Post-Game: Leafs/Panthers – Florida (?!) on Fire

A March meeting with a solid team in the playoff chase (yes, that’s actually Florida I’m talking about here) went pretty much as expected.  Signs of life from the Maple Leafs were quickly overwhelmed by the desperation and talent (surprise! again!) of this Panthers squad.  Sadly, this tussle lacked the fan factor that made Tuesday night’s game in Tampa a joy to watch.

Here are some notes from this Thursday night tilt:

-Ok, honestly, what the hell Florida? Your arena is half full, half again of which are fans of the road team.  One of your exceptionally brilliant fans feels that this hockey game is a suitable place to go crazy with their new car horn toy in what had to be one of the most annoying broadcasts in recent memory with respect to the auditory aspects.  It is safe to say that the incessant bleating-which prompted a zombielike uttering of “Let’s Go Panthers…” from the two people in attendance that weren’t asleep-got on all our nerves.  Couple that with the classy “meow-growl” that plays whenever a goal is scored…and I know I’m not the only one that was tempted to just watch this one muted.  Millen and Bowen giggling about the new group Crackberry didn’t help.

-Doug MacLean was spot on when he said Martin Gerber is not an ideal number one goalie. He was great tonight. Gerber was under siege for many portions of tonight’s matchup, but there are still a few too many glaring flaws in his game.  He has the talent to make great saves, and would do well under strong defensive teams (read: reason why he failed in Ottawa), but can hardly be relied on to steal too many for your squad.  That being said, he is definitely an efficient stopgap measure and by all accounts is a stand-up guy that will hopefully continue his strong career next season…elsewhere.

-Blake’s line had a good game in the offensive zone tonight.  This included Lee Stempniak, a topic of discussion in recent days here at MLHS with regards to his future with Toronto.  My thoughts on the matter are simple: we have the kid for another year, with roster and cap space to spare.  Give him free reign and see if he can do what he’s supposed to.  On that note, another player in the exact same category, Mikhail Grabovski, also had another great night.

-Following this theme of the future of some of our current roster players, where do we see Matt Stajan fitting in on Brian Burke’s team?  Leaf fans have often slotted him into the second or third line center spot.  However, Burke has made it clear that his top six are to be rife with slick talent.  We can all agree that Stajan has his strengths on the PK and on draws, but in terms of talent is borderline with respect to what Burke is looking for.  On the flipside, his bottom six are going to be characterized by grit, size, and belligerence.  Once again, I think we can all agree that Matt falls right on the edge of this characterization. It is possible that he plays our third line center with the ability to move up to the second line spot in the case of injuries.  However, it is just as possible that the ambiguity of his skill set sees him heading out of town for a decent return with a more definitive player replacing him.

With Toronto’s season winding down, the focus turns increasingly to the offseason, the draft, and the future of this Maple Leafs team.  With this shift in attention comes a multitude of questions.  Who stays? Who goes?  And who will join us this summer?

As always, interested to hear your thoughts.

Cheers,

Nik

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  • danny

    I always JFJ was shit but looking back he wasn’t the worst gm in the league (cough cough Dom Wadddell), but he was solid drafting, but pretty bad for signing free agents and resigning players

  • goldenleafs

    I’d like to see a write-up about this Berry kid we signed.. he sounds like a big boy, and has like 29 goals and 33 asst.

  • bansebe

    Alex Berry isn’t anything special, his 29 goals and 33 asst aren’t this season, those are his career college numbers (4 seasons). He has does have 223 pms in that span as well, which is pretty much his game I think, bottom 6 type guy.

  • tom dusome

    will we see leo komarov?

  • goldenleafs

    ahh.. thanks for the info bansebe

  • Trev

    Hey bloggers, what’s the deal with no new blogs over 2 days? There should be a post game blog up by early next morning every time they play.

    Please?

    Even though we want th egreat draft pick, you can’t help but cheer when they whoop Montreal like that.

    What was that blog about Grabvoski not sticking around? If that line keep sit up he could be near 60 points by the end of the season.

    It will also be interesting to see what kind of contract season Pono has next year.

    Also, interesting stat from last night game show that we have a .583 percentage since the all-star break, so in all liklihood we will be picking 8th or 9th.

  • the Surreal McCoy

    if we are drafting 8th or 9th, I want Kadri..

  • jordan

    no way, we will be 6-7th I think

  • Wags

    Schenn Brothers will dominate!!!

  • leafslunch

    I’m hoping for Schroeder, personally.

  • Blue Max

    JFJ was as good as his scouts were in drafting/trading. Example? the Raycroft fiasco. I still think he has no place on an NHL team.

  • CarltontheBear

    Nobody said JFJ was good at trading. He was also awful at contract negotiation. However, you can’t deny that there were many solid late round picks during his tenure with the Leafs. Due to his poor trading and contract negotiations he won’t cut it as a GM, however having him involved in the draft for your team would not be a bad thing.

  • Blue Max

    The only thing JFJ did, and I give him full credit for it, is to bolster our scouting department. They’re the ones responsible for the reasonable success.
    But a man that cannot tell what the players he watched night in, night out, were really worth, would have a much harder time judging prospects he saw playing maybe once or twice, or none at all.

  • CarltontheBear

    Like I said, we don’t know how much control he actually had over the team as it was widely believed he was MLSE’s puppet. He may not have had a choice when it came to his contract offers.

  • Blue Max

    I agree, it’s hard to tell, though I do think he had some input in to the offers he made. They were all (except Kaberle’s) consistently high, and the no-trades were more of a standard if anything.

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