Panthers 4 Leafs 3

I'm tired of writing the same recap about the Leafs starting off great and blowing it. I've decided to make a template for future OT losses that started out as 3-1 leads, if only to invoke the corollary to Murphy's Law, which you can all refer to as "Chemmy's Law". Allow me to explain. In common usage Murphy's Law says that "whatever can go wrong will go wrong". Chemmy's Law is the opposite, if you're prepared for the worst it will never happen. Did you just buy a snowblower? Enjoy a winter where it never dips below 40 degrees! Hopefully by creating this template and invoking my own law, we can avoid similar mishaps in the future.

The <team who scored first> opened up their scoring at <time of first goal> with a <adjective describing first goal> goal from <adverb describing quality of goal scorer's recent player> <verb> <first goal scorer>. The <team, probably Toronto> rode out to a <score that the team blew> lead in the <period of lead>.

That's actually kind of tiring and had the added benefit of being boring. Hmm. I'm going to start over. After Nik Hagman's highlight reel goal and blooper reel puck to the face, Toronto responded well to Florida's first goal by scoring less than a minute later to take a 2-1 lead into the locker room during the first. That's something the Leafs have given up a lot, but haven't taken a lot - a quick goal after the other team scores. It's nice, they should try and keep doing that.

I also liked that instead of former Leafs always burying Toronto, our players have been burying their former teams. Blake had that great game against the Islanders, Finger scored on Raycroft, and ex-Panther Nik Hagman scored against Florida. Success!

As usual though the third period was a complete trainwreck. Cory "Extra Chromosome" Stillman scored on a beautiful assist from Toskala to tie the game at three with seconds remaining. (I don't know what else to call it when he directs pucks to the open side of the net onto streaking forwards' sticks). Then "it" happened. Bryan "Own Goal" McCabe scored in overtime, and for that I have only one thing to say...

Thanks. The Panthers worked hard to prevent the Leafs from getting any more points. The Islanders have won four in a row and the Tavares sweepstakes is on.