Leafs beaten at their own game.

TOR @ MTL 02/26/07

I'm very annoyed this morning for several reasons. I couldn't be more disappointed in the first period last night. I don't think the Leafs recorded one hit. A freakin' disgrace. It was the Habs that played the Leafs' physical style, and it worked perfectly. All this hot air about huge games this time of year, and it took Raycroft getting pulled, and then a drastic (and brilliant) shake up of the lines to get the team going.

Of course, it didn't help matters that the Habs were getting away with murder all over the ice, while the Leafs get whistled for the most innocent of body checks by O'Neill. And where was Belak? Where was the physical response? If the Habs are going to hit from behind all night and get away with it, the Leafs have to put a stop to it. They were so intimidated during the first, I could've sworn I saw trails of urine tracing the routes of everybody in blue and white.

The attempted come back gave me some hope and helped the team's third period goal differential, the line shake up created some surprising results (J Dub is two for two), and Aubin's solid play gave me deja vu, but apart from that it was a thoroughly disappointing evening. Atleast the AP caption writers gave me a laugh.

Toronto Maple Leafs' Wade Belak, right, honks Montreal Canadiens' Mark Streit's nose during second period hockey action in Montreal on Monday, Feb. 26, 2007