It wasn’t a game where the ‘best team’ won. It was more of the luckiest team won or maybe the most motivated team won or maybe the most desparate team won. FLORIDA, 5 , LEAFS 4.
The Ballard curse still cannot be rejected or ignored. Remember the curse concludes that the Leafs will lose ultimately. This could happen. If the Leafs lose, then it is happening. It should not happen because the Leafs may be up against a physically larger team. They may be competing with a more motivated team, desparate to repeat their Stanley Cup win of last year. Will they?
Lady Luck sat with the Panthers more last night than with the LEAFS. She switchED sides a number of times. The Verhaege goal that was tipped in by Reilly into the LEAF net…that wasn’t skill, that was abandonment by Lady Luck. The tying goal by the LEAFS, 4-4, was Lady Luck sitting with the LEAFS again. The puck deflected off the glove of a Panther passing goalie Boprovsky.
Lady Luck may have sat out the OVERTIME as the winning goal by Marchand was the result of blood, sweat and tears, effort not luck. The Panthers earned the win.
The final two periods, period 3 and the overtime belonged to the Panthers, not clearly, not completely but for the most part. They took a leaf from the LEAF’s playbook, playing together, playing as a team, partnering with teammates to develop consolidated play. Teamplay ends in results. The LEAFS have confirmed and proven that repeatedly. Their lapses in team unified play leads to losses.
Bottom line…impossible to predict because Lady Luck’s vascillation and Ballard’s lingering curse affect the result. As I see it, LEAFS will lose the next game because Florida is still on home ice. The next game, distilling the series into a new one of 3 games. LEAFS will be home twice in the last three games and there’s the rub. If home ice is potentially advantageous, the LEAFS win in 7. But Lady Luck and the Ballard curse cannot be ignored. Will they be at the game affecting the outcome? No way of predicting this one.
My heart will go one….LEAFS, LEAFS, LEAFS !!!
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