Off-Season Goals: Regular Season Results

Tougher to play against.

That was JFJ and the Leafs' off-season mantra and Leafs management stayed true to their word by acquiring players who were supposed to keep the puck out of the Leafs net.

But once again, the Leafs couldn't hold on to a lead, giving up two goals in the final 6 minutes of the game. Brought back memories of coughed-up third period leads against New Jersey, Calgary and even Montreal the last time 'round.

The most disturbing part of the latest cave-in?

Peca's line, anchored by the guy we spent $2.5M on to make us harder to play against, was on for all four Montreal goals tonight. Gill, who to be fair was targeted to be the 4th or 5th D on this team but is carrying a heavier load due to injuries, was on for 3 of 4 Montreal goals - including the tying marker.

Tougher to play against, indeed.


What a relief when Wellwood notched the winner in the shoot-out. If you listen carefully you can hear at least half of Leafs Nation claiming Welly has always been their choice to be a shoot-out regular and the likely cure to the Leafs shoot-out woes...

This is not a rivalry - it's a crime scene

I've written before about why the Leafs-Sens rivalry should just be left for dead. The fading flames of this alleged conflict are nothing more than media heat and noise.

Yes, Sens fans may love to beat the Leafs, but they'll need to get in line if they think there's anything unique about despising the Leafs, Leaf fans or even the city of Toronto. (I've lived in Ottawa and if you're going to pick a place to hate-on, the frozen city that fun forgot is a darn fine place to start.)

At the rate this "rivalry" is going I'm thinking the Leafs should adopt Washington Generals jerseys as a special look for games against the Sens (although judging by the number of people in pink leafs cowboy hats and assorted paraphernalia at the ACC during the Rangers game, those 4th jerseys would likely sell pretty well).



The Leafs are already down in this year's season series 3-1, haven't been close in their three losses and have been outscored 17 to 9 (that total is as of 2:55 of the third period, it could be 20-9 by the time I get this posted).

Last year, the Leafs went 1-7 against the Sens and were outscored 41-19.

There's a reason the papers and airwaves of full of blather about Kilger's spear, McGratton's antics and the Tucker-Eaves match-up (The Hesitant Yob vs. Sideshow Bob) - it's because the game on the ice is so unbalanced it's the least engaging and least interesting thing between these two clubs.

I'll save my energy for Saturday night and the Habs. At least there's a team the Leafs might be able to compete against in a city that actually matters.

--------
This isn't a knock against Spezza or Corvo (especially not Corvo, I've got him in my pool and am damn happy with his four helpers tonight) but on that sixth Ottawa goal how on earth can anyone be awarded an assist? Spezza blasts a shot into McCabe's shins, the puck bounces at least six feet away and hits Heatley in the chest. Heatley swats at the puck with his arm, it hits the ice and then he buries the shot. Two players get assists for that? Absurd.

--------
Is there a goalie equivalent to the Mendoza line? With tonight's loss Raycroft's stats are looking more Boston-bust than Rookie of the year. I'm no mathematician but giving up 23 goals in the last five games puts his GAA up to about 3.2 and his save percentage down to about .892

Positively Belfour-esque.
--------

Wonder if the Leafs three game losing skid will put an end to the ridiculous notion that JFJ should get an extension to his existing deal. With Kubina on the IR, Raycroft coughing up a five-spot with each start, and the Leafs specialty teams struggling there's not a whole lot of good news for Jr. Nor is there a lot to show for the mountains of cash and long-term commitments he gave out this off-season. Speaking of off-season moves, anyone else think McCabe has misinterpreted his non-movement clause thinking it refers to his on-ice activities.

NBA adds the plus minus

With all the talk about how NHL GMs could be doing a better job tracking and applying interesting stats (see here, here, here and here) I thought it was interesting to see that the NBA has decided to adopt the NHL's plus minus system for their upcoming season.

Now if only the NHL would adopt the NBA's standard for accrediting assists...

In the Reds

I don't normally do the game notes/blog thing but I got a call around 5PM tonight from a friend asking if I was interested in going to the Leaf game, like he had to ask.

Here are some notes from the ACC:

When Andy Frost announced the game’s scratches, Antropov’s name got a big cheer.

The music selection at the ACC is worse than you might think. I don’t know that Cotton Eyed Joe made an appearance, but the majority of the music played was recorded before the births of Steen, Stajan and Ponikarovsky. I didn’t know that people still listened to Quiet Riot…I bet the guy next to me we’d hear Twisted Sister before the night was over. I lost. But it seemed like a safe bet at the time.

