Leafs strategy: Send Orr after goalie

Yes, this was a legal goal that held up to be the winner in the Toronto/Florida game, allowing the Leafs to snap their 3-game losing skid and get back on track to finishing the year 5-76-1. That would be Colton Orr blatantly running over Scott Clemmensen.

Clemmensen argued with the officials to no avail; he said he was told that because he was out of the crease, he wasn't interfered with.

The Panthers saw things just a touch differently.

“It's obvious I don't know what goalie interference is,'' coach Pete DeBoer said. “I don't know what hitting from behind is, I don't know what interference is. I need to call the league and get myself a tutorial on what those penalties are because, if those aren't hits from behind in the first period on Kulikov and then goalie interference in the third period, then I obviously don't understand the description of the rules. I don't make that call.''

Said captain Bryan McCabe: “We all saw it was interference. Refs make mistakes once in a while and they missed the call. Obviously it's a game changer. It was a 1-1 game, probably going to overtime. They missed a call, blatant interference. Clemmer had no chance to stop that puck. What are you going to do."

On Frozen Pond: [Miami Herald]

-Calgary beat Edmonton in a shootout, but also prove that the three-goal lead is the most dangerous lead in hockey. Flames 5, Oilers 4

-I'm taking a class in apocalyptic literature. One of the scenarios dealt with what state the world would be in should Alex Kovalev, Sergei Gonchar and Chris Kelly are named 'Sens Heroes' by The Silver Seven blog.

In-depth plus/minus statistic plug: Kovalev scored two even strength goals tonight. Those are the only times he has been on the ice for an even strength goal for this year.

-NBA season started last night, with, hey, a couple of Canucks in action. Montreal's Joel Anthony is one of the two Miami Heat starters who won't get booed whenever they set foot on a road court. He had seven rebounds and went 1-1 from the field last night for two points. Miami looked like shit and lost 88-80 to Boston.

Steve Nash, meanwhile, had a game-high 26 points in a 106-92 losing cause, just a few days after predicting his team would miss the playoffs. He's probably right.

-The best part of NBA season being back is it means another season of The Score's The Basketball Jones hosted by JE Skeets and Tas Melas. Trey Kirby is keeping a written blog at The Score.

-Finally, I had the first pick in MUBL, the CIS blog's CIS Men's Basketball Fantasy League. I took Jacob Doerksen of Trinity Western University, plus an ineligible player from UQAM. Whoops.