Atlanta Thrashers vs Toronto Maple Leafs

For the second time this season, the Toronto Maple Leafs blew into town. We really needed a win. We were still in mathematical reach of the 8th playoff spot. Also, very selfishly, I wanted us to beat Toronto so I could see that crazy Leafs guy over on youtube lose his mind. Oh well.


When Toronto comes to town, that means Gretchen, Garnet Exelby's #1 fan will be lining the glass with signs for him. Gretchen is hard at work! My friend Kerry took this picture, I'm in the bottom corner. A friend of Gretchen took a picture from the other side, I'd like to see what it looked like from there.





I'm excited about seeing the Monster again! It looks like he is excited about seeing me, too.





Francois Beauchemin stretching out. Gee, wonder if he's French-Canadian?





The Monster in the net, you can barely see the damn net.





Awwww, Moose is looking for a chat friend! Don't leave him hanging guys!





It's the first time for me to see Phaneuf in his Leafs jersey.





Yay! Moose found a friend! It's his old buddy Garnet Exelby.
Ex: Hey man, good to see you! How are you?
Moose: Good!
Ex: I see your girl is still going over to the visitor's side.
Moose: Only some times. She still wears my jersery.
Ex: Dude, she's wearing and Oduya jersey.
Moose: WHAT?





More Phaneuf. It just seems weird seeing him in Toronto.





Hmmm, guess this guy isn't a Leafs fan.





I was also excited to see Jiggy again! It's not often that I get to see one goalie twice in a season wearing different uniforms. J.S. Giguere came through Blueland the first time in a Ducks uniform.





Ex doing his ritual stretching. I have like a million pictures of him doing this in a Thrashers jersey.





Tomas Kaberle warming up.





American Olympian and Silver Medal winner, Phil Kessel takes it all in.





Yes Jonas, I'm still here taking pictures. Is that okay?





Jiggy had the night off and was laughing and chatting. He of course refused to look at Kerry's sign. When you are a Leaf and games aren't going well, you don't look at signs. They are probably terrible and might make you cry.





WTF is this guy doing now? The chicken dance? Castanets?





Swarming the goalie.



First period! Not a lot of first period pictures because I was stuffing my face with over priced yet delicious chicken tenders and fries.


Oh God, yes please! Artyukin vs Exelby??





Woo Hoo! The Thrashers get on the board with a power play goal from Zach Bogosian!





Monster is one of the few goalies that doesn't have too much trouble seeing around Antropov.





Mac trying to make something good happen.





Monster turning aside a puck.

Zach put us on the board, but unfortunately the Leafs answered right back with a goal from Phil Kessel.


Second period!


Does anyone NOT like the Moose? He's the nicest guy around and handsome to boot. Look at her winking at him! I can't compete with that level of cute! She told me that Moose gave her some gum. He passes it through the opening of the glass to her. A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E!!





Face off.





MacArthur likes it in front of the net. That's a good quality!





Zach introduces Viktor Stalberg to the ground, HARD.





Beat his ass, Zach! I was hoping that Bogo would get an assist so he could get a Gordy Howe hat trick.





Not even "Some Other Guy" could get one in on the Monster.





Some chaos in front of Pavs.

The score remained the same in the 2nd period, neither team scored. We went into the 3rd period still tied at 1-1.


Third period!


Fuck father time! Chelios is still a bad ass.





I love getting a "puck in the air" shot, too bad it's not going in the net.





My buddy Sonya had a camera misfortune, her battery died. During the 3rd period, she asked me if I'd like to use her big honking lens (a 70-200mm f2.8 for those that know about cameras). For those of us that don't, it's huge, it's fast and it lets an ass load of light in. It also weighs almost 4lbs. That doesn't sound like a lot right? Pick up a 4lb weight and hold it in front of your face for about 5 minutes. I seriously had to put my carpal tunnel brace on when I got home.


The difference in speed was amazing! After looking at the pictures when I got home, you could really see a difference. The pictures were much brighter. All of the following pictures are SOC (straight out of the camera) and haven't been edited. You might not be able to tell a difference, but man I can.


Pavs looks behind his back for the puck.





Oduya guarding the net.





Pavs watching the action.





Taking it hard to the Monster!





Max talking to the ref.





Pavs keeping an eye on the puck.





Monster filling the net with his big frame.





Monster says no! (again)





The third period ended with the teams still tied at 1-1, so we went to OT. Thirty nine seconds into over time, Mikhail Grabovski put one in the net to win it for the Leafs. You can just see a hint of the puck in the net under the arrow. Pavs is looking at it.





Leafs win. Boo.





Jiggy comes out to congratulate Monster.