Both teams came out sluggish. The Leafs didn’t get their first shot on goal until the 13th minute mark and that was off a dump in.

Ponikarovsky’s goal was a thing of beauty. Too bad he couldn’t repeat in the shoot-out.

The Leafs looked absolutely dreadful in the second period. They were totally contained for whole shifts at a time, unable to contain the Rangers low-cycle and unable to clear the zone. The Rangers very successfully dumped the puck into the Leafs right corner and then flooded the right wing wall. The Leafs coughed up the puck time after time after time. It was ugly.

Raycroft did not look sharp. Pucks were bouncing off him like superballs dropped from the top of the CN Tower. He was fighting the puck all night and if it weren’t for a few lucky bounces the Rangers could have buried the Leafs in the second, especially as Raycroft struggled to contain the puck and limit second chances.

Stajan can dangle. Made a great move up the middle in the 3rd. Who knew?

Maurice did his best to pair Belak with Kaberle, but the Rangers did a great job of isolating Belak and working the puck into his corner whenever big #3 took to the ice.

Brendan Bell did not look out of place - had a really nice solo rush in the third that he nearly converted.

The Leafs seemed reticent to shoot the puck tonight and were guilty of over-passing on a few occasions. I’m amazed they managed 38 shots on Lundqvist. It’s either a friendly finger keeping count or the Leafs should have had 50.

PruchaTyutin crushed Tucker. Tucker crushed Jagr. Nice stuff.

Whenever Raycroft left the crease to play the puck, a woman in my section would make a noise like she was going into labour (either that or she secretly using the call of the dying giraffe). Thank you miss, whoever you are, for giving voice to the anxiety that I thought was mine alone.

Marcel Hossa really low-bridged Poniarovsky with a very dangerous looking hit in the neutral zone. If Quinn was still coach (or if Lindy Ruff were behind the bench) this would be the lead news item until at least Tuesday.

The Leafs looked better as the game went on, dominating most of the third. With the exception of one shift in OT, the Rangers looked as though they were just waiting for the shoot-out.

The guy sitting behind me very loudly predicted what each player would do as they came in on the shoot-out. He fared a little worse than the leafs going 0 for six on his predictions. My favourite: his call that Shanahan would go “High cheese over the glove” on Raycroft. High cheese indeed.

I’ve never enjoyed the shoot-out on TV and I hate to admit it was a pretty thrilling thing to see live. That said, I still think it’s a lousy way to decide a game.

Sending the Wrong Message

So the team and MLSE went in on a gift for Sundin and it wasn't the fu man chu I was hoping for.

The stick, puck and game sheet are a nice touch, but a golf trip? Is it just me, or does anyone else see the irony in this?

Isn't giving a golf trip to the captain of a hockey team with playoff aspirations like giving Rick Tocchet and Janet Gretzky a trip to their choice of Atlantic City or Vegas? Or Kevin Stevens a pile of cash and the keys to a Travelodge motel thanking Derek Jeter for his MVP season by renting him a luxury box so he can watch the world series?

Maybe that's the real challenge facing this club (and it certainly showed against the Avalanche) they'd rather be golfing.

Sundin to be Honoured for 500

The Leafs are all set to honour Sundin for his 500 goals before the puck drops against Colorado tonight.

I don't know about the rest of Leafs Nation, but I can't wait to see what MLSE is going to give the big Swede. Some early possibilities:

A lovely silver tea service a la Sittler's 10 points.

An ugly oil painting.

A Silver Stick.

A shiny new pick-up truck.

A set of these and some of these so he can get some of the love that's reserved for a few others.

We'll find out tonight...

FWIW, I think a blonde fu man chu would be a great choice

The Captain

Read about it here, here, here, here, here and here.

First player to score 500 while wearing the Blue and White.

Tied for second all-time Leaf goals at 365 he's also fourth in all-team Leaf assists.

Tied for 34th for all-time goals scored in the NHL.

Most overtime goals in NHL history.

Nine-time all-star.

Olympic Gold medal winner.

If he was born in Railton, Flin Flon or Lloydminster they'd be putting up a statue.

Rivalries

I'm glad the Leafs won G2 in Ottawa and not for the simple reason that I'm a leaf fan - the reason I'm glad the Leafs won goes a little deeper than that.

You see, I don't think the Leafs and Sens have much of a rivalry - despite what the media files to sell industrial fasteners.

With all this talk of the Leafs Sens "rivalry" and with the Habs coming to town on Saturday night, my brain served up an age old quote from Ken Dryden's seminal book The Game.

