ROCKET TO THE BOTTOM

There is a Monty Python routine about a man with three buttocks. An old phrase about having to see a man about a horse. There is the Man With The Golden Gun, a man from Nantucket and The Old Man And The Sea. There is a Man on the Moon and a man from U.N.C.L.E. Mannix watched Chico and the Man and the Blue Man Group. The Man from La Mancha listened to The Man in Black while Man Ray played Pac Man.
What, you ask, am I talking about? Just compiling a list of people who are better in the shootout than the Toronto Maple Leafs.
At a pitiful 7 for 17 since the introduction of the format. (And a woeful 0 and 3 already this season) What bugs me most about that stat is how its used. Yes it is easy to say that a few more shoot out wins (last year) and the Leafs are in and the Isles are out. I am hoping beyond hope that this year doesn't warrant that same excuse.
The reason the Leafs didn't make the playoffs last year wasn't (just) because of an impotent shoot-out record. It was because of underachieving millionaires. Sadly we went to the dance with those same fatsos. (Save for Jason Blake (save being the key word when it comes to him.) As someone who adores said fatsos...I can only hope that they don't wait until the final game to miss the dance. Please take the first 60 minutes of the game into your hands. The key to this game and in this league is consistency not shoot out moves.


Do or die. Even Jason Blake knew it when he declared Tuesday’s game as team defining. With 60 games remaining…this is it. It begins now. With this loss in the shoot-out. And perhaps the last shot of the game, Blake…a 40 goal man (apparently) …defining his early Leafs tenure by missing.

I don’t think it’s above the realm of possibility to see this team making the play offs. It’s easy to laugh the Leafs out of the playoffs. It’s proto-Canadian to eat our own. But this team can still make it. I really believe that. There have been moments (at least 8 times this year) where playoffs are a definite.
Look at the reaction the team had when Mats scored to tie the game last night. Thats what you build from. His white shoulders....and his burning desire.

And Sundin, oh Captain my Captain. A man so white he looks like a polar bear doing cocaine in a snow storm…scores numero 400.
Quite frankly Mats legacy may be tarnished by never bringing the cup home…but I really do believe that years from now Mats will be mentioned as the best of them all. Better than Keon, Sittler, Clark, Mahovlich, Salming and Dougie. Yes, I said it: Dougie.


DOUGIE: