As a devoted Leafs fan I'm happy with their impressive 2-0 start. Although yesterday's game against the Sens, I thought with their 5-1 lead it shouldn't have ended 6-5 but thanks to Kessel and his hat trick they still pulled off the win.

As a hockey fan, I'm definitely watching the Jets season opener after my football game. Those Peggers are serious about their hockey.

So good to see so many sports forums on BFP! :)

Couldn't agree more! Go leafs go!

Another Torontonian on BFP. Our numbers increase! :D

Agree on the Leafs vs. Sens game. Then again, that's the Leafs up to their usual tricks. Big leads...big giveaways. I'm glad they still managed to put that one away, though.

As for the Jets, it's too bad they suffered such a huge loss on their big night. As much as I love the Habs, it would have been great to see the Jets win their first game or at least end in a tie. But the Habs played great and deserved that win. The Jets defense really need to work on their game. Not a stellar performance on their part.

Lifelong Red Wings fan. Though, I go to more Carolina Hurricanes games than anything because my sister's law firm has season tickets. So, whenever I am in Raleigh during hockey season and it's a home game, we go.

I'm still highly distracted by the MLB playoffs...but once baseball is gone :( I will be focused on hockey.

Jake

Hey, what about the Predators??? Awesome win!

You're from Toronto too? Right on! And a Habs fan? Ouch LOL. I agree with you a tie would be better than a 5-1 loss. Then again, this is after all the former Thrashers team that wasn't the greatest to begin with. It was nice to see the fans happy despite the loss sorta reminds me of Leafs fans lol.

Leafs fan, but I also have a soft spot for the Habs and the Sens, and since the Leafs have been no show in the playoffs the last few years, I've stuck with rooting for the other two. My family's French so I've got no problems with the Habs the way Torontonian Anglos do ;)

Anyways, it's been a good run for the Leafs so far! I'm actually getting a bit hopeful, they're really coming together well as a team and Reimer, Kessel and Lyles are stellar so far. Even if they lost their last game in OT to the Aves, the Aves have a pretty strong team so I think it's saying something about this year's Leafs that they just about managed to steal that game from under their noses.

Feeling really bad for the Jets cause I wanna see them succeed, but I think they'll be adding another loss come tomorrow night's game against the Leafs.

Boston Bruins
 

Well, the Leafs suffered their first big loss last night to Boston, but I'm still feeling pretty good about this season. Out of 6 games they've won 4, lost one in OT and still getting a point from it at least, and then the loss to Boston last night. If they can keep this up, they'll be doing pretty well this year. At least much better than they have throughout the 2000s.

I'm hoping this will give the Leafs coaching staff a heads up to keep Gustavsson firmly benched. I don't think it's complete coincidence that with him back in net, the Leafs ended up with that many in the back of the net. Weak goaltending...get it off the ice. Reimer, on the other hand, has already proven this year that he can keep the gates shut when the Leafs are in a tight spot.

You can't have Reimer doing all the games. He'll burn out before they get to the Playoffs. Additionally, Gustavsson wasn't solely responsible for all those goals. As a former goalie, if those in front of me aren't doing their job (aka defense and scoring) there is only so much a goalie can do (he faced 43 shots on net compared to Thomas who had 28). Additionally, there were a lot of stupid penalties.

And the Bruins shut down Kessel since they knew what he was like. Even the Leafs admit to allowing too many turnovers. (see here, last paragraph: http://www.nhl.com/ice/recap.htm?id=...0&cmpid=ggl1bx )

It's game 6 of the season. There wasn't such a huge risk of burning out Reimer that they had to throw away all strategy in putting in Gustavsson against Boston of all teams. It was poor strategy and poor decisions in this team aren't exactly counter to history. When a goalie lets in two goals in barely more than a minute's time and three goals in the span of five minutes...there's a goaltending issue. If they're going to rest Reimer then they should realise Gustavsson has never been a strong goalie (Gustavsson himself acknowledges he's been doing a shit job), and they would have been better off bringing up a back up from the minors than even keeping Gustavsson as the official backup. The more a team is in the hole, often the more stupid penalties players take and the more enforcers step up which never really helps.

