Well, we are just three days into the NHL season and I already do not like the coaches challenge. The way I see it, good calls and bad calls just balance themselves out, and if an error occurs then it occurs – big deal. As anyone watching the Jays today could tell you, even cameras can’t make things perfect.
I feel like reviewing calls is just going to lower scoring, which is the last thing the NHL needs. Who knows, maybe I’ll be wrong and this won’t be the case, but that’s how I’m feeling it so far.
As for those Jays, tough loss but to everyone complaining about the blown call: The Jays had like two hits in the last nine innings and that ain’t the Ump’s fault! Obviously I was hoping for a better outcome, but a night of hockey should more than make up for it.
Tonight the Leafs are playing the Wings and according to my man Paul Hendricks they’ll go with the same lineup they had on Wednesday against Montreal. That means Bernier tonight and Reimer (presumably) tomorrow. What I’m more interested in is how long until people start writing out the defensive pairs with Jake Gardiner’s line as the first one?
While I love the fact that the Leafs got Mike Babcock, I don’t really care that he’s coaching his old team. I guess it would be nice if he gets his first win against his old team, but it seems like kind of a lame storyline to me, after all, the coach doesn’t really play the game.
All I really want to see tonight is an entertaining game, and preferably one that features the Leafs playing the same high-energy game they did on Wednesday, since if they keep playing like that they’ll win a lot more games than I or anyone else expects them to.
Hey, I know it’s not Leafs related, but that was a hell of goal Eichel scored for his first NHL goal. Thought I’d include it as motivation for what might be a long season….maybe we already have our own Eichel in Nylander and Marner, and if not, maybe we’ll get one next year and make all this losing worth while.
I kind of like this low expectations thing: You win, you win. You lose, you still kind of win. Should be a great game.
Thanks for reading.
Covering the Leafs for the Hockey Writers.