Over 28 pages in the middle of the book, Dryden beautifully describes a road trip to Toronto to play the Leafs near the end of the 1979 season.

He concludes:

There is no Leafs-Canadiens rivalry. It's dead: the Leafs killed it.

I remember being shocked as a 12 year old hockey nut when I read it and I’ve never forgotten those two simple sentences.

Not to put words in his mouth (he certainly has enough of his own) Dryden’s take on rivalry is that you need to have legitimate competition between rivals or else it dies.

The rise and fall of the Leafs in the late 70s is well known: management's failure to find adequate support for the promising core of Palmateer, Salming, MacDonald and Sittler; their inability to draft and develop talent coupled with a bad string of short-sighted trades, led to the decline of what could have been a very good team.

This decline in the Leafs came at a time when the Habs were losing about 12 games a season and racking up Cup after Cup. To Dryden’s point: not much competition in that – not much of a rivalry.

It’s not much different from the Leafs and Sens (not to say the Sens are anywhere near the level of that Habs dynasty, despite what Muckler might want us to believe). The Leafs may own the Sens in the post-season, but they’ve had their asses handed to them by the Sens in the regular season for years. Having your club go 1-7 in the regular season makes it hard to get up for a mid-February match against the skaters from the 613.

But never mind the media or my yapping, what about the perspective of Leafs Nation?

Offer a Leaf fan a choice of any games to attend at the ACC and hands down the Habs would be number one. Leafs tickets are hard enough to come by at the best of times, but just try to get a ticket to a Saturday night Habs match-up in this town.

I'd wager the Wings come in at #2 – partly because of the history between these two clubs and partly because they play so few games against each other these days. The third ticket goes to the Flyers. The fourth ticket? I think the average fan is going to chose to see Crosby or Ovechkin. That puts the Sens no higher than 5th on the hit list and they might just be neck and neck with the Sabres.

Think about that for a minute. Our great rival is a fifth or sixth choice ticket? This is what great rivalries are made of? Would a Red Sox fan pick four teams ahead of a chance to see the Yankees? Oilers and Flames fans pass each other by? I don’t think so…

Then there’s the history or rather, the lack of it.

The Habs and Leafs have been going at it for more than 75 years, never mind the whole French Canada/ English Canada divide.

The Leafs and Wings have been throwing elbows and lighting the lamp longer than Kanata's had paved roads.

The Leafs and Flyers had the crazy battles of the 70s and the Flyers have pulled the plug on the Leafs last few post-season plans.

The Sens have been around for what, 14 years? For the first five of those the Leafs were facing off against guys like Sylvain Turgeon, Peter Sidorkiweicz and Randy Cunneyworth. Throw in a year of labour stoppage, a year of role reversal with Jason Alison cast as your choice of Laurie Boschman, Gary Dineen or Dave Archibald and you've got maybe seven years of competitive hockey between these two clubs. Maybe.

Sorry, it's just not enough.

What about geography? Please. Ottawa as a town isn't even on the average Torontonian's radar. The Town-That-Fun-Forgot is further away than both Buffalo and Detroit and is only about 80 clicks closer than Montreal. To give it a bit more perspective Pittsburgh is just a shade further away than Ottawa. Steel-Town is likely a lot more fun too.

So we share the same Premier, big deal.

Reciprocity? Might be nice if both sides got as worked up about this. Ottawa fans may froth at the mouth over Toronto, but it's a one-way gig and it will likely be lessened now that the cap has eliminated the Leafs economic advantage.

Sure, the Leafs may have knocked the Sens out of the post-season 4 times, but Buffalo has now delivered the death blow three times, so it's not like the Leafs are unique in this regard.

One team has dominated the regular season series and the other the post-season match-ups. There’s not much fun in that.

A chance that these two-teams might actually give each other a run for the money? Now, that’s got some potential…

Opening Night

I’m not going to offer up a blow by blow of the game or a recap. It's likely that most of Leafs nation tuned in and saw it for themselves. Let’s face it, small forests have been decimated and towns from Espanola to Kamploops are basking in that lovely smell of eggs-gone-bad in order to provide way too much coverage of what was ostensibly a pretty boring game.

Herewith, some initial thoughts on the game and the mindless chattering folks that covered it:

Has anyone thought about testing the broadcasters' urine? Someone needs to tell these guys that they don't need to yammer on and on like a certain drummer I know.