Not to mention poor decisions in other line shuffling: inserting Kadri is a poor choice. Inserting Rosehill instead of MacArthur is a poor choice. Another attribute of a poor Leafs team this last decade...not allowing lines to solidify and work together, but pointless shuffling when current lineups are working well. Every time they get the opportunity to insert Kadri because he's supposedly the "new up and comer" yet it doesn't translate into consistent contribution. Instead they've got real "new up and comers" who are doing a better job. So yeah, neither Gustavsson and his poor goaltending nor the staff who made these decisions get any sympathy from me :p They need to stick with what worked the last 5 games.

Jonas Jerebko, apparently a Detroit Pistons player (can you tell I don't know shit about basketball? :p) tries to play hockey...hilarity ensues:

http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/con...d=35&id=129694

I think Reimer should have played against Boston. It was only game 6. Although the Leafs defense was horrible that game anyway and Boston was desperate for a win.

They won against the Habs which is great especially on their turf :) The game was tight and it looks like Grabovski is finally back! And Kessel... MAN the guy is on fire!

Yeah, definitely great to see the Leafs get a win last night. I hope Reimer recovers well, though. They say that they'll be calling up Ben Scrivens from the Marlies if Reimer's a no go for tomorrow, so it'd kind of be interesting to see him play. But ugh...in a game against Philly? Fingers crossed and the Leafs are able to rally together and pull off a big win against the Flyers. That would really cement a good start to the season.

I think calling up another back up was a good call, though. At this point Gustavsson just seems to be going from bad to worse. He got them through last night against the Habs, but didn't inspire too much confidence. I feel bad for the guy, but damn...he's really not giving fans too much to go on.

On another note...ditto on Grabovski and Kessel. Kessel really is on fire this season, it'll be interesting to see how he ends up ranking in goalscoring...cause its been like 1+ goals for him so far minus the Boston fiasco.

I'm also really loving Liles. He's definitely turning into a favourite. That was a smart acquisition on the Leafs' part.

They definitely didn't play well at all against the Phillies. Horrible game the defense wasn't there for the Leafs.

Reimer is still out and the Leafs managed a win today against the Rangers however it didn't look like it after the first period. Much better game, they looked well rested and their passes were clean and the defense was solid after the first. I have to admit Gustavsson is holding down the fort!

I agree with you Liles is really good along with Gardiner, young kid. Well they come back home to face the Penguins on Saturday hope for another win!

Good win against the Rangers last night for sure. I hope Reimer's good for Sunday, though. The Pens game Saturday without him is going to be tough. Also hoping Kessel's good to go. Two too many key players injured for my liking! :p

Agreed! They played well Saturday but what happened last night? Against the Sens? Oh boy. It's games like that they need to win.

GO WINGS!!!!!!!
 

Ugh, Bruins playing style always seems to stump the Leafs, or record history has way too much sway on confidence when it comes to playing them. Bruins aren't exactly playing well this season, but every time the Leafs play them it's like they forget how to play hockey.

Anyways, it's all good. They've still been doing well lately and beating teams of a high caliber. As long as they can keep doing that, occasional losses to teams like Boston is fine. They've got a few games coming up that will probably be easy wins for them, Florida and St. Louis aren't exactly spectacular these days. Might be a good time to test Scrivens out some more if Reimer's not healed by then.

I do wish Reimer would hurry up and heal, though :p Also, good job by Ben Scrivens the other day against Columbus. For his first NHL game it looked pretty fucking promising!

Ugh. The reality of being a goalie is that you need to have the ability to keep your team in the game even when your team isn't on their A game. Gustavsson really doesn't have that ability at all. 3 goals in on 21 shots isn't what the Leafs need right now. And against the Panthers of all fucking teams.

Please don't let this be the point in the reoccurring story where the Leafs play amazingly and then suddenly decide to take a nosedive that disappoints hopeful fans yet again...