Embarassments All Around.

Did someone tell my teams that last night wasn't going to count, or something? Not only were there losses, but there were bad losses, and ones that we definitely shouldn't have seen. So let's see.

• Toronto/Boston:

Mats Sundin made an early comeback--nineteen days on an injury that was supposed to take three to four weeks. That should have put his team at a nice advantage, considering his record thus far, the fact that they also had Raycroft back to face his former team, and the current standings that put Toronto eight points above Boston.

So why did this team that's been surprising everyone this year, decide that suddenly it was okay to give a little shoutout to where they were last year? There wasn't even any one particular bad aspect, they just looked tired and slow and wholly unremarkable. That entire third period up until Sundin--who had said before the game that he'd been put on the fourth line for the night and wasn't expected to get all that much ice time (his guess was ten or so minutes) ended up playing eighteen minutes, presumably as the coaches were hoping that by keeping him on the ice longer, he'd be able to make something happen--the Leafs still couldn't manage to get the puck out of their own zone. I lost track of how many times just in that period they got it just out of the neutral zone only to have the Bruins defense (speaking of, Chara played an amazing game) knock it back again. Come on guys, seriously. The good news is they didn't lose by too much--and they didn't embarrass themselves to anyone except those of us who were watching the lackluster performance. They even tried to redeem themselves there at the end with a little rally after Sundin put one in the net for them, but it was no use once Brad Boyes scored that last goal.

Finally, I want to know where Darcy Tucker was, after we've all been praising him for his breakout season thus far. At least he gave us that first period fight to spice things up a bit.

• Detroit/Nashville

Admittedly I missed a good chunk of this game because I was still watching Toronto when it started, and there was a Pistons game going on during it too--I was home for the weekend and thus unfortunately had to share the stupid-huge flatscreen with the other sports fans in the house. What I saw of the first period looked good though. We had Joey MacDonald in net, sure, and that was a dumb decision (You know, I give them credit for sticking by not playing Hasek two nights in a row, but could Babcock have been any stupider than to start him against St. Louis? It didn't even do any good.), but he held up and only let one in, which we matched. Cue me being lulled into a false sense of security and allowing my television to be defiled with squeaky tennis shoes against shiny floors for a half hour or so (the awful puke-mustard yellow Nashville third jersey's may have also played a roll in this).

Imagine my surprise when I flipped stations back to the game only to see the score as 5-1--just as they scored the 6th. Immediately I pulled up my faithful fantasy league stat tracker and cried over it for a few minutes as I confirmed the travesty. And the rest of the game continued on in a similar vein.

The question is, how. Nashville's probably hit hardest in the whole league with injuries right now--they didn't even have Vokoun for god's sake. And this is the sort of game we should be playing to the best of our ability--this is our division rival, after all, and not only that but the only team that could even challenge us for top of the division at all. And yet no one was doing anything with the puck. After the first period was over, the Wings decided playing hockey was overrated. We didn't even have a decent enough defense to blame MacDonald's being a rookie for the resulting six goals. And it wouldn't have mattered if it had been his fault anyway because it's not like Babcock was about to pull him--we all know perfectly well that when Dom's not starting, he's going to sit there on the bench all game no matter what sort of disaster strikes. As for offense...was there any? Someone let me know when Pavel Datsyuk remembers this is his contract year and as of right this second things are not looking all that great for him. Once again it was the younger lines that showed the most promise--or maybe I'm just a little biased toward Jiri Hudler right now.

• Those Other Games

All I have to say about San Jose/New Jersey is that three losses in a row for Martin Brodeur is not in line with keeping me a happy hockey fan. Especially when that puts me down five in my league this week. Let's try to redeem ourselves tomorrow against LA, eh?

And then of course, the obligatory WTF at Montreal--they beat Buffalo on Friday night and lose to Philly on Saturday? I don't understand it either.

And now for something completely different....

It's not like anyone takes the Bluejackets seriously. But I for one didn't realize they lacked the dignity that would normally prevent something like, oh, say, a hockey team, from recording something like, oh, y'know, a Christmas CD. I kid you not.

Lest you not take my word for it, however, here's a sneak preview of the boys with their own rendition of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer complete with "clever" lyric adaptations such as "call him names like a Red Wing" and "go down in history like the 06/07 Columbus Bluejackets." Anyone willing to argue the point that they do, in fact, have any right to make either of those statements is invited to comment.