1) Bogo came to the defense of Kane. And he proceeded to beat the guy silly. That says something about your team. We are not going to pushed around and that is what the Leafs try to do.
2) You dont want people taking shots at Kane or abusing him. And the Leafs were over the last two games we were playing them. They took cheap shots at him and were constantly after him. You cant have that EVER. Kane despite what you want to think is a super star. He really is.
3) Ive played alot of hockey in my life, when things like that happen as a coach, when you see that happen you know your guys are gelling. You want to see things like that. That to me shows that this group is buying in whole hog to Noel and is playing as a team and understands what it takes to win in this league.
I dont care the Leafs came back, its the way we responded throughout the game at key points is what impressed me. Last year we would have gotten pushed around badly in this game. We would have played on the outside and gave up the inside of the rink and shied away from contact. Not this year, not this team. We beat up the big bad leafs, we did it in their barn and it we did it our way. Thats awesome.
Shane Hnidy was on the radio this afternoon pretty much backing this. He was using words like family and chemistry to describe Bogo's fight. He's a guy who has been there done that and was known to drop them once in awhile.