Saturday Night sucked.

One minor complaint I have about loving the Bruins and Luke Schenn is that, the B's and Leafs somehow managed to get nearly identical schedules for the duration of the season. How am I supposed to be a good cougar and watch Schenny play when the Bruins are playing at the same time?! Thank god for opening ceremonies EVERY GAME at the ACC (or so it seems), and staggered start times, and commercial breaks. I still haven't quite figured out the length of LeafsTV commercial breaks yet though, so I'm missing important things. Or unimportant, depending.

But Saturday night, I was pumped. It was supposed to be grrrrrrrrrrrreat! The B's taking on the Pens, whom they'd JUST shut out earlier in the week, and the Leafs welcoming the Flames into the ACC (Side note on why this was great: Kipper's GAA in the ACC lifetime is ~5.42) was filled with promise. And it was 80s night at the ACC! WENDEL CLARK! TRUCULENCE! I felt my heart swell watching Wendel not only beat ass, but pot a shitload of goals. Luke Schenn I hope you were watching, young man! THAT is how you do it. Someone set up a meeting with Luke and Wendel. I think that can help his confidence a lot.

Moving on before I fangirl like a teenager who likes Twilight.... So the game starts. And the Flames put up 2 in like a minute in a half, :16 apart. Oh. Shit. But hello pugilists. Was I the only one laughing at Olli Jokinen dropping his gloves? Has anyone ever seen a Finn fight (Tony Salmelainen not included)? I'm trying to think of badass pugilistic Finns, and I'm failing here. Someone help a sista out.

But oh blessed relief, the B's game was about to start. So I'm working my remote-control magic, caressing the remote and flipping at every stoppage in play and every commercial. And holy fucking shit the Bruins and their O! David Krejci, marry me! I love you! I love when you set up beautiful goals put in from the goal line. And I love your goal celebrations! And I love that you and Sobotka were on the 5-on-3 PP towards the end of the 3rd together (well played Coach!). I can't lie. At some point during the evening, possibly once Monster was pulled in favour of Toskala (yeah, I see the irony too), I kind of just gave up on the Leafs, relying on my friends online to tell me when to flip to catch Luke looking truculent. Because the Bruins! They were playing catch up with the Pens every few minutes. It was like watching ping pong. Not that I've ever done that sober, but whatever. And when Timmy stopped Crosby towards the final few minutes, oh dear god how I love this team.

AND THEN THE BRUINS TOOK THE LEAD FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE GAME, with 2:29 to go! Danke, Marco! Then Bylsma pulled Johnny out of the net and put the 6th attacker out, and was I the only one waiting for Timmy to shoot for the empty net? He'd been wandering almost up to the blueline all  night and I felt like it was in preparation for something, and MAYBE THAT SOMETHING WAS AN EMPTY NETTER! HERE WAS HIS CHANCE!

And then.... then it all fell apart.

Patrice Bergeron was moving to take a shot at the empty net from the blueline and HIS FUCKING STICK BROKE. HIS STICK BROKE! RIGHT IN FRONT OF CROSBY, MALKIN AND GUERIN! Sweet bleeding Jesus, those are the last 3 guys you want to have an equipment malfunction in front of. And sure enough, the three raced up ice with the puck and with 00:00:00.04 left on the clock, Guerin snapped it high stick side, tying it, and leaving every Bruins fan in the world with a slack-jawed look wondering, what the fuck just happened? No seriously, what the FUCK just happened?

Just when you thought, well it'll be okay, OT, the boys're pretty good in OT, just, for the love of the lord don't let it go to the shootout cause Julien kind of sucks at picking his shootout snipers. And then Timmy wandered into the trapezoid. And Dennis Wideman, who in all fairness should not have been on the ice, what, having taken a slapshot IN THE FOOT in the 3rd and was shown beating his head on the dasher in pain, missed Jordan Staal coming around to steal the puck from Tim, who got sort of caught up on his own pipes, and Pascal Dupuis just hit the layup right into the open net and the green light turned on.

I'm still wondering what the fuck just happened. I'm sort of over it, cause tonight it's the Isles. But you know what? Let's take a look at the positives that came out of Saturday night, shall we?

LUKE SCHENN GOT HIS GAME BACK! Seriously, Ron Wilson if you don't keep Schenn and Gunnarsson together, I'm coming up to TO and keying "you still suck Crazy Ron" into your car. OK no I won't, but I will think about it for a long time! These two played together the same way Luke and Tyler Myers played together in Kelowna. There was instant chemistry there that hasn't been apparent yet between Schenn and ANY of the d-men he's been paired with, no matter how much he can learn from them a veterans. What have we learned from this experiment? Keep the younger guys together, and look - they stay at an even +/-. Who knew?

Also, Phil Kessel, way to keep trying to carry this team on your back. This is unnatural for me, not talking shit about Philly. But I'll give credit where it's due. But Ron Wilson, I mean it, mister! You know I mean business! You keep those boys together and your blue line will improve. OK well, I mean you have 2 other pairings you've gotta worry about but I propose you put Beauchemin and Komisarek together AND LEAVE THEM TOGETHER, and then I guess White and Finger, and just let Ex stay upstairs. I'm sorry, I spent too many years watching Ex lose games for the Thrashers. His play appalls. I am appalled. It's appalling.

David Krejci got goal #2 on the season, and assist, what, 5? He's finding his groove again. I give it another 5 games before he's back into last season's form, and 7-8 before he's showing us what he can REALLY do while healthy. AND! Milan Lucic showed up in the NESN studios during the 2nd intermission to promote Travis Roy's Fenway Winter Classic charity raffle. We all know I love Looch so it was like Christmas for me. Except.. well. OK I like what Looch was wearing, but I have to admit, he's kind of pushing the mobster look a liiiiiiittle too far here. It's a nice shirt but um. Well you guys can decide for yourselves what you think about this:

Keep in mind that Looch's nickname is Gino, and just go ahead and let your mind wander from there. Way to live up to your nickname, big guy. Drop it like it's hot and get your ass in the lineup on Thursday and all will be forgiven.

So! In my way, instead of dwelling on the negative (FUCK YOU, COMPOSITE STICKS!) I will instead ignore everything crappy that happened Saturday, and post some pictures highlighting the positive. Enjoy. Photos courtesy Reuter's and Getty and maybe AP. All rights reserved, etc.

 

 

Apparently David Krejci didn't actually score, since there's no photos of it. ANGRY FACE! Bring it tonight, Bruins.

OH OH! I almost forgot! Word on the street is, Marc Savard will be signed to a contract extension right around American Thanksgiving. Can I get a WHUT WHUT HOLLA HOLLA BLING BLING?! Wooooord up!  Best. News. Evar.

Lastly (hah, yeah right, we've met, you know me and my PS's), if you're into this sort of thing, go over and check out The Handsome Man's Guide To Life where a totally hetero man posts and reviews the fashion wins and fails of professional athletes, and also talks a lot about the Leafs. I have a sneaking suspicion it may be Sean Avery in hiding, but he's funny, so I'll let that suspicion slide by the wayside.