Opening Night

I’m not going to offer up a blow by blow of the game or a recap. It's likely that most of Leafs nation tuned in and saw it for themselves. Let’s face it, small forests have been decimated and towns from Espanola to Kamploops are basking in that lovely smell of eggs-gone-bad in order to provide way too much coverage of what was ostensibly a pretty boring game.

Herewith, some initial thoughts on the game and the mindless chattering folks that covered it:

Has anyone thought about testing the broadcasters' urine? Someone needs to tell these guys that they don't need to yammer on and on like a certain drummer I know.

During one of the interstitials, Glen Healy said Lindros will score 32 goals for Dallas. Last time Big E played 81 games he notched 19 goals. Ok, I’m being a bit disingenuous here. Lindros potted 37 for the 2000-2001 Rangers. That same year, Healy went 4-7-3 for the Leafs (with a scintillating .885 save percentage). I’ll put it this way: Lindros has about the same odds of potting 32 for Dallas as Healy does in winning 4 games this year for an NHL club.

When will TSN recognize their error in signing Domi and will the buy-out have to be spread over 2 years?

Almost every Leaf breakout seemed to go up the left side - are the Leafs stronger up their left side, are the Sens weaker on their right side or is that just the easiest way for a leaf dman to blindly throw the puck around and minimize the odds of a horrible turnover?

Did McCabe hold-out? Did he miss pre-season? He does know that the regular season has started right?

Over under on the fans and media turning on Hal Gill (a la Larry Murphy)? I'd say Game 3 and take the under.

How many times am I going to hear "who's going to score on this team?" before I start clenching my jaw and talking back to the little voices in my head. I get it. We all get it. Is there any one on the planet with a remote interest in hockey that hasn’t heard this trope? Can we somehow form a goon squad to make announcers and analysts put a loonie in a jar every time they offer this up? We could raise the GDP of a small country for a worthwhile cause by the 10 game mark. Let's figure out how to make this happen.

Gerber looked solid, but then again it's the regular season. Other than that third goal, Raycroft was competent too - outstanding on the multiple breakaways.

Cognitive dissonance re-defined: the non-call on Chris Neil’s flying elbow on Jeff O’Neill. As a Leafs fan I wanted to see off-setting penalties. As a Leafs fan it’s a blow I imagine many of us have wanted to deliver.