Don and Ron

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Being an American who follows the Leafs from his home in New England I get an interesting look into the subtle cultural differences between the Northeast and Canada. To be honest there's less of a difference between being in Massachusetts and Ontario than there is between Massachusetts and Arizona, but because Canada is an entirely different country there's an asymptote of sorts at the border with regards to media coverage.

In Canada, the CBC's Hockey Night In Canada is broadcast nationally and is one of the most watched shows on Canadian TV. During the first intermission the CBC broadcasts "Coach's Corner": a segment where a delusional claptrap (Don Cherry, pictured above with wacky suit) insults foreigners and his generally knowledgeable but meek co-host (Ron McLean, pictured above in a normal suit looking embarassed).

Don Cherry's a very polarizing figure and like the "US vs. Canada" argument above it's out of scope for what we're getting to: Don Cherry does at least one thing that we all understand and respect.

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More photos » by Jimmy Jeong - AP

Some jerk stops puck

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This is your post-game thread I guess.

More photos » by Ryan Remiorz - AP

Komisarek's ready to go.

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Puck Drop: 7:00PM ET, Sportsnet Ontario

Goaltenders: Backstrom v Gustavsson

Fret not, after leaving Saturday's decisive win over Detroit with an injur, Mike Komisarek practiced this morning and will be in the lineup tonight against the Minnesota Wild. The Wild are 15th in the Western Conference and 28th in the league, setting up our second battle of bottom 3 teams this week.

Being in 29th place hardly gives the Leafs any right to call anyone an easy opponent, but let's hope Toronto's two week stretch of excellent play continues and the Leafs can pick up a win against a team without much offensive punch. The Wild are transitioning from a defensive trapping team to a more offensive style and so far it's been a rough road for them.

Brent Burns, who may have played his way off the Canadian Olympic roster this season, has been downright terrible posting a team worst -13. Martin Havlat, brought in to help people forget Gaborik, has one goal and is -12. Mikko Koivu is -11.

Before we take the Wild lightly though I think it's worth looking at their recent play. In their last four games Minnesota has played the Rangers, Penguins, Canucks and Stars and beaten everyone but Vancouver. Minnesota's a team looking to turn the corner and get back into high gear just like Toronto so tonight could be a real nail biter.

Go Leafs go, remember your SPG picks, check back here at 6:30 for the first period gameday thread. The guys over at SBN's Wild site Hockey Wilderness are pretty legit so maybe there'll be a field trip tonight.

More photos » by NATHAN DENETTE - AP

ZOMBIE KESSEL WANTS GOOOOOOOOOOOALS

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Editor's Note: To get a sense of the quality of person that Malik is take a look at how he dared to denigrate the memory of Teeder Kennedy when he passed away earlier this year. Despite everyone, including Gordie Howe himself, clearing Kennedy of any blame on the play that led to his brain injury Malik (who notes Howe's feelings in his post!) states that Kennedy hit Howe from behind. No wonder The Pensblog hates the tool.

Friend of the site Godd Till linked me to a great post written by George Malik: "Wings lose while following familiar script". In this post George Malik cries like a Hurricanes fan that Toronto won and that we're happy with Gustavsson. It's somewhat understandable, the last time Detroit beat the Leafs it was with Andrew Raycroft in net. In 2006. Ouch.

Comeback is thwarted by firing more shots wide and into opposing team's players (21 wide and 17 blocked for a total of 38 shots on Saturday, with 36 shots actually hitting the net) than opposing goaltender.

Toronto's defense blocks a lot of shots. Toronto's defense was excellent in their own end last night. Personally, I wouldn't call scoring a goal to make it 3-1 in the third a "comeback".

because the Maple Leafs will probably be golfing in April, the Wings also managed to help Jonas "The Monster" Gustavsson win what was probably his most meaningful game of the regular season

George Malik knows so much about which teams won't make the playoffs based on poor play in October because he's a Red Wings fan and watched them only qualify for the playoffs twice between 1967 and 1983. When the Leafs are that bad feel free to come back and make fun of us Malik.

