs Dressing Room [single file]? Oh also, while wearing a hockey jersey? For over two hours? Yikes. But it made it better when I finally got in there and saw this cute little face!)

Mmmm yeah there are other players on the team, but sticking with Army for another bit here, the poor monkey has a fracture in his foot! He is using the injury time to rest it (he is wearing a walking boot) so he can be 100% when he returns.  Speaking of which, he is going to be getting his cast off (from his hand injury) on Thursday so he can start practicing again and maybe will be back sooner!!! (Is it bad I miss Army more than I miss Capitano Dion? Whoops.)



Speaking of Phaneuf (this is like a week old but I didn't mention it before), Brian Burke is all upset and defensive for the captain over the fans booing him when they played the Rangers last week (and lost). They talked about this on the OTR Panel and made some really good points.Yeah, he's a great player but he's not playing well right now. It's not like he just became captain of a small market team and we want to see him play like he is capable . But you know what, probably booing him isn't going to help at all - a true fan is with their team through the good times and the bad (this is why Toronto still has fans!) and really, I don't think it was any of the true fans that were booing Phaneuf, just the bandwagon hoppers that saw the 4-0 season translating into an 82-0 season. The real problem here was Burke jumping into the defensive position - like they said in the panel, Burke isn't doing Phaneuf any favours by shielding him from the "boo-birds" - he needs to get thick skin and shrug off those types of things - Carey Price gets booed all the time and he just tells his fans to chill out and relax (that being said, Phaneuf might not of cared at all and already have shrugged it off but when Burke stepped forward, it made it seem like Phaneuf's feelings were hurt).

Anyways, even though I would never boo the home team, now I feel as if I'm being mean to the captain (especially because it's like I'm kicking him while he is down since he is injured) so yeah, there is lots of pressure on Phaneuf as the captain of a team as huge as the Leafs, but he has showed before that he can handle pressure. Let's not throw him to the wolves yet



Anyways, one last note to any Toronto fans in the Toronto area - this isn't new news but just in case, there is a contest being put in by "Just Energy" for fans living within a 50 mile radius of Toronto (if, like me, you don't know what a mile is equal to, 50 miles = 80ish km) to win a night for you and 9 friends to a game (platinum seats), limo ride, dinner, swag, etc. Anyways, chances of winning that amazing a prize are going to be slim (if you win, please bring me) BUT just for entering, you automatically get a pair of tickets to a Marlies game (you can choose from a list of possible games and they say they will accommodate as much as possible) so yeah, I definitely entered so if you can, you can enter here!

Good luck tonight boys! Looking for a big win!!