Archive for September, 2008
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Lot of mystery and speculation regarding the status of one Dmitri Vorobiev of Lada. Leafs 5th round pick back in ’04 has really come into his own as one of the top young D-men in Europe. Leading your team in scoring at age 21 in the RSL, as a supposed “physical, defensive defenseman” is not an easy thing to do. Add in some very nice size at 6’2 216 (almost a Schenn clone), along with a devastating and somewhat crazy mean streak reminiscent of Danny Markov, and you’ve got yourself a pretty intriguing prospect. +Continue Reading
A few notes on the Leafs recent demotions, Wednesday’s roster tidbits and a quick review of Monday night’s affair with the Blues.
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Tons of hype and mostly disappointing results.
On the surface, it would seem like Boston product Jimmy Hayes and the Toronto Maple Leafs were a match made in heaven. +Continue Reading
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(Eric Engels has a lot of fun with this at Hockeybuzz, so let’s bring it down to the Hot Stove minus the lowly Habs of course)
The season is approaching and preseason hockey continues to serve as an indicator for what is to come from the many new faces that comprise the ’08-09 Leafs.
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Coughing up the lead late two games in a row is obviously a bit disconcerting considering the history of this team in that respect. But this pre-season is about shaking lingering habits from the former era and, as PPP points out, this is the perfect opportunity for Ron Wilson to kick some of these tendencies. That’s not to mention the fact that tonight’s collapse was largely the result of some rookie mistakes on the part of John Mitchell and Justin Pogge, who played great games otherwise. +Continue Reading
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It’s time to take a closer look at the Maple Leafs roster for the upcoming season. As much as some of the younger players have performed well this pre-season, there seems to be too many one way contracts with a death grip on much of the opening night roster.
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A momentum swing in Wednesday’s 3-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins can be largely attributed to a couple of in-game changes orchestrated by bench-boss Ron Wilson.
The starting first line of Mikhail Grabovski, Nik Antropov and Alexei Ponikarovsky proved ineffectual in the first frame and rookie Nik Kulemin wasn’t clicking with line-mates Nik Hagman and Alex Steen. The team failed to generate anything in the way of offense until late in the third, when Wilson’s ad hoc lines began to fire, mounting a near come-back with two goals in quick succession. +Continue Reading
My post-game notes from tonight’s 3-2 loss inside Mellon Arena:
-Some promising individual performances, but the chemistry amongst many of the lines was lacking.
-All three goals were avoidable. If Anton Stralman and Josef Boumedienne were facing up ice when playing the cross-crease passes there wouldn’t have been an issue. It just seemed to be a freak incident when Stralman lost his footing on the third marker and Kaberle’s jumping of the gun in heading up ice gave the Pens a 2 on 0 situation. +Continue Reading
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Dale Mitchell was picked in the 3rd round of the 2007 NHL Entry Draft, 74th overall. At the time of the selection, Mitchell garnered plenty of interest and pressure from the fans and media as the Leafs’ first pick that year. They had traded away their 1st and 2nd round picks to San Jose as part of the Vesa Toskala trade earlier that day. A little over a year later, Mitchell has quickly been forgotten, partly from a disappointing OHL season, and partly from the emergence of his fellow draftmate Chris Didomenico, selected in the 6th round. +Continue Reading
From Micheal Aldred…
The Toronto Maple Leafs will be watching Luke Schenn with intensity tonight as the rookie is ready to show the world what he can do against arguably the best in the world in Evgeni Malkin. Not far behind him will goalie Justin Pogge be looking to do the same thing. Tonight, however, there will be a stronger cast on the ice for the buds.
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