[Open Thread] Toronto Maple Leafs v. Boston Bruins

Ugh. Another Leafs-Bruins matchup. While Damien Cox might love the idea of playing everyone in your division 54 times I like to spice things up once in a while with at least one game against every other team in the NHL. I guess that makes me dimwitted. Considering the usual Bruins tactics (5 men within 5 feet of the net) during the most recent matchups and the lack of entertainment I'd argue the opposite.

The Leafs are currently on an upswing and Greener doesn't want to jinx them. Neither do I. So I recruited the man who stood up to the British Empire to deliver tonight's motivational speech, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

I know how imperfect our Leafs team is and how far away we are still from the ideal, but in Toronto there is no final failure or defeat. I have faith, therefore, that if, in spite of our shortcomings, the big thing does happen, it will be because God wanted to help us by crowning with success our silent, unremitting struggle for the last forty years.

Go Leafs Go!

Here are the home and road splits for some stats that might be considered either interesting or scary. The Bruins road powerplay falls under the latter. If the Leafs get into penalty trouble they will get buried. Last year they couldn't beat the Bruins unless they scored more than one goal and this year it's two so if the Leafs hit three they'll probably win.

Nik Antropov picked up the Player of the Game nod for his first hat-trick since 1999. Odd how large players score when they go to the net. Remember to put your guesses for who will score take the first shot, get the first penalty, and score the first goal in the comments. I'll keep a running tally of the results in the right sidebar. We've doubled the number of participants but no one has been able to rack up many points so join in now before everyone's guessing abilities improve. Join now to get in some practice because I'm thinking of having a competition for a prize after the all-star break with wonderful prizes. No idea what they will be but they'll be awesome.

As always, the comment section is a wonderful place to vent and rage between periods or make hopeful predictions that you can tout in the future if they happen to come to pass. Each period and overtime/shootout gets their own section so just reply to the relevant section's main post and exhult in the great play that you are finally seeing or, as this game comes during a winning streak, wonder how the buds have suddenly forgotten to play hockey. Either way, all that you need to get started is to set up an account to comment so register and share your thoughts.