Shoots Left and Writes

 Game 22: Leafs vs. Oilers Simon B     Well, the Leafs’ (and arguably the league's) best player is out with a wrist injury that's been nagging him all season. You would never know it, in that Auston Matthews has a league-leading 18 goals this year but to stay on the safe side, the star centerman will probably miss the next few games, this one included. On a more positive note, Jake Muzzin and Joe Thornton both came back from 2 game absences, and, even better news, the Leafs got Jack Campbell back. Michael Hutchinson was decent during the three starts he made with both Andersen and Campbell out, but it's pretty reassuring to know that one of the Leafs' top two netminders is healthy again.       Now all the Leafs have to do is shut down the best player in the world for a whole game. That's a good way to get Campbell back into the flow of NHL action for sure. The Game     An important factor in beating the Oilers is obviously shutting down Conno...

 Simon B     So this is the second mini-post for the "Who's the GOAT?" series that I started earlier this week. If you want to check out the first article of the series you can check it out here.            In the first article, I wrote about the greatest hockey player of all time. For this one, let's head across the Atlantic to Europe. The most popular sport in the world has created some of the hottest debates in sports history over the past two decades or so. Here's my opinion on who the greatest football (soccer) player of all time is and why. (I’m using the words “football” and “soccer” interchangeably in this post, because no matter which word I use, we’re talking about the sport with the round black-and-white ball, okay?) What Defines Great?     Contrary to most sports in North America, great soccer players need to be way more than just really good athletes. I'm not saying that athletes over here are not more, well, athle...

 Game 21: Flames vs. Leafs Simon B     After a really sloppy performance on Monday night, the Leafs had a chance to show that that was just an off night and that they'll be back to their regular high-flying pace again. They did, however, need to do that without starter Frederik Andersen for a second straight night and also missing the two bearded brothers in Jake Muzzin and Joe Thornton.            On the positive side, Zach Hyman was back in the lineup after missing the last game with a foot injury he suffered Saturday. With Hyman back on the roster, the line looked a bit more normal than last game. Hyman was on the top line with Matthews and Marner so that allowed Tavares to go back to his usual spot, centering the second line with Kerfoot and Nylander as his wingers. The Game     The game started off at a really weird place. The puck was bouncing all over the ice and neither team could really get any sort of system going in...

Game 20: Flames vs. Leafs Simon B     We've officially hit the dog days of the regular season. Usually, it's around mid-November that the novelty of the new season wears off. Now that we've gotten used to the new pandemic season, it's pretty safe to bet that the players have gotten into the swing of things as well. Monday night's game is one of those games where as a player it's much more difficult to get  psyched up for. Monday night after a big game Saturday and on top of all that, no fans.     To make matters worse for the Maple Leafs, they are now injury-plagued. Top-four defenseman Jake Muzzin got a high-stick to the face on Saturday and will be out for a while. Joe Thornton was out of the lineup (no reason specified so I'm presuming it's load management). Zach Hyman blocked a shot with his foot last game and injured it doing so and worst of all, Freddy Andersen had a nagging lower-body injury.     Sheldon Keefe really had to mix and match his lin...

  Simon B In the early 1900's, being called a "goat" was a huge insult. Today, when “GOAT” means “Greatest Of All Time, it can be one of the biggest compliments you can give someone. The conversation surrounding the greatest athlete of all time is a really tricky one. First of all, you simply can't compare the skills, achievements, and athleticism of players between sports, so there's no way we can ever decide on the "greatest athlete ever". Second, there are many instances where a certain player did really well by comparison to players of their own era (for example, Maurice Richard in the 1950s) but their achievement pale beside the players of their own sport today.      Since Tom Brady won his seventh Super Bowl title, there have been many debates on who is the greatest of all time (GOAT) of sport. I decided to go sport by sport (of the sports that I know best) and give you my opinion on who the greatest to ever play it was/is.      So for the n...

