Breathe A Sigh Of Relief

A lot of things happened last night when the Leafs strolled into Madison Square Gardens.  James Reimer got the start.  He crawled out from the dungeon of the Air Canada Center and put on a sparkling display of goal tending excellence, until he head his head taken off by Ranger forward Dominic Moore.  You can breathe a sigh of relief though, because apparently, he is fine.

Something else that happened last night, Jake Gardiner was scratched. Really? They just signed this kid on the off season to a 5 year $20.25 million contract. But you can breathe a sigh of relief, because according to Randy Carlyle, Jake "drew the shortest straw". What's the chances of drawing the shortest straw two games in a row?  Although, one could make a case that Jake Gardiner was holding the Leafs back all this time.  The person making that case would be a fool, and be wrong.  There are people out there saying that though.

Phil's line showed up.  In fact, the entire top line for the Leafs combined for 7 points.  Which means I personally can breathe a sigh of relief, because if I heard one more comment about how fat and lazy Kessel is, I think I'd strangle a Habs fan.

Finally, Leafs Nation can breathe a sigh of relief, because the Leafs picked up their first win.  Reimer was great, Kessel's line was great, One of the big things that really stood out to me was how Percy played.  This kid is a rookie defense man and has points in all three games so far.  This has never happened in the Leafs history. I'm hoping that he can maintain this level of play all season.

Today is podcast day!  Mike and I are looking for questions for the podcast.  Feel free to send us your question and we will see about getting them in the podcast. For now just put your question in the comment section below, or you can send me the question through Facebook or twitter.

Watch for our prediction post tomorrow when the Leafs host the Avs.

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Game 3: Rangers Host Leafs - Predictions

As you already know, the Leafs have started the season out 0-2.  I'm not so much angry at this, as I am at people that are completely over reacting to this.

PDO - The sum of on-ice save percentage and on-ice shooting percentage at even strength. League average PDO is 100. Sums considerably higher or lower (+/-2.5) tend to regress towards 100 over large samples for both teams and players. Named after the internet alias of the man who conceived the stat. Could be considered an acronym for "Percentage Determined Outcomes".

The above can be found at TheLeafsNation

Basically PDO refers to a team's "Puck Luck" If you are above 1.000, you are experiencing good luck.  If you are below 1.000 it's pointing out that you are probably experiencing bad luck.

In the case for the Leafs, their team PDO is 0.973.  They are experiencing a bit of bad luck so far this season.  Because we are only a couple games into the season, we can specific events that have led to this bad luck coming from the Leafs.  A few missed open nets, the game winning goal that went off Percy's foot in the last minute of the first game.

What I am saying is that the Leafs are not great, but they are not as bad as how they are playing right now. Well, after taking a look at last night's possession stats for the Leafs, they played pretty terrible, but there is a bright side! They play again today!  A chance for redemption.

Rangers: New York is coming off a 5-2 loss to the Blue Jackets.  They have split their first 2 games and sit 9th in the East.
Point Leaders (G-A-P): Nash 3-1-4, Kreider 1-1-2, St Louis 0-2-2
Leafs: Toronto got a beat down by the Penguins last night at the ACC.  They have lost both games and sit 15th in the East. See Mike's report from last night's game.
Point Leaders (G-A-P): Bozak 2-0-2, Rielly 0-2-2, Lupul 0-2-2

Mike (0-2): Leafs win 3-2 with JVR getting a pair of goals.
Jeff (0-2): Leafs win 2-1 and it's JVR with the game winning goal!