Lord, why do you torture us so ?

It's about the Leafs God, I mean why have you chosen them to be your cosmic chew toy ?
Yeah I know all about the Cubs, the Bengals and the Detroit Lions, but since I don't give a rat's ass about any of those franchises my question, again is :

Lord, why do you torture us so ?

I mean it's not like the organization is evil, at least not since Harold died. You let the freakin' Rangers win a cup since 1967 and that, my friends, is not fair value. Yet year after year you tease us with one "good young defense" and "late season heroic" (generally undone by a good "mid season swoon") after another, only to crush us once again.

I honestly don't know what is worse: the great playoff runs of the '93 & '94 teams, or is it the "go to the conference final and lose to Carolina" ? Or how about your new one "let's write them off and then have them come roaring down the stretch and miss the playoffs".

Seriously don't you have other more pressing issues than mind-fucking the Leafs faithful ? I mean how about spending a bit of time on Global Warming or genocide in Africa as opposed to turning Mats Sundin's hands into concrete.

Last night's game was everything that being a Leaf's fan is about, and that is ........... a disease. The Buds roar out of the gate and absolutely dominate a very good Pittsburgh team, taking a three goal second period lead but giving one back just to make the third period interesting. For some reason with about five minutes on the clock the Leafs' defense decide that leaving Sidney Crosby all alone in front of the net is a good idea ...... and it's 4-3 and nail biting time (actually it was nail biting time at 4-1 but that's just another part of Leaf fan Disease).

But it's cool we weather the storm and have the puck deep in the Pittsburgh end, with the Penguin goalie out, with 30 seconds to go and the chance to ice it ........... BUT NO, rather than flip the puck into the corner or shoot it into the empty net we try a nifty little behind the back pass which is picked off and allows Pittsburgh to race the length of the ice and tie the game with 4 seconds left and force overtime.

But then something strange happened, maybe you were distracted by a plague of locusts or something, but the Leafs actually won the game in OT (but not before you teased us again by having Carlo Colaiacovo ring one off the post).

So the Buds head to New York today with a chance to move into the 8th, and final, playoff spot. Personally I just hang on and try to live my life game by game, I know you're going to screw me over in the end but I'm okay with it. My only hope is that some year you get too busy with some typhoons or a jihad and forget about hockey for a while.

It would be so easy, just run the Parade from the old Gardens to the ACC, and forget to invite Keon so he can have one more reason to be a bitter wee man.