LOOK

Redemption is big in my books. My thinking is that if you completely fuck up on a play…you have time to pull your shit together. Be professional and redeem yourself. Stop a breakaway without a penalty; score on the power play….shit….give it your all every shift. Never be a passenger. Be willing to throw your body in front of a Chris Pronger slapshot. Ask Doug Gilmour’s teeth, ask Mats Sundin’s youth, ask Borje Salming “Hej Borje , hur stå det till höft och rygg kännanden?” cos he’s Swedish.

Toronto sometimes plays like a team looking for redemption. Like a dog that shat on the carpet twenty minutes ago but now wants up on the couch. Toronto play like the look on that dog’s face. A drubbing like we suffered at the hands of the lowly Caps…granted Ovechkin is a sight to watch play. A bag skate for sure…then after…make them walk home.

When I hear Joe Bowen say that the Leafs are starting to scramble in their own zone. I know that the opposing team is about to score. I will admit that I feel a whole lot more confident with Toskala in the net. Toskala has that ability to steal a game which is something I never really saw in Raycroft. A goalie needs to steal a game. Like Brodeur did the other night in New Jersey. The Leafs deserved that win. They played really well. Its must have been disheartening to lose after checking them right into the ice and clogging up the middle like a thousand Dutch children.
Can anyone telling me when Martin Broduer changed his name officially to Future Hall of Famer Martin Brodeur?

And talking about redemption. Note to Mark Bell: welcome home buddy. You have a terrific opportunity for instant Leaf Nation love if you come out tomorrow against the team from ottawa and demolish them both mentally and physically. Cos I look at this guy and I see a young Gary Roberts. (Let me ask any Oilers fans who may be reading this. You would have seen Mark Bell play…I don’t think I ever did. What is he like? Top six?) All I know is that if I was 6 foot 4, 220 pounds born August 5, 1980 in St Pauls, Ontario then I would be beating the shit out of guys Gary Roberts-style on the regular.

I for one really like the way “Wellwood centering Mark Bell and Darcy Tucker” sounds that’s a legitimate third line. And one thing that is very important in the new NHL is a third line and that’s a good one. Creative, tough, gritty, mean, soft hands. That’s a happy ending every time
Two last things; is it just me or does Paul Maurice have on a different pair of glasses every time I see him? Secondly the less said about the knee the knee and the groin the better. (AKA Tucker (knee), Colaiacovo (knee) and McCabe (groin). It’s still a week or so before we will see McCabe’s groin back on the ice.


MARTIN BRODEUR