THE PEOPLE GO CRAZY FOR LEAFS MAN!!!

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Puck Drop: 7:30 ET Leafs-TV

Tonight the Maple Leafs face the Panthers. The Leafs played really stifling D in the third period against Tampa and Ron Wilson is hoping they build on that:

"We didn't give up any scoring chances, and that's difficullt to do, especially on the road," said Wilson. "Some of our defencemen are playing much better than they did earlier in the year and we're scoring timely goals." - The Star

Jonas Gustavsson gets the start against Tomas Vokoun but the big storyline is that to change our luck Stajan and Hagman are sporting moustaches:

Stajan, by the way, is sporting a moustache, as is Niklas Hagman. "We're just trying to change our luck," said Stajan. - The Star

Remember your SPG picks, check out SBNation's Litter Box Cats for Panthers coverage and  remember to tell MLSE how much you like LEAFS MAN, and go Leafs go!

More photos » by Chris O'Meara - AP

Stajan: ding.

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Goals: Kulemin from Gunnarsson and Primeau, Hagman from Beauchemin and Gunnarsson, Hagman from Grabovski and Exelby, Stajan from Gunnarsson.

The Leafs came out and scored a pair early before letting Tampa come right back into this game with two goals in a thirty second span. Kulemin and Hagman did a good job crashing the net on the first and third goal to pick up rebounds; it's something we haven't seen this Leafs team do a lot of.

Once again our defense ran around in their zone which led to the first two Tampa goals. The third Tampa goal was scored off a bad rebound given up by Gustavsson as Kaberle left his man uncovered. Francois Beauchemin looked great out there tonight, he had a spectacular play where he ran down Ryan Malone and dove to pokecheck the puck off his stick.

Gustavsson wasn't completely blameless on the Tampa goals but our defense didn't help on them. He made a ton of huge saves through traffic including a pair of saves on a penalty kill that honestly kept us in the game. Any win is a huge win for this hockey club right now, but the Leafs are 2-0-2 in their last four games which honestly is pretty good. Let's hope they keep working on the little things and start to turn this around.

Not even one Slap Shot joke.

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Puck drop: 7PM ET TSN

Now that Negative Tuesday is behind us it's time to realize that the Leafs have four points in their last three games which is pretty decent for them to be quite honest. With Toskala injured Gustavsson gets the start tonight. He looked solid and composed on Monday night despite not getting a lot of work until he got hung out to dry in OT.

Christian Hanson was called up and should be playing with Grabovski and Hagman according to AM640's Jonas Siegel. Hanson had a goal and an assist in a short five game stint with the Leafs last year. I'm hoping he gets thrown on the PP with Kessel; Hanson's a big body that plays physical in front of the net.

"Front of the net, that's where I've got to be," said Hanson. "Go to the corners, try to dig out the puck for them. Try to clear space." - The Star

The Lightning are currently 8th in the East with a 9-5-7 record largely due to the play of Antero Niittymaki who in 11GP has compiled a .936SV%. This could be another ugly night if the Leafs can't punch the puck home. Vincent Lecavalier seems to be finding his touch, he has five points in his last four games and now has 19 points in 21GP on the season. Steven Stamkos has two goals in his last three and is tied for fifth in the NHL in goals with 15. Stamkos is third in the league in power play goals so the Leafs will also need to stay out of the box tonight.

Remember your SPG picks, check out Raw Charge if you want any more Lightning news, and remember to come back thirty minutes before game time to catch the start of our game day open thread.

More photos » by Darren Calabrese - AP

is Tlusty image rated "safe for work" by virtue of not showing him below the waist.

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We heard Ron Wilson say yesterday that another player will be joining the Leafs but he neglected to specify who. Christian Hanson was called up and a lot of us were guessing that Ryan Hamilton, a power forward prospect we got in exchange for Robbie Earl, would be the other call up. I noticed this on Twitter:

@bartsbytes: #Marlies set to face the Monsters at 11am. No Jiri Tlusty or Alex Foster for the Marlies today. Foster tweaked his back during practice.

I tweeted at him to find out what was up with Tlusty but it's unlikely he's a healthy scratch. He wouldn't be able to play in tonight's Leafs game due to waiver process restrictions but there's a good chance we're going to get to see a whole lot more of Jiri Tlusty.

Update: John Bartlett's reply to me:

Well, he seems to be a suprise scratch, so to answer you, we don't know.

Update 2: According to clrkaitken down in the comments the Fan announced Tlusty has a cold. I was excited to see Tlusty dangle.

More photos » by FRED CHARTRAND - AP

All aboard the man train! Toot toot!

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Puck Drop: 7PM ET Sportsnet Ontario

The future Brooklyn Islanders (8-8-7, 23 pts, 5th in the Atlantic) bring John Tavares to Toronto for his first audition to be a Leaf Killer. I firmly believe he'll score at least a hat trick tonight seeing as he'll have 100 friends and family members in the stands (call it $100 a ticket average and he spent $10K, yowza).

Wallin is out of the lineup, Finger is hurt so Exelby gains a spot on the blue line. Schenn will be playing with Exelby which could get ugly really quickly based on their foot speed. The Islanders are a very young team and guys like Sean Bergenheim have rocket skates.

Vesa Toskala earned himself the start on Saturday night so he'll face Dwayne Roloson who is sporting a .911 save percentage and a 2.86GAA in 13 starts this year.

Don't forget your SPG Picks, and let's pray the Leafs pick up a much needed win.

More photos » by Darren Calabrese - AP

RALLY HELMETS WILL SAVE THIS SEASON

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Personally I can't believe we won a game where we only scored once in regulation. I also can't believe the Leafs won in a shootout and I can't believe they only gave up one goal. I also firmly believe as soon as I admit Toskala played well he'll go back to sucking so I won't do that.

This whole post is just an excuse to post RALLY HELMETS basically.

Cover your eyes, you don't want to see this.

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Toskala gets the start against Semyon Varlamov tonight. I have dinner plans that I hastily made to avoid watching Alex Ovechkin score two hundred goals.

Hopefully Phil "Bright Spot" Kessel continues his point getting ways but honestly I don't have too much hope. Maybe the boys will surprise us and pick up two points but honestly it's November and we're looking for win number four against a good young team; I'm not holding my breath.

You've read this plenty, post here or whatever.

More photos » by Adrian Wyld - AP

"Missed it."

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7:30PM ET Sportsnet Ontario

Greetings Leafs fans. Regular Chemmy has died and has been replaced with "Delirious H1N1 Chemmy". You probably won't notice any difference.

The Senators haven't sold outtonight's game against the Leafs. It makes me wonder if fairweather Ottawa fans are staying away or if Leafs fans aren't bothering to go see them play. An interesting note is that despite the SBN Senators blog's URL being "SilverSevenSens.com", their Twitter being @silversevensens and their authors signing emails with "S7S" the blog name is simply "Silver Seven" and you're a jerk if you don't realize that.

I'll end this short preview with a quote from noted wuss Mike Fisher, keep in mind the game will be played in Ottawa:

We want to get the crowd out of it early.

Wanting to get the home crowd out of it early is probably pretty hard in Ottawa to be honest. There's not a lot else going on. Goaltenders are Pascal Leclaire and Vesa Toskala, make a pot of coffee to stay awake for this one and don't forget your SPG Picks.