DHawerchuk10

Nope, I remember that. But give the guy some credit here...he played a decent game overall. He’s been one of our better penalty killers all year too. There were a boatload of players I would criticize more than sobotka. Outside of bogosian, our defense was a total mess. Risto seemed like he just woke up from a nap, and dahlin was a spectator all night. Very concerned about mittelstadt and dahlin lately. Both slumping big time.

Because he was probably one of the few guys skating tonight.

Risto wasn’t good, but dahlin was deplorable

It appears from early reading on the 2020 draft, having multiple picks in that draft may be more desirable than this year. Elite top end picks, with depth.

Yeah, but Kane is from buffalo (eyeroll)

Concur. As an aside..... One thing they should consider to enhance atmosphere is to vertically stack the seats ala the Aud. It appears architects who design the new buildings like pushing things back. This probably results in better sight lines, but you are further away from the action. It has been often repeated that the old buildings are missed so much because the fans were right on top of everything. It would make sense to make this a priority, along with attempting to amplify the noise in some way via the design.

I concur. If Leaf fans could just tone down their abrasiveness a tad in a visiting building, it would be a much more enjoyable for everyone. Cheer for your team, but don't be a super jerk to everyone in the building. I found going to a game in Toronto is fairly laid back because Leaf fans don't feel the need to be total douches all the time, and you can have a fairly good natured, educated conversation with them. Ditto Montreal.

I was at the same game, but the ratio, if I recall correctly, was heavily in favor of Buffalo (the Leaf fans were more subdued that game too because most Sabre fans were frothing at the mouth from Stanley Cup fever....they didn't dare be their obnoxious selves). Not even close to a regular season invasion at least. I think that offers an important roadmap if we ever see the Leafs in the playoffs going forward in that it won't be 50/50, but more 75/25.

NBA is a bunch of pop culture schlock. I’m not saying you are wrong, but anytime things get over marketed to the masses, the product turns into a shiny turd in my humble opinion.

If you do the calculation in Canadian dollars

If we have truly “changed” as a team, there is some yelling in that locker room. Marner starts spinning in our zone next period, he better get hammered.

Concur. He's having a whale of a season.

I had Bandits season tickets in '96. Those games were a blast!

Ahhh...music to my ears. "Buffalo penalty to number 29 Jeff Parker and Quebec Penalty to number 23 Paul Gillis, EACH Five minutes for fighting...the time 15:29"

One of the best regular season games I ever saw in the Aud was in '87 against the Oilers on MLK Jr. day. Scotty Arniel won it in OT. I was beside myself with joy. Not only for the rare win that year (especially against the Oilers), but so I could redeem my ticket stub for a free whopper! I also have very fond memories of wandering the halls during the Sabre carnivals. Oh what a joy that was! As others have said above, I still can remember the smell of the place, the weird ramps, the bats that were in the trees outside the building, and staircases that you had to repel down to get to your seats in the oranges. I miss the sounds of whistling instead of booing (why don't we do that anymore?) and Milt Ellis's voice booming across the Aud announcing the winning Perry's Ice Cream thing from the program.

I think they gave us like a 10% chance of winning 1 game on the recent road trip.

Indeed....against Toronto too! Perhaps Hutton can score a "real" goal at some point (Mika's goal was merely a pass that went astray, and he was last one to touch it). Hutts can really handle that puck well. On a side note.....although I'm a bit more pessimistic than most of the folks here, I haven't been this pumped for a game in a very long time! I just hope the boys don't burn themselves out within the first few minutes from all the adrenaline.

I always felt bad for Mika. Never thought he got a fair shake, and then his career stalled.

My memory might be a little off, but I could have sworn we were below 500 at some point within the first month or so. And then right around Thanksgiving...boom. We won like 10 out of 12 or something like that. I think Miller was still out too at the beginning of that turnaround, as I thought Marty won like 5 or 6 straight. Briere and Dumont were out with a sports hernia for a month if I recall. In any event.....

This is the hope at least right? Coming from behind like this, and playing one period of good hockey while getting wins is not sustainable. They really haven't played a mostly complete game since the loss against the Rangers ironically.

The '98-'99 team wasn't THAT bad offensively, especially when comparing them to other teams of that era. Its just how people remember it because Hasek was the best player in the game and shutdown other teams so completely. Didn't Satan have 40 that year?

Not really...they were 500 or slightly below for the first month, then exploded. Most of the pundits were picking them to be near or at the bottom, but all you needed was some awareness of the last played year to know they were not going to be that bad. But I don't think anybody expected them to be as good as they were either.

Really?! I think he's been our most consistent player the past few games shift to shift. If Bogosian would stop fumbling D to D passes behind our net, I would compliment him as well.

Correct. Hutton was first star of last nights game going away (save on Kessel was a major turning point). I'm allowing myself to enjoy the moment here, but I'm not that naïve to ignore that for the better part of two periods, we were abhorrent and were totally outplayed by a struggling team. In any event, I think we are getting ahead of ourselves a bit when comparing this team to '05-'06. We are on the right track, and are showing lots of good qualities, but I'm not quite where the other board members are yet with the optimism.

The first name that came to mind was Victor Gordiuk.