Wednesday, December 24, 2008

How The Vesa Ruined Christmas

What the hell is wrong with Vesa, eh? I really wanted to write a post about Jeremy Williams and how awesome he is and how he should be in the NHL for the rest of the year (The kid can score, he's got an awesome shot - if the Leafs don't have room for him I'm sure somebody else does). I wanted to do a post about Antro and how he's been on the plus side for 2 straight (I was hoping it would be 3). I also really wanted to do a post about Pogge and how bright his future looks as long as they don't rush expectations. But no. It's got to be about The Vesa. It's always got to be about Vesa. If it isn't about Vesa, it's about Cujo, and that's still indirectly about Vesa. Even a post about Pogge would be a post about Vesa! 

7 goals in 31 minutes and 35 seconds on 27 shots.

TRADE HIM NOW.

Wow, I can't believe I typed that. Anyways, the NHL has some sort of no movement thing through the holidays, and Burke said something about not trading players from Dec. 9th until who knows when, so it looks like you're safe for now Mr. the Vesa.

Perhaps the entire team was at fault for having a bad night and for not showing enough heart to stop the onslaught. But an 8-2 home ice disgrace, juxtaposed with the previous night's stellar debut of Justin Pogge in a 6-2 win on the road, puts the focus directly on the goaltender. Not Joseph. We've already lost interest in him. He's the highest paid guidance councillor in Toronto. We're lookin' at the guy who gave up 7. The Vessel. The Vuck-Tank.

Whoah. Angry.

Ya... well, an 8-2 drubbing - on the eve of Christmas Eve for heaven's sake! - will do that to ya. A friend of mine was given tickets today to tonight's game. It was a surprise gift, a Christmas present, I guess, from a co-worker who appreciated his efforts at work this week. They were gold seats, section 119 right at centre ice, and he was super excited. He said he was gonna bring his Maple Leafs banner and wave it every time they scored a goal or threw a big hit. It's probably the only game he'll go to this year. I kept thinking of him as the score got worse and worse, and how tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and he'll be back at work, busting his ass and giving it all he's got for not very much, just puttin' food on the table for him and his Dad, his Christmas present already spent on a garbage hockey game and a ridiculous effort from the home team.

I'm so mad.

If I had an axe, I'd swing it. Someone needs to go. I vote for the Vesa. Give the job to Pogge. Not just the next game (that should be obvious), how 'bout make a permanent move. We go with the Pogge, win or lose. We're not here to win championships, we're here to develope a culture of success or something like that. Spirit is Everything, right? Well, Vesa has ruined my holiday spirit, and I don't really care what we get in return, if we can stuff him in a sack and ship him off to nowhere by the New Year, that's fine by me.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I've had a chance to relax a bit. Let's look at some of the reaction from tonight's game:

"He didn’t have a chance on any of those goals,” Wilson said. “I don’t think it was fair that the fans got on him."

"Vesa doesn’t deserve that,” defenseman Tomas Kaberle said.

Hmmm. Maybe I've over reacted a little. What about it Toskala?

Toskala seemed understanding when asked how he felt about getting booed.

“Fans are paying good money to come watch us and we didn’t play very well".

I'd have to agree with that. Another way to put it would be to say, non-fans are paying good money to spread a little holiday cheer to Leaf fans, and then you went and ruined it.

9 comments:

wrap around curl said...

What killed me, I don't know if he was trying to shrug it off or what, but he didn't seem upset or disappointed on the bench. He didn't seem affected.

Jennifer Hammer said...

I'm glad I missed it.

blurr1974 said...

i like you better when you're angry...

not shocked he acted nonchalant. that's how the Vesa rolls.

all that said. the game was a stinker of epic proportions. you know how when you watch a show and something bad happens, and you feel uncomfortable for the person? no, well at any rate, I'm talking about empathy.

I didn't feel that way at all...

general borschevsky said...

Good point, wrap~. I was thinking about Patrick Roy and how pissed off he was in his last game in Montreal when he let in 7. Is this the end for the Vesa. Somehow I doubt it.

Hey "~Schultz"! When it was 4-0 my wife tried to get me to turn it off, and I said, "no, we can't, this could be important - it might get worse".

Hey blurr~! Great comments.

i like you better when you're angry

Not sure how to respond to that. More anger?

Cheers, everybody! Have a safe and happy holiday with as little rage as possible.

Hyaena said...

I had a similar request to turn the game off(I had DVRed it). And even though I was fast forwarding through the replays of all FOUR goals, my wife let it drop (from seeing it online) that it got worse. I watched the whole game hoping that this would be some kind of rock bottom(same thing I hoped in Boston). My wife's request, btw, was to save HER sanity, from having to listen to me curse from the living room.

general borschevsky said...

Thanks for the comment Anthony Woods, aka. Haeyena. Welcome to the General Area! I've been checking out your blog - Far Away Leaf - good stuff.

Navin Vaswani (@eyebleaf) said...

A brutal way to go into the break...

Unknown said...

can't blame vesto on the outcome of the game. he didn't have a chance on most of the goals. the team was out of gas, just plain tired and it showed, the boys are not good enough to win games when fatigued. everyone relax

general borschevsky said...

@eyebleaf...And a brutal way to come out. The loss to the last place Islanders was easily as frustrating as the 8-2 blowout.

@Kenneth. Thanks for dropping by! Wilson also felt Toskala wasn't to blame on any of the 7 goals against Dallas.

the boys are not good enough to win games when fatigued

That may be true, but they also don't have a goaltender who can keep the score close or even from being an embarrassment when they're out of gas. Stealing a point would be altogether out of the question.