Season starts off with a bang in Detroit for…The Maple Leafs!
On a night that was supposed to belong to the defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings, the new-look Toronto Maple Leafs played the role of the ‘party crasher’. Everything started out perfectly in Detroit: Def Leopard performed a spirited version of a new hockey song, the ice was decorated with all the hardware that the Red Wings and their best players took home last year, the Stanley Cup banner was passed from former greats like Gordie Howe and Alex Delvecchio onto currents studs like Nicklas Lidstrom, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg, Wings own National Anthem singer Karen Newman was looking as sexy as usual, and the crowd was revved up to cheer on their defending champions.
Someone forgot to tell the Leafs who the night was supposed to belong to. Although the first period was pretty much a one sided affair, with Detroit gaining multiple scoring chances and almost scoring on multiple occasions on a shaky Vesa Toskala. Unfortunately, near the end of the period Detroit’s sloppy play in their own end finally backfired as Chris Osgood, who had played great up to that point, shoveled the puck blindly into the slot for ‘johnny-on-the-spot’ Pavel Kubina. That goal was the start of a huge momentum swing for the young Leafs, who went on to win the contest 3-2, with rookie Nikolai Kulemin scoring the game winning goal at 7:25 of the third period.
One thing that was refreshingly different for the Leafs was their aggressive play. This has not been a strong point the past few seasons, but it seems that rugged Ron Wilson’s system is starting to rub off in a good way. A pinching Pavel Kubina’s first period body check on Thomas Holmstrom, might have led to a great scoring chance by a streaking Marian Hossa, but it set the tone for more physical Leafs play to come. Jonas Frogren also displayed some grit as well.
There were two more aspects of this evening that were worth noting for Leafs: One was the play of their second and third forward lines. The Line of Dominic Moore, Nikolai Kulemin and Alex Steen was by far the best Leaf line of the night; with Moore and Kulemin gaining multiple offensive chances. The line of Tlusty,Grabovsky and Hagman showed great excitement as well. The second bright spot was the play of heralded rookie defenseman Luke Schenn. He has a lot of hype to live up to, but he continues to do a great job of playing within himself; body checking and playing sound defense whenever possible.
The likelihood that the Maple Leafs will win a Eastern Conference playoff spot when the Regular season ends, is very slim, but this is just a small step in the right direction, for a franchise in desperate need of showing their loyal fans that the future is finally worth looking towards.
On the other hand, the Redwings will toss this opening loss aside and contend for the Cup yet again. The fact that they continue to outshoot the opponents and play that maddening puck-control game bodes well for them. One thing is for sure, they need to work on play in their own end, and breaking the puck out more smoothly. Marian Hossa was a bright spot in his first game as a Detroit Redwing, earning great scoring chances with hard work and amazing speed. The Viking look-alike, Thomas Holmstrom also got off to a great start, scoring both Detroit goals while again entrenching himself in and around Toskala’s crease.
Author Bio
Introducing the Blunt Hick. I'm the son of a hay farmer, making me one tough customer, who is not afraid to express opinions. I will fill the site's vacant position as Rural Sports Nut. I hope to awaken some good debate through articles that I write, as I tend to be blunt and don't always side with the majority opinion.
I became a hard core Detroit Red Wings fan at the age of seven, due to a trip to the Joe Louis Arena and some quality time spent watching my Wings with my father, via a little 19 inch television which used an antenna to acquire limited channels.
Currently, I reside in Port Hope, Ontario, an area which televises the Toronto Maple Leaf and Ottawa Senator games. For better or worse, I follow the Leafs and the Senators as they continue to patrol separate ends of the League Standings. But like any hockey nut, there is never a hockey matter that I don't enjoy commenting on, especially with all the hype in this area.
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