While Julien make a Rask decision tonight?

Hey Peeps and anyone else checking in. A special "Hey" goes out to Hazel Mae if she is checking in.

There's one thing we are sure of tonight - Hazel's attention will be on the ACC tonight as the Bruins visit Toronto to take on the suddenly, somewhat hot Toronto Maple Leafs; we have to think she'll be watching the game - Hazel Karma for Toronto tonight? Leaf Nation is hoping she's still on our side.

Tonight poses an interesting dilemma for the Bruins in terms of who gets the start in goal tonight. With Tim Thomas out, will Julien go with former Leafs draft pick Tuukka Rask and hope the duplicates his last performance at the ACC? Or does he prevent the Leafs from gaining any psychological advantage they might get in beating Rask and play newly acquired, journeyman goalie Alex Auld? On the flip side, does Paul Maurice stay with Vesa Toskala tonight? Or does he go with former Bruins G Andrew Raycroft?

The statement might seem a bit foolish - but we never underestimate the psychological mind games that go into a divisional game, especially between two teams who might be fighting for one of the final playoff spots come April. If we were betting on it - we'd say Auld gets the start for Boston - no question. Rask has lost a couple of games in a row and he isn't going to put more pressure on him by throwing him in against the team that drafted and traded him - Rask has the upper hand on Toronto right now and Julien keeps it that way. On the Leafs side of things - we'd put a few sheckles on Raycroft starting - Maurice needs to do something to keep Raycroft's head in the game, giving him tonight's game against his former team might inspire a good performance.

Interesting stuff. Speaking of interesting stuff - a quick scan of the Toronto newspapers shows that Leaf haters in the media aren't writing much about the Leafs these days. Noted Leaf hater, and all around smug dickhead Damien Cox (funny connection huh?) wrote an editorial about a couple of John Ferguson's "good moves" - but has stayed away from writing about the team - opting instead to write about Anaheim and Scott Niedermayer's return. Typical of Cox, he's such a donkey.

We'll be back later to post our NFL Picks for the week - we got off to a rough start picking the Bears, but we didn't put much on it.


FRIDAY'S THREE STARS
We didn't check in yesterday - opting to take the day off and letting Quikdraw and Tilt post - any thoughts on the Friday Fox entry? Because of that, we are going back to Friday for today's stars.

Toronto Maple Leafs forward Nik Antropov had a natural hat-trick against the Rangers Thursday night in a 6-2 pasting of the Blueshirts.

Detroit Red Wings LW Henrik Zetterberg also had a hat-trick in a 5-0 beatdown of the Minnesota Wild last night.

St. Louis Blues C Brad Boyes had two goals in a 4-3 win over the Edmonton Oilers last night - who should be more disappointed here? Leaf Nation or Bruins fans...we both had this guy and let him get away.


SATURDAY THREE PLAY
Tough night on Thursday night with the Bears and Sabres both losing (Habs beat the Bruins) so the total is minimal on the negative side for the week. Tonight's suggestions:

Los Angeles over Phoenix - Coyotes played a tough game against the Sharks last night and they'll probably come out a little flat against the Kings. Lay $100 on the Kings - $160.

Anaheim over Nashville - the Ducks won against Chicago last night and we expect them to carry it over tonight in Nashville - the Ducks look like they have their road act together. Lay $100 on the Ducks + $130.

Carolina over Montreal - the Canes have a history of playing Montreal pretty tough and they aren't intimidate playing at the Bell Centre (let's hope these guys didn't party too much as some of Montreal's "Gentlemen's Clubs") - Habs have been pretty bad lately, even though they beat the Bruins. Lay $100 on the Canes +$110.

We might check in later with a few more...for now that's it.

That's all for this morning gang - thanks for taking the time to check in. Have a great one peeps.

Hazel, we hope things are groovy in your world.

We're Out!