  Game 19: Leafs vs. Habs Simon B This condensed 56-game schedule is a bit weird. Up until this point, every Canadian team other than Vancouver has had at least one four-day break. The issue with this is that by the time the regular season ends in May, teams like the Leafs and the Habs are going to have to go through long stretches of time where they're playing almost every second night. I don't see why they don't take that 4 to 7 days of rest and sprinkle them in to avoid having teams play 4 games in a week in some cases.      Montreal was coming off one of those nearly-week-long breaks while Toronto played their fourth game of the week. Normally, I'd tend to think that the better-rested team (who’s also playing in their home rink so travel isn't a factor) would have the advantage. But the way things have gone this year, playing more often gives the Leafs an edge because, in this high-paced division, players need to be in the groove of the game right from ...

For Jasper: Game 18: Sens vs. Leafs Simon B     In the first game of this three-game series against Ottawa, the Leafs blew a 4-goal lead. In the second, they definitely weren't the better team but they came away with the two points anyways. S lot of Leaf fans are once again wondering what version of the team will show up to play last night.           I have to admit, when saw the changes that were being made to the lineup before the game, I wasn't feeling too confident about the Leafs' chances. Michael Hutchinson got the start for Toronto. I thought it was just to give Andersen some rest but turns out he's dealing with some sort of uncomfort.  Zach Hyman blocked a shot during the last game and is now day-to-day with a lower-body injury, so Nic Petan started instead of Hyman. The other Zach, Zach Bogosian, got the night off so Mikko Lehtonen was slotted in a pairing with Travis Dermott. The Game     The first thing that I noticed at ...

  Game 17: Sens vs. Leafs Simon B What version of the Leafs will we see tonight? The "I don't wanna play" Leafs or the team that looks like it can win a Stanley Cup? After a pathetic collapse against the Senators' last game, I was expecting the Leafs to come out flying and hungry for revenge. Well, they sorta did but let's talk about it. Before this one, coach Keefe made a few changes to the lines but the lineup stayed the same. Jimmy Vesey was bumped down to the fourth line and Pierre Engvall got the promotion to the third. The Game Toronto unexpectedly started this game really flat: almost no scoring opportunities and no shot attempts either. Even the Matthews line was quiet, and that's not something that can be said very often. Ottawa was definitely taking advantage of the slow Leafs’ start, and they were buzzing around Andersen's net for most of the first period. By the tail end of the opening frame, the Senators had taken 16 more shots th...

  Simon B Pour la version francaise de cet article, cliquez sur les trois barres en haut a gauche et choisissez "francais"!     I'm a month into writing on this blog almost every day and I haven't mentioned the world's most popular sport. About the time I write about soccer. I am half French so I support and follow European soccer as best as I can. Sometimes it's difficult with the time zones or trying to be able to watch but I make do. How it Goes Down     I get that most people in North America may not fully understand the way soccer works in Europe (not how to play but the leagues and formats). So let me just give those who may need one, a quick overview of how it works     Each country has its own League which is called "domestic leagues" (For example Spain - La Liga). Each country has 2 leagues, a first and a second league. The first league is the better one. At the end of the season, the top four of the second domestic league get promoted to th...

  Game 16: Sens vs. Leafs Simon B     Normally, when I write my post-game review after Leafs games I explain the game as it goes on but since I don't support a normal team I'm going to go a bit off-script and ignore the notes I took during the game.     Let's rip the band-aid off. The Toronto Maple Leafs BLEW A 5-1 LEAD AND LOST IN OVERTIME! I've been part of this cursed fanbase for so long I've gotten used to seeing them blow leads but this time, it's different. "They've turned a corner." "They're not the team they used to be." "they're built to win," NEWSFLASH: Teams that BLOW LEADS 5-1 LEADS TO THE WORST TEAM IN THE DIVISION don't usually go very far.     The thing that bugs me most about this game isn't that they lost. Every team loses games, even stinkers against bad teams. However, the way they lost this one is what really hurts. From Great to Unbearable     If the Leafs looked bad to start to finish, I wou...