the Burke era begins!

A nice job was done by Toronto last night as they handily defeated the Flyers 4-2 at the ACC, to win the first game of the Brian Burke era and snap a six-game winless streak (including that ugly loss to Atlanta, which I declined to write about). This was easily one of the best efforts of the season thus far by the Buds as they looked strong throughout the game. Toskala was excellent (in fact, at times, completely magnificent) in the victory, robbing the Flyers a number of times, including an incredibly save at the side of the net on a Philly powerplay that had my mouth dropping open (sorry 'bout that Simon Gagne!). The Leafs handed the Flyers their first loss in regulation time in three weeks.

A bone to pick: though he scored a lovely goal from the point with that rocket shot of his near the end of the game, the Kubina error that led to the first Philadelphia goal was, in a word, pathetic. He took a lame-duck swipe at it and then got completely outskated, which led to a goal that never should have happened. That was pure laziness and one of the ugliest plays I've seen from a Leafs player this year. Pick it up Pavel!