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More photos » by Karl B DeBlaker - AP

Dat's a lotta points

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Red Wings at Leafs: 7:00 ET CBC-HD, NHLN-HD (US)

It's Saturday morning and I had the most beautiful drunken hallucination dream. I dreamed that the Leafs came out flat but then came back and dominated the Hurricanes en route to a 3-2 win on the back of Jonas Gustavsson and strong play from Jason Blake and Phil Kessel.

Last night Jason Blake came with a strong forecheck and relentlessly pestered the Hurricanes. I genuinely believe that he hates Paul Maurice more than we'll ever know. Phil Kessel also came flying back into his defensive end twice to break up odd man rushes. He used his laser feet to come back and break up a play.

I'm going to refer to when the Patriots signed Randy Moss. Here's what Oakland's Tom Walsh said about him:

"Randy Moss is a player whose skills are diminishing, and he's in denial of those eroding skills...Randy was a great receiver, but he lacked the work ethic and the desire to cultivate any skills that would compensate for what he was losing physically later in his career."

Two years later and Randy Moss is probably a first ballot Hall of Famer, a guy who captains New England's offensive team at practice and stays after workouts to help rookies learn the playbook, it other words what everyone said about him was dead fucking wrong.

I've only seen two games out of Kessel and it's pretty obvious his shot isn't 100% but his legs are almost there and Ron Wilson has him backchecking like missing an assignment would cause the Mayan Apocalypse. So much for a lazy floater.

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More photos » by Gerry Broome - AP

12 + 13 + 15 = Three injuries. New math.

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Puck Drop: 7PM Eastern TV: Leafs TV

Tonight the Leafs travel to the land of Jeff Dunham's core demographic to take on the suddenly punchless Hurricanes in what has the potential to be the worst hockey game any of us will ever watch. Some may point to the fact that Carolina has gone 0-7-3 in their last ten and are without their entire first line of Eric Staal, Ray Whitney and Tuomo Ruutu, to say that this is a game Toronto will win. Update: Ray Whitney and Tuomo Ruutu now expected to play tonight.

I won't say that because Toronto has been a worse team than Carolina so far this season. I will say that if Toronto loses this game for any reason, including but not limited to:

• Leafs play "really well" but settle for an OTL
• Leafs play crummy but Gustavsson bails them out.
• Refs spot Carolina a four goal lead before the first.
• Meteor hits Toronto locker room giving everyone the space flu

Then I'm getting ready for next season. It's not hubris, by no means do I think the Leafs have any game in the bag, it's just that if after a stretch of strong play from the Leafs that's seen them lose plenty of games they "deserved to win" I won't have a lot of hope if they can't come out breathing fire tonight. This is the chance for Toronto to put a win on the board and at this point: any game where that's the case becomes a must win. In November.

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More photos » by Frank Gunn - AP

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To paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld: what's the deal with Jeff Finger? He's been a healthy scratch six games in a row and in those six games the Leafs defense has started to gel. There's a lot of Garnet Exelby hate around these parts but lately our defense has been rock solid.

Compared to Finger, Exelby's salary is a lot lower. I think Finger's a good defender and he put up points last year, but do you pull Exelby out of the lineup and mess with a winning formula to make it more expensive?

Is Finger injured? That made sense earlier in his scratch streak but LTIR means a player would only have to miss 10 games or 24 days; Finger hasn't played since 10/24, so he's 50% of the way there on days missed and he hasn't played in six games which could jump to eight by Sunday. Players can be placed on LTIR retroactively which means there's a chance that Toronto will do that to free up some cap space as a matter of principle.

Is one of the Leafs' D corps being showcased for a trade? I'd have to imagine Komisarek, Beauchemin and Schenn aren't going anywhere, and if we take Burke at his word he's keeping Kaberle.  That leaves Ian White and Garnet Exelby, both of whom are UFAs at the end of the season.

So what do you think is going on with Finger? Are the Leafs planning to sit $3.5M in the press box all year or is something going to happen?