During one of the interstitials, Glen Healy said Lindros will score 32 goals for Dallas. Last time Big E played 81 games he notched 19 goals. Ok, I’m being a bit disingenuous here. Lindros potted 37 for the 2000-2001 Rangers. That same year, Healy went 4-7-3 for the Leafs (with a scintillating .885 save percentage). I’ll put it this way: Lindros has about the same odds of potting 32 for Dallas as Healy does in winning 4 games this year for an NHL club.

When will TSN recognize their error in signing Domi and will the buy-out have to be spread over 2 years?

Almost every Leaf breakout seemed to go up the left side - are the Leafs stronger up their left side, are the Sens weaker on their right side or is that just the easiest way for a leaf dman to blindly throw the puck around and minimize the odds of a horrible turnover?

Did McCabe hold-out? Did he miss pre-season? He does know that the regular season has started right?

Over under on the fans and media turning on Hal Gill (a la Larry Murphy)? I'd say Game 3 and take the under.

How many times am I going to hear "who's going to score on this team?" before I start clenching my jaw and talking back to the little voices in my head. I get it. We all get it. Is there any one on the planet with a remote interest in hockey that hasn’t heard this trope? Can we somehow form a goon squad to make announcers and analysts put a loonie in a jar every time they offer this up? We could raise the GDP of a small country for a worthwhile cause by the 10 game mark. Let's figure out how to make this happen.

Gerber looked solid, but then again it's the regular season. Other than that third goal, Raycroft was competent too - outstanding on the multiple breakaways.

Cognitive dissonance re-defined: the non-call on Chris Neil’s flying elbow on Jeff O’Neill. As a Leafs fan I wanted to see off-setting penalties. As a Leafs fan it’s a blow I imagine many of us have wanted to deliver.

Finalizing the Roster (with special thanks to the IR)

I've been having some weird dreams lately.

The other night I dreamt I had to go back to re-do the final year of my undergraduate degree. I arrived at school and was notified I had to move back into residence too. My room had horrific ancient purple demask wall paper that was easliy 100 years old and the ceiling that had more holes than Ed Belfour in 2005. There was rain water coming in everywhere. Strangest part was that everyone else thought this was perfectly normal. No one could understand why I was so perplexed.

Last night I had another strange dream. The Leafs were about to start the season against Ottawa and an alphabetical listing of their first five skaters went Battaglia, Belak, Gill, Kilger, O'Neill...

Forwards
1. Battaglia, Bates
2. Belak, Wade
3. Kilger, Chad
4. O’Neill, Jeff
5. Peca, Michael
6. Pohl, John
7. Ponikarovsky, Alexi
8. Stajan, Matt
9. Steen, Alex
10. Suglobov, Alexander
11. Sundin, Mats
12. Tucker, Darcy
13. Wellwood, Kyle

Defence
14. Gill, Hal
15. Harrison, Jay
16. Kaberle, Tomas
17. Kubina, Pavel
18. McCabe, Bryan
19. White, Ian
20. Wozniewski, Andy

Goalies
21. Aubin, Jean-Sebastien
22. Raycroft, Andrew
23. Tellqvist, Mikael

Injury Reserve
Ondrus, Ben (F)
Antropov, Nik (F)
Bell, Brendan (D)
Colaiacovo, Carlo (D)
Kronwall, Stefan (D)

Yikes. This is going to be a long season

Finalizing the Roster **Updated 9:30 PM**

The Leafs waived defenceman Brad Brown today and shifted Nik Antropov to the IR.

The club has until 3PM Tuesday afternoon to finalize their opening night roster.

No cuts have been formally announced by the club in about a week, but this is who's left according to the scraps I've found from various transaction wires, tea leaves and old newspapers...by my math they have one man left to cut...

Forwards
1. Battaglia, Bates
2. Belak, Wade
3. Kilger, Chad
4. O’Neill, Jeff
5. Peca, Michael
6. Pohl, John
7. Ponikarovsky, Alexi
8. Stajan, Matt
9. Steen, Alex
10. Suglobov, Alexander
11. Sundin, Mats
12. Tucker, Darcy
13. Wellwood, Kyle

Defence
14. Gill, Hal
15. Harrison, Jay
16. Kaberle, Tomas
17. Kubina, Pavel
18. McCabe, Bryan
19. Moro, Marc
20. White, Ian
21. Wozniewski, Andy

Goalies
22. Aubin, Jean-Sebastien
23. Raycroft, Andrew
24. Tellqvist, Mikael

Injury Reserve
Ondrus, Ben (F)
Antropov, Nik (F)
Bell, Brendan (D)
Colaiacovo, Carlo (D)
Kronwall, Stefan (D)