[ryan93]

I had all but given up on the Rangers coming back today against the Bruins, but thanks to a brutal giveaway by Zdeno Chara with 90 seconds left, they manged to not only tie the game up, but thanks to Nylander, Jagr & Lundqvist, win it in a shootout. The Rangers have now picked up points in 12 of the last 13 games, and 18 of the last 22. Yet another brilliant game by Henrik Lundqvist, stopping 40 of 41 shots for the win (also 2 of 3 in the shootout). I can't believe how good Hank has been the last 2 or 3 months, especially the last 20 games or so he's been unreal. He's putting up some great statistics too, in the last 20 games his GAA is 1.51 and SP% is .940.

[ryan93]

Look out Sid, Joe is coming! I knew Joe Thornton was piling up the points the last few weeks & that he was rapidly moving up the scoring leaders, but I never realized just how much ground he had gained until looking at the scoring race a few minutes ago. Joe's got 104 points now on the season & is just 4 points back of Sidney Crosby.

A scoring race stat that would make Don Cherry proud...the top 5 scorers (Crosby, Thornton, Lecavalier, St.Louis, Heatley) are all Canadian, and 8 of the top 9 (Savard, Briere, Sakic...Marian Hossa being the only exception) are Canadian. It's kind of surprising too that the leading US born player is Jason Blake, at 49th.

[cferneyh]

A scoring race stat that would make Don Cherry proud...the top 5 scorers (Crosby, Thornton, Lecavalier, St.Louis, Heatley) are all Canadian, and 8 of the top 9 (Savard, Briere, Sakic...Marian Hossa being the only exception) are Canadian.

That's pretty damn cool!

Good character win by the Leafs tonight - unfortunately everyone else that matters is winning too. :x

[thedarkcanuck]

thornton is getting very close....didn`t he do this last year in the last couple weeks to overtake jagr?

[ryan93]

Yes he did, much to my dismay! The Sharks tandem of Thornton & Cheechoo went on a tear the last few weeks, and ended up steeling both the Art Ross & Richard Trophies from Jagr on the final weekend of the season

[thedarkcanuck]

i hope i dont feel your pain this year

[srb]

Well, nice to see the Leafs actually hang onto a 4-1 lead in the 3rd tonight....had serious feelings of deja-vu with about 16 minutes to go in the game, but they somehow pulled through.

Too little too late I'm afraid as I sense another year w/out Leaf playoff hockey

Just too inconsistent.

[ryan93]

I agree with what Don Cherry had to say about Andrew Raycroft during Coaches Corner. I don't get why everyone on here was ripping him after their loss to the Sabres on Friday. The entire Leafs team just collapsed and they left Raycroft out to dry. I thought he was probably their best player in the game and the loss can be blamed on many people, but I don't think Raycroft was one of them.

HUGE game between NYR & NYI this afternoon. If the Rangers win, they pass Tampa & move into 6th place (with a 3 point cushion over 9th place Montreal)....if the Islanders win they move into 6th place, Tampa drops to 7th, and the Rangers drop to 8th with only a 1 point edge over 9th place Carolina/Montreal.

[ryan93]

And yeah it's very hard to make up any groud SRB. The Rangers for example have picked up 9 of a possible 10 points the last 5 games, yet they haven't moved at all in the standings. Everyone around them is winning...however the longer this playoff race has gone on, the more spots that have opened up. At the deadline it was 4 or 5 teams fighting for 1 spot, but then the Islanders dropped back, now Tampa/Atlanta have dropped back, so there are 3 spots up for grabs (Carolina is also now only 4 points back of the division lead/#3 seed).

[BuffaloHipFan]

Well, nice to see the Leafs actually hang onto a 4-1 lead in the 3rd tonight....had serious feelings of deja-vu with about 16 minutes to go in the game, but they somehow pulled through.

Too little too late I'm afraid as I sense another year w/out Leaf playoff hockey

Just too inconsistent.

Sabres played two crappy games, Leafs probably played two of their best games of the year. Hopefully this will be a wake up call, then again, the Sabres played worse last March and turned it around. Kotalik, Paille and Lydman should be back for the next game (not that injuries are an issue). It seems Sabres are also terrible on Saturday nights (11 of 20 regulation loses and 3 of 7 OT loses).

