SUNDAY IN THE “HAMMER”

What’s 33 points between 50+ year rivals in the NHL ?  26,119 folks jammed Tim Horton’s field in Hamilton to find out at this year’s Heritage Classic.  The QEW combatants re-unite after the Buffalo Sabres embarrassed the Maple 5 to 1 just 11 days earlier in Toronto.

The afternoon started off under cloudy skies, light flurries and gusting winds.  Much maligned Petr Mrazek was kept very busy from the start, having to make 7 solid stops in the game’s first 10 minutes.  The Sabres top line of 6’ 7” Tage Thompson, Jeff Skinner and Alex Touch lived up their growing rep, outplaying the Mathews line for most of the period.  A late first period power play for the Leafs solved nothing.

Starting the second (the Leafs had the wind) Ondrej Kase opened the scoring by kicking a nice pass up off his skate to score his 12^th with the help of new linemates John Tavares and William Nylander.   Just :42 seconds later, Nathan Krebs buried a great feed from Vinny Anastosuk to tie the game.  Anderson had robbed Austin Mathews snaring a labelled shot from the high slot.  Not too long after that Mathews got his revenge scoring his 45^th off another nice pass, this time from Alex Kerfoot.  TJ Brodie was credited with the 2^nd assist, giving 300 for his career.  Anastosuk got on the board for the second time as he was the last one to touch the puck on a flukey goal to tie it at twos.

Everybody’s favorite Vinny “Barberino”, got another point with a crappy angle shot 6 minutes in to pretty much seal the deal.  A controversial 4^th Sabres goal nailed the coffin.  The Leafs gave up 4 unanswered goals to lose 5 to 2.

HOPPER NOTES:  What Leafs game recently has not seen at least 1 or 2 WEAK goals against…take your pick today…Petr Mrazek was not the sole cause for today’s loss…he made several key saves, came out and challenged shooters and made a wicked glove save at a key point in the third…look, this Sabres team is starting to come on….3 solid forward lines and an improving defence core led to their 20^th win of the season…loved the features throughout the telecast highlighting Hamilton’s rich history – Angelo Mossca, Pat Quinn, Garney Henley – legends all…and the tape of the Leafs arriving in Steelworker’s gear was priceless…so glad the Canadian Gold Medal winning Women’s Hockey team got proper acknowledgement at such a venue… can’t wait to hear the noise about Mathews’ cross check to the head of Dahlin late in the game…my guess ?  There’s goes the Lady Byng and a fine…

CHEERS, Discuss, enjoy lives !