THE BUSTED WINDOW OF CONTENTION WON'T STAY OPEN: THE NHL 2023-2024 SEASON THRED (INC KNIGHTS HANGOVER & PANIC MOVES. HOCKEY IS THE BEST)

WILLY & THE
GREAT WOLL

Tonight I became a leaf’s sympathizer

what a moment for the vancouver canucks

Watched that game and had my opinion reenforced the kings are crud

I was in Cambridge this morning, so I was able to catch about an hour of call-in sports out of Toronto. Weird: a lot of it was about Nylander, or how much pressure was on the Bruins, or whether Matthews at 75% was a plus or a minus, etc., etc., but the whole time, you felt this, yes, invisible elephant in the room, that every caller and all the hosts knew exactly what's going to happen tonight.

Even I'm on edge, and I'm as bandwagon as it gets. I played tennis this afternoon with a paramedic in town who'll be working tonight; suggested he stay close to the phone if the Leafs fall behind by more than a goal.

i think it helps that they're kind of playing with house money -- no one expected them to win the last two, especially without matthews

worst-case scenario is, of course, they have a three-goal lead halfway through the third, and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdvoDFTcTLw

that was the most soul-crushing sports thing i've ever seen

Still remember a teacher I was working with at the time telling me about his grandson, five or six at the time and just becoming a fan, crying uncontrollably. Hooked for life, no doubt. Was thinking today about my own odd connection to the Leafs: born in Toronto, lived there till we moved 30 miles away in the summer of '67, a month or two after the last Cup (which I wasn't fan enough to remember--I became a fan for the next three or four years, till that got pushed aside for baseball around '71).

Boston can’t blow another 3-1 lead can they?

Well, Leafs are certainly the team to show them how it's accomplished

Baseball anxiety I can handle; hockey, much tougher.

otm

Toronto's played tough so far. Whatever happens, I don't think they've at least avoided the stupefaction that accompanied some of their recent disappointments.

(eliminate that "don't")

here we go

lol

who names their child 'hampus'

The Leafs didn't fall apart when they lost the lead, so that's something. Not sure I should subject myself to the overtime. Genuine sympathy for the real fans who live and die with them.

I was going to say the same thing

Re: hampus

this has all the makings of a four-overtime game

which means it will probably end within the first five minutes

will there be an odd number of penalties called? i say no

HOCKEY IS THE BEST

well fuck

at least they made it nearly as painful as possible

Sigh. That was a beautiful goal, and also kind of fluky to get such a perfect carom. But the announcer called it a hometown goal, that the puck was intentionally placed to get exactly that carom, so I'll defer to him. Sorry to all the Leafs fans here. I was all set to send a gloating email to those guys I bowl with.

That was 100% a set play

MAPLE LEAFS
MODEL OF
CONSISTENCY

i'm gonna need the rangers to lose a fucking game

(not that i don't appreciate pittsburgh's own vincent trocheck)

End of bos/fla game 2 is tiresome

good luck vancouver

xp yeah it's absurd but also those are two teams i don't mind getting punched

this Canucks team is unbelievable

god bless them

wow, bruins didn't even bother cheap-shotting ppl much in the third tonight

symsy how are you doing

(fwiw i wrote that before the goal, sorry)

that was another intense one. canucks are not capable of playing a normal playoff game

the McD breakaway goal was a beauty. too bad he's allowed to high stick canucks with impunity.

oilers are such a one-line team, but their best line can still dominate half the game. hard to see it working against colorado or dallas.

was having steve nash flashbacks when quinn hughes was sent to the bench for bleeding from the uncalled high stick

From the glory days:

https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ron-ellis-who-played-over-1-000-games-with-maple-leafs-dead-at-79-1.6883241

well at least the fucking rangers finally lost a game

after multiple slow motion/freeze-frame looks at that hit the other night, a new angle shows sam bennett absolutely sucker-punched brad marchand

🚨 New angle just dropped of Sam Bennett punching Marchand in the face 🚨 pic.twitter.com/fL8dNXWeR7

— Spittin' Chiclets (@spittinchiclets) May 12, 2024

otoh, marchand punches people an awful lot (if mostly after the whistle), so i can't say i feel too bad

at any rate this whole thing barely fired up the bruins for one period before they got completely outclassed

also

BROCK BOESER

― mookieproof, Sunday, April 28, 2024 8:03 PM (two weeks ago)

fuuuuck marchand forevs

this sort of stuff needs to be run out of the game. HOWEVER maybe marchand's nose will be straight after that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2eZiRrqes8

canucks still incapable of playing a normal game

intersting article on goalie positioning (athletic/nyt; sorry, not sure how to make an athletic gift link):

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5493020/2024/05/15/nhl-goalies-lundqvist-rvh

actually, maybe try this https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5493020/2024/05/15/nhl-goalies-lundqvist-rvh/?source=emp_shared_article

disappointing