Cancer Can Be Beaten. Also, So Can Howard Berger

There's a very powerful video on TSN right now. It's about the cancer/hockey connection, and how the disease has impacted our game. The segment is wonderful. What you think will be sullen and tragic, is amazing, positive and full of hope. Cullen, Lemieux, Koivu and Kessel are all NHL'ers who've faced cancer and beaten it. Your heart soars at the end when Darren Drager speaks of the current conditions of those guys. All cancer free. Please watch it here.

I'd love to place the blame on The Leafs 7-1, uh, loss to the Hurricanes on Jason Blake's cancer announcement. I'm not sure how having your friend and teammate crying because of a cancer diagnosis isn't supposed to be a distraction. Jesus Christ, when a rumor of a trade surfaces, teams lose focus and lose. Only the most fervent of Leafs haters could lose sight of that possibility. Yes...I'm right, because Howard Berger did.

Lusting to be validated by someone, anyone, he does it himself, by going, "Hey everybody! All summer I was telling you that The Leafs sucked, and look, there's proof!" because they lost big at the ACC. To further his "point", he actually goes back to last season and quotes a bunch of blow-out loses the Leafs suffered over the course of the year, because of course, only bad teams get blown-out. Hey Howard, what happened to The Leafs during the '82 season? Oh my God, that '47 squad really sucked balls! Howard Berger is the type of guy who always gets invited to a first party, but never a second. As a teenager he probably challenged girls to arm wrestling contests, and rubbed their noses in the loss.

The Leafs were listless and never appeared in it. Toskala made some good saves, but the endless power plays are going to catch up to you, and with that in effect, the game just went from bad to worse to ridiculous. Sparkplug Simon Gamache has been called up, and Paul Maurice did a lot of line juggling at practice today. Ponikarovski was hurt during some contact with Chad Kilger, so we'll see if Gamache steps in to his spot. Anton Stralman, already must be realizing how smart he was that he didn't go crying back to Sweden when he didn't make the team out of camp, because he got a call too. The Islander game tomorrow is a good one to get re-set and find their form.

Leafs fans always get criticized for "planning the parade route" when the team wins. Isn't it equally ridiculous to eviscerate The Leafs for a loss? Especially after only 4 games of the regular season?