Break up the Bills

The weather in Buffalo yesterday sucked - rain all day - it would have been much better with snow.  Great tailgate regardless.  We park beside the Bud Light VIP tent - the parking lot was quite empty yesterday.   So empty that the Bud Light girls came over to our fire and invited us to the VIP party.  I suspect they thought Dean and Dave were there and came over to chat with them.

Anyway I get the all time record for ring toss and win "top prize".  One less gift to buy for XMAS.  50,000 fans braved the elements and saw the Bills D step up and shut down the Browns.  Win 3 for the season - likely the last win with trips to Miami and Jets and home game against the Pats.  Not sure of status of Lee Evans going forward and Steve Johnson seems to have lost is mo jo.

Nice job by Bills protecting the ball in wet conditions yesterday.  With our weak pass rush it's unlikely we'll do well in last home game.  Jets are in real trouble and could be 9 and 6 when we go there for last game of season.

Calcutta time

Here is a message from Chairman Nate

• These are the final handicaps for the calcutta.
• Decisions were made by a board not just one person, in case someone wanted to complain. (Editor's note:   If you want to complain speak to the hand.) 
• These are the first round matchups, and I know it is over a month away but it gives more time for trash talk.
• Minimum starting bet for every team will be $40.00.
• We will not move to the next team until the previous team is purchased for at least the minimum. Anyone is welcome to bid on teams so if you have friends that want to be involved but are not playing they are more than welcome to come out.
• Remember, all matches are 2 outta 3 to 15 no additional points and single elimination.
• Calcutta's cannot be a success without people willing to gamble, so please come to the auction on Tuesday January 18th 7 p.m.in the BFRC cafe with the mindset that you will have to spend some money on a team. If it is a success then we can do it again and improve on it.

See you in January boys!!


Nate


Al Scott / Ivan Hunt             plus 4
 vs.
Ray Coates / Byron Goodwin plus 1



Rick James / Frank Thomson plus 3
 vs.
Dean Lloyd / John Bodnar minus 1



Gary Long / Gord Dowbiggin   plus 3
 vs.
John Graham / Mark Litton   minus 2



Nick Stryland / Greg Rae       minus 5
 vs.
Chris Barrett / Dave Peters plus 2



Gerald Marshall / Dave v Wely minus 3
 vs.
John Rekrut / Ted Charuk       plus 5



Peter Lemieux / Ross Vipond minus 2
 vs.
Rob Bowder / Paul Grootendorst -4 minus 4



Mike Donnelly / Brent Hurtubise minus 4
 vs.
Bob Sullivan / Nathan Drew minus 1



Norm Crook / Jeff Morton         even
 vs.
Pete Naughton / Mark Braden plus 4

Leaf Observations

I was fortunate enough to be invited to the Leafs/Flyers game by my friends Jeff V and Kevin -Wings and Bruin fans if you can believe it.  Add Michelle, a Habs fan to the group and you can imagine how much ribbing I took from them.

Leafs biggest issue is their lack of strong centers.  They lose most draws and really struggle in the defensive and neutral zones.  In the defensive end, we lose possession and then when we do get the puck, we don't have the guy in the middle that can consistently move through defensive and neutral zone. 

If you look at the Flyers their puck handling before they get in the offensive end is much better - they make longer passes which means they require fewer passes to gain the offensive end.  We make too many  short passes which provides more opportunity for something to go wrong - either a bad pass, pass not received well by the recipient or deflected pass leading to turnover. 

In the offensive end we got snake bit with lots of quality chances. 

Tonight against the Habs we need to get off to a good start - getting down 2 or 3 goals just doesn't work.  We'll see - need to get winning 6 out of 10 on a regular basis to move up the standings.

Which team shows up tonight?

So the Leafs played well Saturday and got lucky on Monday against Washington. Here's my take on why Washington under achieves in the playoffs.  Did you see the genuine joy that Clarke McCarthur showed when he scored his two goals against the Caps?  I thought he was going to go through the glass on the first one and his celebration on his second was really infectious. 

The Leafs are up a goal in the shootout, Semin needs to score to extend the game and as you know he missed scoring.  He showed the square root of frick all emotion when he didn't score.  Come on Alexander - get into it.

In Pittsburgh tonight and Sid the Kid is unstoppable right now.  Look for the Leafs to put Schenn out every time Sid is on the ice.  If Sid does not get two points, we'll win

Speaking of emotion there certainly is no lack of confidence in the newest Blue Jay 20 year old Canadian Brett Lawrie.  He says he's going to start the season in the big leagues - I sure hope so otherwise why would we give up on Shaun Marcum.

What a difference a day makes at ACC

Great atmosphere in ACC last night as the fans really got into the Raptor game.  The Raptors are surprising a lot of people with their energy and athleticism.  Guys that I really like on this team:

• Barbosa - too quick for most - great at getting to the bucket
• Weems - man can he go get the ball
• DeMar DeRozan - expanding his game to play well both outside and in

Bargnani gets a double double - he should against a small line up like the OKC team had last night.  It was good to see Andrea score some points late in the fourth quarter for a change. 

15 Assists from Jose is good stuff but he needs to start producing like that on a regular basis.

Listening to Jack Armstrong do the Raptor games is a treat.  Funny guy with good insights.

Some predictions for this weekend's NFL action - Jets lose to Pats by 10.  Steve Johnson goes to church and the Bills beat Vikings in Minnesota.  Too bad the Bills are not at home this weekend - most snow there for a long long time.  Chicago blows out Lions - Bears have got too tough a schedule left and need this one bad to solidify playoff positioning.

We're in trouble

Fortunatley I was at yoga last night and did not witness the Leafs latest goal less game.  No touch around the net, no flow offensively and lots of players chirping about lack of effort.  Time to shut up and play boys

My football pool did not start out well either.  I turned the game off at the beginning of Q4 with Texans in lead by four.  8.5 point spread it looked pretty good for my first pick of the week.  Vick was getting banged up all over the field and the Eagle receivers and DBs were bitching on every other play about fouls.  Full marks to Vick for leading the comeback - he's a pretty tough dude. 

Observations about the Leafs collapse last nigt

Monster stands on his head in the first period and we escape with a 1 to nothing lead.  Second period starts out badly but we get it together and Kullemin scores a beautiful goal.  I've heard so much about Kadri turnovers that I decided to keep mental track of his gaffs. 

Part of his puck handling problem comes from poor passing from Leaf's defencemen - particularly Mike Komisarek and Francois Beauchemin.  Both of these guys slap pass as opposed to slide pass - the resulting spin on the puck creates a lot of passes that are hard for the recipient to handle.  In addition, both these D men handle the puck like a grenade - "just get rid of it before it blows up in my face."

Check out how Kaberle and Schenn handle the puck - look how nicely they deliver passes to their teammates.

Observations on the final goal - the Leafs panicked.  Bozak loses the draw and he and the two forwards all run at Martin St. Louis.  Guys that's one man's responsibility.  One winger and center should be moving men out of position so your goalie can see.  In the lost faceoff scenario with less than ten seconds left, remember your responsibilities and do whatever it takes to ensure your goalie has a good luck - so what if you take a penalty.  Ughh!