To paraphrase Average Joe on twitter last night, how sweet would it be to smuggle Tarasenko from Buffalo to Toronto for tonight's game, eh?
So, tonight's matchup is with old Norris Division rivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs. Those guys have had a trying year; after starting the season with 4 wins in a row, they fell back to old habits. Coming into tonight's game, they are 14-20-4 and 13th in the Eastern Conference. They do, however, lead the league in truculence, you know, which is nice. Tonight's game features the return of Alexander Steen and Carlo Colaiacovo to Toronto for the first time since their trade from there to St Louis early in the 08-09 season. The Blues and the Leafs share one key trait. The Leafs last won the Cup in 1967, and 2 of the teams that were founded that same year (the St Louis Blues and LA Kings) have never won it. Together, they share the longest current-running Cup drought. For both teams, the ultimate prize has been a LONG Time coming...
For an awesome cover, check out this video of one guy playing all the parts himself.
The Enemy: It's hard to think of these guys as the "enemy", exactly. Some of the newer folks here may not be aware of this, but we at GameTime have become quite fond of our sister blog, Pension Plan Puppets. Yet, tonight, we must. We have 81 other games to support the Blue and White. Toronto's star forward, Phil Kessel, is tied for the team lead in goals with 14 on the year. Surprisingly though, he does not play on the top line. The combination of LW Clarke MacArthur (29 pts), C Mikhail Grabovski (28 pts), and RW Nikolai Kulemin (24 pts) has discovered some chemistry together. The goaltending has been mostly split between J-S Giguere (8-7-2, 2.80 GAA, .890 SV%) and sophomore Jonas Gustavsson (5-12-2, 3.04, .900). Giguere is coming off of an injury, and may possibly be ready to play tonight. If not, be aware of rookie call-up James Reimer (1-1-0, 1.35, .960).
Further Reading:
Blues vs Maple Leafs coverage
The puck drops at 6:00 PM St Louis time since the Blues are on Eastern Time. The GDT will be along shortly beforehand. The TV broadcast is on FSMW, and the radio is on KMOX 1120AM. Until then, this is your pre-game warm-up. Meet here, trade web feeds, reminisce about that WJC Gold Medal game (Tank !!!!), and share your fondness for breakfast foods. In a similar vein, here is an old PPP-inspired song/video that still makes me smile, years later.
Bacon Yada: A Tribute to the Toronto Maple Leafs (via claudvandamn)
LGB!
-CrossCheckRaise