As for the leafs, 2 weeks form today......

[cferneyh]

I agree with what Don Cherry had to say about Andrew Raycroft during Coaches Corner. I don't get why everyone on here was ripping him after their loss to the Sabres on Friday. The entire Leafs team just collapsed and they left Raycroft out to dry. I thought he was probably their best player in the game and the loss can be blamed on many people, but I don't think Raycroft was one of them.

Perhaps, but that's the difference between good goaltending, average goaltending, and bad goaltending. With the season on the line, good goalies find a way to stop one of those pucks. Bad goalies let them in. There is no denying that by any statistical measure you use, Raycroft has been less than average this season and Friday night was a microcosm of that.

And let's face it, if his name was Andrew Rayqvist and he was from Sweden, Cherry would have been the first to pile on.

[grimes]

I agree with what Don Cherry had to say about Andrew Raycroft during Coaches Corner. I don't get why everyone on here was ripping him after their loss to the Sabres on Friday. The entire Leafs team just collapsed and they left Raycroft out to dry. I thought he was probably their best player in the game and the loss can be blamed on many people, but I don't think Raycroft was one of them.

Perhaps, but that's the difference between good goaltending, average goaltending, and bad goaltending. With the season on the line, good goalies find a way to stop one of those pucks. Bad goalies let them in. There is no denying that by any statistical measure you use, Raycroft has been less than average this season and Friday night was a microcosm of that.

And let's face it, if his name was Andrew Rayqvist and he was from Sweden, Cherry would have been the first to pile on.

Exactly. None of the goals he gave up on Friday were bad goals; most would've required tough saves. But a good goalie steps up and makes some of those big saves to keep the team in it. Down at the other end of the rink for example, Miller absolutely robbed Sundin with his right pad with about 15 seconds to go preserve the win for the Sabres.

[tigerthelion]

I agree with what Don Cherry had to say about Andrew Raycroft during Coaches Corner. I don't get why everyone on here was ripping him after their loss to the Sabres on Friday. The entire Leafs team just collapsed and they left Raycroft out to dry. I thought he was probably their best player in the game and the loss can be blamed on many people, but I don't think Raycroft was one of them.

Perhaps, but that's the difference between good goaltending, average goaltending, and bad goaltending. With the season on the line, good goalies find a way to stop one of those pucks. Bad goalies let them in. There is no denying that by any statistical measure you use, Raycroft has been less than average this season and Friday night was a microcosm of that.

And let's face it, if his name was Andrew Rayqvist and he was from Sweden, Cherry would have been the first to pile on.

Exactly. None of the goals he gave up on Friday were bad goals; most would've required tough saves. But a good goalie steps up and makes some of those big saves to keep the team in it. Down at the other end of the rink for example, Miller absolutely robbed Sundin with his right pad with about 15 seconds to go preserve the win for the Sabres.

Miller isn't that good either.

[grimes]

And yeah it's very hard to make up any groud SRB. The Rangers for example have picked up 9 of a possible 10 points the last 5 games, yet they haven't moved at all in the standings. Everyone around them is winning...however the longer this playoff race has gone on, the more spots that have opened up. At the deadline it was 4 or 5 teams fighting for 1 spot, but then the Islanders dropped back, now Tampa/Atlanta have dropped back, so there are 3 spots up for grabs (Carolina is also now only 4 points back of the division lead/#3 seed).

Damn Rangers and Isles couldn't decide anything in 60 minutes this afternoon...these 3 point games make it even harder to make up any ground.

[emperor penguin]

And yeah it's very hard to make up any groud SRB. The Rangers for example have picked up 9 of a possible 10 points the last 5 games, yet they haven't moved at all in the standings. Everyone around them is winning...however the longer this playoff race has gone on, the more spots that have opened up. At the deadline it was 4 or 5 teams fighting for 1 spot, but then the Islanders dropped back, now Tampa/Atlanta have dropped back, so there are 3 spots up for grabs (Carolina is also now only 4 points back of the division lead/#3 seed).

Damn Rangers and Isles couldn't decide anything in 60 minutes this afternoon...these 3 point games make it even harder to make up any ground.

1 point for a loss is absolute bullshit. Worst rule ever.