Giving thanks on Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, Leafs Nation!

If you want to join me for dinner tonight at the in-laws' abode, do not hesitate to ask. Seriously. I will provide transportation and even let you have the chair that doesn't tip over. Wine, turkey, stuffing, a mashed starch and an unlimited supply of awkward banter – what more could you possibly want?

No, thanks? You already have plans? Fine. Before we go our separate ways, let us bow our heads and give thanks:

1. Now in his 12th season with the Leafs, he's skating like a kid again. He has re-attached the laser-guide to his blade and is making cross-ice, long-distance passes with an accuracy that would startle military commanders. He's quarterbacking the PP with Dion Phaneuf. When 5-on-5 with Luke Schenn, he's enjoying the kind of chemistry you usually find in a buddy cop film. Thank you, Tomas Kaberle, for showing real class as you travel the high road this season.

2. For Colby Armstrong (1982), Tyler Bozak (1986) and Luke Schenn (1989), a big Hogtown thanks to you, Saskatchewan!

3. Since entering the league in 2005, Dion Phaneuf leads all NHL defencemen in goals (77), power-play goals (48), game winning goals (22) and shots (1,237). Thank you, Dion, for this firepower and for your lead-by-example in the room. (But, please, re-record that "Let's get LOUD!" video message they play at the ACC during TV commercial breaks. You sound like someone from tech support.)

4. This makes perfect sense: Colton Orr's favourite movie is Gladiator. Thank you, Colton, for thriving in one of the game's toughest and least appreciated roles: Enforcer. (A pre-Leafs tribute to this blue-and-white gladiator.)

5. Brian Burke once told me Jean-Sebastien Giguere is the hardest working goaltender he's ever known. Thanks to Jiggy and all the Leafs for embracing the words printed in big, bold letters in the dressing room: "THE PRICE OF SUCCESS IS HARD WORK."

6. Yes, we're only two games into the season. But thank you, Clarke MacArthur, for being only one point away from the NHL scoring leader! Come on, man, you can do this!

7. Thank you, Phil Kessel, for suffering from a near pathological obsession with scoring goals. Keep banging your stick on the ice and demanding the puck. Keep roaring up and down the wing like a runaway locomotive. When you are within a snap shot radius of the opposition net, Leaf fans are getting conditioned to do this.

8. I don't know why Mikhail Grabovski's faovurite actor is Leonardo DiCaprio. But thank you, Mikhail, for forechecking, backchecking and setting up plays with Nikolai Kulemin in a way that gives newfound hope to fans who once viewed this franchise as the Titanic.

9. Thank you to Kris Versteeg for the memorable quotes he will undoubtedly supply to reporters this season. It's nice to hear a player reject most of this and say something other than, "We all gave 100 per cent" or "Our backs were up against the wall."

10. Last season, the Leafs lost 177 man games to injury. So touch something wooden before reading this: Thanks to the hockey gods for keeping this team healthy in the weeks and months ahead.

PHOTO: BERNARD WEIL/TORONTO STAR

Comments

[Pyramid Power]

Outstanding post Vinay! Love it. Just touched something wood, our wooden Buddhist statue from our honeymoon in southern China a few years back. May all our players stay healthy this year and prosper as they have so far.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and all global citizens of Leaf Nation from here near Shanghai. Citizens of Leaf Nation in all 193 countries of the world I am sure, hhhmmmm, maybe even North Korea. :) :) And of course to all citizens of Leaf Nation in Canada which undoubtedly comprise well over 80% of hockey fans in the country.

GO LEAFS GO NOW AND FOREVER!

[Pyramid Power]

Islanders leading the Rangers 2-1 late in the first period. Almost 2 a.m. over here, and nothing like watching live hockey at this hour. But oh my poor poor occasionally angry wife!

Nice to see local Toronto lad Steve Eminger doing well with the Rangers so far. My lad back in Canada years back played with him in the Greater Toronto Hockey League. Glad Sather and Tortorella gave this wonderful young man a chance. Ducks gave up on him last year, and I will be forever perplexed about that.

Eminger played with the Toronto Red Wings of the GTHL, and was a first round pick of the Capitals in 1998. Been quite a Samsonite Man since then unfortunately though as in doing his best 'Suitcase Mike' Sillinger impersonation. Hope he has found a home permanently in the Big Apple with another good Toronto lad Michael Del Zotto.

[fazeela.morrison@gmail.com]

GO LEAFS GO !!!!!!

[Pyramid Power]

The James Brown of Hockey, the hardest working man in the hockey biz, Mr. Brian Burke, on Long Island to scout the game between the Isles and Rangers. Isles won 6-4.

Leafs at MSG for the Rangers home opener on Friday night after our next game in Pittsburgh on Wednesday. Going to be two very very tough hockey games, and superb tests for Toronto.

Rangers played well, but let down by some bad refereeing and some poor play by King Henrik today on Columbus Day in the U.S.A. Bad penalty call on Ryan Callahan, and then Eric Staal took an idiotic penalty to create a 5 on 3 man advantage for the Isles late with the Rangers up 4-3. Isles scored twice late with the man advantage, and then got an empty netter to win by two.

Rangers defence can be exploited with our speed, and we will need to play very physical hockey. And keep a cold Gaborik and Frolov in check. Rangers off until next Friday so I pity that team with Tortorella's temper. They'll be bag skating and no puck skating tomorrow morning I imagine.

GO LEAFS GO! Off to bed. Almost 4 a.m. over here.

[Flicks]

Keep Kaberle!

[PJ88]

Seriously, you're a pretty good columnists. Why embarrass yourself with this jocksniffing drivel? Leafs fans are angry and fed-up with a loser franchise. Your sucking up is bordering on ridiculous.

[leaf compost]

Raise ticket prices! Plan the parade! The bandwagon is full!!

[Hoofheartz]

Its rather ironic that the haters can come on here with their juvenile "plan the parade" posts, but any Leaf fan that dares to call them out on it rarely sees their rebuttal in print. Gotta love the touchy/feely new millenium.

[2nd Guess]

Well, I admire Pyramid Power's enthusiasm -- if not his veracity. An Ipsos-Reid poll last November indicated that about 33 per cent nation-wide named the Canadiens as "Canada's team" -- compared to about 25% preferring the Leafs. A similar poll in April, 2008, by Canadian Press & Harris/Decima had 40% favouring Montreal to 24% Toronto.
While it would not be inaccurate to describe Canada as a "Habs Nation," I daresay Canadiens fans prefer to leave such self-validating labels to the unhinged followers of the Leafs, Roughriders, Red Sox and Raiders (the touchy nature of the word "nation" in Quebec politics may well have something to do with it).
And, Mr. Menon, your regular unabashed Leafs love-ins come as a surprise -- nay, a shock -- considering the resolute declaration in this piece written less than 15 months ago: http://www.thestar.com/article/673899--puck-stops-here-for-this-leafs-fan

[Vinay Menon]

@2nd Guess: I linked to that column in my first post here. What can I say? They pulled me back in...

[Pyramid Power]

@2nd Guess I was completely joking about that. I daresay, nay, I was shocked you missed that obvious attempt at humour. But you missed it. Congrats. lol

I should have written 95% just to make it a little clearer for you.

I take no stock in polls whatsoever btw. Political polls yes. Sports polls no. There are far far more Leafs fans in Canada than Habs fans. Look at the turnout at games across the country when the Leafs come rolling into town.