Last night, the NHL kicked off the season North American-style, and the game playing on every second channel, naturally, was the Leafs game, as they opened up their season, on the road against the defending Stanley Cup Champions, the Detroit Red Wings.
For weeks, I've been listening to TGOR in the mornings and thoroughly enjoying the way Steve Warne has been making fun of the poor Leafs and their fans. He predicted that they might - MIGHT - be as succesful as the '92-'93 Sens, who won only 10 games that year in their inaugural season. He's forecasted that they will have the worst record ever (first year franchise teams not included). He's literally delighted in talking about how horrible the Leafs will be, and how they will be the laughing stock of the NHL.
I've laughed right along with him, and I was fully expecting the lowly Leafs to be slaughtered by the reigning champs last night.
Things didn't quite go as expected, though. Instead, the Leafs actually looked pretty good in the snippets I saw, and despite Detroit pushing for the comeback win late in the game, the final score was 3-2 in favour of the Leafs.
Yikers.
But you know what? I actually had a little smile on my face when I saw that final score. Probably the first time ever that I smiled at seeing the Leafs win. Because while I've tittered away each morning listening to the guys on the morning show tearing the Blue Team to shreds, part of me has wondered what Buzz would be saying if he were still there.
I miss Buzz each morning on the radio, and while they've finally returned to laughter and light-heartedness on the show, I still feel sad everytime I think of him not being there, especially to defend his beloved Leafs.
But if there's a Heaven - and I belive there is - I'd like to think Buzz was up there last night, getting the last laugh on his old buddies and completely relishing the Leafs' victory. He would've loved gloating this morning on the radio so much.
That being said, Buzz was no fool. He'd be reminding them all about how they'd compared he's Blue Team to that dreadful Senators club from '92-'93, and I can guarantee he'd offer up a rueful smile when they'd remind him in return that those Sens also opened up their season with a win over the Montreal Canadiens, the same team to go on and win the Stanley Cup that spring.Opening night means nothing. I'm thinking it's still gonna be a long year for the Leafs...
Now, enough about the Blue Team...on to Survivor!
They shuffled things up already, after getting each tribe to rank its players in order of importance. Pretty cool to see Marcus rated #1 by his tribe, and I was equally please that Matty was ranked #1 on his tribe. Both very deserving of that position, I believe! Hopefully it doesn't put a target on their backs, though.
The unfortunate part is that the two of them had to pick new tribes, which sucked because I would have loved to see them put together. In any case, I think Marcus ended up pretty fortunate, as he was able to keep his close allies Charlie, Corrine, and Bob with him. The Fang members to join Kota were Dan, Randy, and Susie. Matty, on the other hand, seemed to draw the short end of the stick when he was stuck once again with Crystal, GC, and Kenny, who I have no admiration for whatsoever. He also collected the whiny Kelly from Kota, along with Ace and Jacquie.
Before I go any further, I have to rant on Crystal for a minute. Are they serious when they tell me she's an Olympic gold medallist? Every episode, she boasts for the camera about how she won a gold medal in the 2004 Olyjmpics in the 4 x 400 metre relay. She sure doesn't act like an Olympian in Gabon, though! She complains about challenges, and she certainly didn't give 100% last night in the little water polo/lacrosse Immunity Challenge. As far as I can tell, she's aligned herself in the game with losers by picking GC and Kenny to go all the way with. She's made bonehead move after bonehead move. How she won an Olympic gold medal, I'll never know...
I truly pity Matty for getting stuck with this bunch. I wish he would have tried harder to save Jacquie. It was so obvious that they needed to show Kelly the door last night - her attitude sucks, and I'm still baffled that they kept her over the hard-working, determined, pleasant Jacquie.
Marcus rocked the challenge, doing basically all the work for his tribe by paddling his little boat thingy to the ball each time, fighting to gain possession of it and getting it over to Randy, who just had to toss it in the net with relative ease for their dominant 3-0 win. Marcus gets hotter and hotter every week, but it still kind of gives me the heebie-jeebies that he's so close to Charlie. Especially when Charlie's telling the camera how much he loves - loves - Marcus. Not sure if Marcus realizes how deep that guy's man-crush is!
Even after the shake-up, Fang proved to be one of the stupidest tribes ever, despite Matty's best efforts to keep them on the straight-&-narrow. Looks like things aren't going to get any better next week, as it appears an elephant is going to storm their camp, and GC goes missing...
Blessing in disguise, perhaps?...;)
