John Tavares ties the most goals ever by a player in the World Juniors with 12 but managed to do so in 1 less game than Jeff Carter, and 13 less games than Eric Lindros, and the tournament isn’t even completed; although, after that performance, it really felt like the Gold medal game. It’s hard to top that one.
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Jiri Tlusty will return to the Leafs’ line-up for Thursday night’s game against Buffalo to fill the void left by an injured Jeremy Williams. The timeline on Williams’ shoulder injury isn’t yet known. Meanwhile, Luke Schenn has returned to full contact practising and appears to be less than a week away from returning to action. +Continue Reading
ANTON STRALMAN (# 36)
Player Facts:
Birthdate: August 1st, 1986
(for all you stargazers out there, that makes him a Leo).
Hometown: Tibro, Sweden
Firstly, an interesting item of news – the Vancouver Canucks have acquired goaltender Jason LeBarbera from the LA Kings in exchange for a 7th round pick. Update: Hat-tip to Sarah, who points out that Curtis Sanford has been placed on the IR alongside Roberto Luongo, necessitating the deal for another ‘tender.
ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun is reporting that Brian Burke has been kicking the tires on a more adequate back-up for Vesa Toskala than Leafs’ current incumbent, the antiquated Curtis Joseph. What was initially tabbed as win-win move has proved to be a misstep engendered by nostalgia. The mandate wasn’t overly demanding for Joseph as the logic was that Vesa Toskala, coming off an impressive first year as a full-fledged starter, would only require relief for 15 games on the season. This hasn’t worked out for two reasons – Curtis Joseph has not proven adequate enough to play at a passable level for 15 games on the season (4.12 GAA, 0.843 SV%) and Toskala hasn’t by any stretch of the imagination been the unquestioned starter he was last season. +Continue Reading
A list of why team Canada is so spectacular this year.
Canada is ready to face-off against their second opponent in the World Juniors round robin, team Kazakhstan. Della Rovere, arguably Canada’s grittiest player on the roster, suffered a slight leg injury after blocking a shot against the Czech Republic Friday night, but will play regardless. Shows a lot of heart.
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Ron Wilson will stick with the struggling Vesa Toskala as his slumping Maple Leafs, fresh off two consecutive losses by a collective score of 12-3, look to get off the schneid against Alex Ovechkin’s red-hot Washington Capitals.
The Leafs goaltending issues at the NHL level have opened the door for some of their young goaltending prospects to strut their stuff and show everyone what they can do.
With Toskala resting a “sore groin” (that’s probably code for .881 save percentage) and Joseph looking like he should have retired, we saw the much talked about Justin Pogge get his first NHL win on Monday night against Atlanta.
I couldn’t catch the game tonight (count me among the lucky ones), but the stats tell the story — outhit 28-7 and outscored 4-1 by the worst team in the league. 4 goals conceded on 27 shots. The Leafs again prove to be the tonic to a struggling team’s woes, in this case a team that hadn’t won yet in the month of December. A real Leafs’ goaltending controversy is brewing. It’s time for Ron Wilson to give Justin Pogge another shot and hope he continues to shine in the spotlight so that Brian Burke can ship out Vesa Toskala before his value is non-existent, which it probably isn’t far off from already. Toskala’s recorded a putrid .882 save percentage so far this season and allowed 12 goals on his last 54 shots. Additionally, he seems to downplay his numerous blemishes with “just one of those nights,” and “some times those things happen” rationalizations. Still love him, Wilson? I know, Toskala has somewhat unfairly become the whipping boy after some pretty lame efforts from the Leafs as a whole, but you only have to look as far as a team like Ottawa to see how deflating anemic goaltending can be to a team. I don’t think Burke will wait long before addressing what has developed into a serious problem in the short-term and possibly the long-term, depending on how Pogge responds to [hopefully] further testing in the coming days. The trade freeze has been lifted as of a few hours ago and certainly a sense of impending change is in the air.
I’ll turn it over to you guys.
