Back from Flu Hell - Leafs still suck

Well, it's taken over a week, but my monkey and I have finally fully recovered from our flu. The last stage for me was a nasty cough and it took the last 3 days to get rid of it. So what is the state of the Leaf Nation now that I'm back?



We still suck. Yes, we beat Ottawa 5-0 last night (thanks for the 5 goals against, Ray Emery) but we're still almost last in the NHL. Not only that, but Mats Sundin refused to waive his "no trade" clause and so we were unable to trade him for good young players. Thanks Mats, you're a great player but you just screwed us. You should have allowed us to trade you, get some young guys, and then re-signed next year. We also traded Chad Kilger, who I always liked, and Wade Belak, who seemed like a good guy and was a good fighter but just didn't play a lot with us. Good luck in Florida boys.



On the bright side, we did manage to trade away Hal Gill, or as he's known to Leafs fans, Pilon # 1. Now we just need to get rid of Pilon #2 Pavel Kubina and Pilon # 3 Bryan McCabe. And of course, Space Cadet Andrew Raycroft... I call him that because when he's in the net he just stares into space and doesn't stop the puck. Good luck in Pittsburgh, Hal, and thanks for the memories (of people easily skating around you and scoring).



On my hockey pool front, despite my aforementioned crappy performance by Ray Emery (thanks, Ray), my team is still in 1st place by 11 points with only 2 weeks to go until the playoffs. A 1st round bye is almost a certainty now (the top two teams in the standings after the regular season get one). Sergei Zubov and Mike Richards are going to be hurt until week 2 of my fantasy playoffs so I really need to get one of the two first round byes. My new guys Ryan Smyth and Teemu Selanne are doing well and Martin Brodeur is the hottest goalie in the NHL.



Until next time, I'll leave you with a rare picture I found of the Leaf team photo from this year...





Go Leafs Go and take the Argos with you.