Post-Game: Leafs/Flyers – Flyers Fizzle

In a game that was just as much about the Flyers’ failings as it was the Leafs’ success, Toronto played an energetic 60 minutes.  Their bombardment of the Philadelphia net resulted in the exit of a shaky Martin Biron and an eventual total of 38 shots on goal.  To be brutally honest, the Flyers were awful on a night when they should have steamrolled a non-playoff team.  Ron Wilson and company must be happy that their team was the only one to show up tonight at the ACC.

Here are some notes from this Wednesday night whipping:

-Horrible play tonight aside, tonight was a matchup of two teams going in different directions.  While Holmgren’s Heist (my attempt to coin his miraculous one-year turnaround) was an exception to the rebuilding rule, his team is still a golden example of what can be done with the correct approach to drafting and development.  The solid foundation was laid by high-level draft picks in Carter, Richards, and more recently Giroux.  It was complemented by shrewd trades and signings (none of which are cookie-cutter superstars) in Timonen, Coburn, Parent, Hartnell and Lupul.  The Flyers are far from perfect, and there is never any one way to “do it right” (contrary to what some pick-hungry armchair-GMs would have you believe), but they are definitely on the right path.  They shall be a force for years to come, and with corrections to some obvious holes (…in the net), can become strong contenders.

-The TSN squad made an observation that Luke Schenn’s season is essentially done when the curtain closes for the Leafs.  No Kelowna, no Marlies for our stud defender.  At the beginning of this year, many fans called for Schenn to be demoted back to the Rockets after a trial spin in the big league.  They said he would benefit with “more time to develop”.  I ask you this:  how ludicrous does that sound now?  Does anybody really doubt that top-four time in the NHL has been anything but the best path for Toronto’s young blueliner?  He has shown increased maturity and skills as this campaign has progressed and his untapped potential is tantalizing.

With the Leafs recent “official elmination” from the playoffs, Brian Burke put on a brief grumpy face that was shortly followed by his claims that the team will be different next year.  These musings of our GM have included indications that an attempt to move up in the draft is a definite possibility.  Much has been said in recent days about the contractual binds that have been placed on his ability to make many such moves.  Other than the two Czech elephants in the room (read: Kaberle and Kubina) players such as Ponikarovsky, Stajan, and Stempniak will very much be on the table this offseason as Burke embarks upon his own rebuild.

As always, interested to hear your thoughts.

Cheers,

Nik

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  • leafscrazy22

    Awesome game tonight. Leafs send yet another message to another Cup contender that they won’t go down without a fight. Curtis Joseph did what he had to do (no chance on that 2nd goal). Is it just me or is Grabovski beginning to grow on you guys? I can’t wait to see what this guy can do in a couple of years (when he realizes that he has other people on the ice that he can pass to). All in all, a great game.

  • Roacho

    The Leafs were really sharp. Despite the win being a positive, I’m deeply disturbed that this team cannot seam to fall in to a high draft spot no matter how much they strip this team down. It’s ridiculous.
    ~
    I’m wondering how Burke is going about a rebuild, is this really a rebuild? The goal should not be to finish in 7-8 in the conference, it should be to build such a core that allows this team to compete for the cup year in and year out.
    ~
    Maybe I’m looking at this the wrong way, but in my mind this season does not embody a rebuild. I know good players get drafted in all rounds, but doesn’t every contender need a star player?

  • Jon

    First game i ever cheered against the leafs…this game was the turning point in the leafs draft. Atlanta won and would only have been 3 points behind the Leafs placing the leafs in a possible 5th pick position (lottery) if the stars aligned.
    .
    What can you do…

  • Jonah

    @Jon

    Plenty of talent in the draft, never cheer against the greatest team in sports! No matter where we land we will get a good player, it’s all about making sure the team has the work ethic and initiative to take themselves to the playoffs, and not about tanking and getting our younger players confidence down.

  • gunner

    who was the backup tonight for the leafs ?

  • betterforsome

    Didn’t Wilson say the team could be worse next year? Also, Schenn could end up playing for Canada at the World Championship, that would be a pretty good experience. Grabs will probably be there too.

  • king

    Schenn won’t be playing for the Canadian team lol. He has no chance what so ever. He’s not even the best Canadian rookie d-man this year. that title goes to Doughty and even he has no shot at a spot on the Canadian roster. With these guys in place (Pronger, Niedermeyer, Weber, Bouwmeester, Green, Phaneuf and Keith/Boyle) Schenn and Doughty have no chance. Grabs although might have a chance to crack the German roster.

  • Blair

    Leafs suck… at fulfilling my desire to tank. At this rate I think Ron Wilson will actually get nominated for the Jack Adams. I agree that this year does not feel like a rebuild year. I wonder though if the further away from a top draft choice the Leafs move, the more inclined Burke will be to unload his Czech D-men at the draft (rather than hang on to them until the summer/deadline) for picks to either help him move up or to just compensate.

  • Jonah

    @king

    We are not talking about the olympics. We are talking about the World Championships that take place at the same time as the Stanley Cup Playoffs. You know, the team that Shane Doan is always on… or that Jamal Mayers made. Schenn will not be playing in the olympics for Canada, but there is a chance he can make the 5th-7th defense spot on the World Championships depending on which teams make the playoffs.

  • CarltontheBear

    @king

    Grabs making the German roster is pretty impressive considering he’s a member of the Belarus hockey program.

  • Jes

    King, he was referring to the world jr’s. I thought that was obvious.

    I watched the game and Flyers didn’t look like a team fighting for home ice. The leafs and cujo played well.

    Oh and the leafs seem to be in the running for Bozak as well as the Sens and 2 other teams.

  • Spitfire

    I was at this game, sat right below the alumni box.

    Got to shake Eddie shore’s hand!

  • Jason L

    @King and Jes

    It’s not the Olympics as King referred to, or the WJC Jes…it’s the IIHF World Championship which takes place during the NHL playoffs. Schenn has a decent chance of making the team.

  • daniel marois

    Chalk it up to bad goaltending from the Flyers I guess. Hopefully Flyers come back with a more spirited effort on Friday. Leafs play a Habs team on Saturday who needs to win so hopefully Leafs can drop that one as well. Both Phoenix and Atlanta won last night so this win REALLY hurts the Leafs chances of landing in the bottom lottery five. After the Devils play last night, I don’t like their chances of beating the Leafs next week Tuesday.

    Phoniex has a home-and-home with LA (who along with Phoenix are 4 points behind Toronto) in the next 2 games. Hopefully they both split and move 2 within Toronto.

    Remember, both Phoenix and LA can tie the Leafs in the standings and still push the Leafs down in the standings because they will have more wins than the Leafs. Same with Ottawa who is only 1 point back of Toronto.

    Let’s hope Atlanta can go at least 2-0-1 in the next three games as tying the Leafs in the standings will place the Leafs fourth last in the league.

    But those last 3 Leafs games against the Devils, Sabres and Sens scare me as I fear Toronto will win all of them and finish in the 10th draft spot. If that happens, I have no idea how Burke is going to get the Leafs to trade up into a top-5 spot? I mean, can you imagine what teams will demand from the Leafs to move up that far in the draft?

  • Wook

    Speaking of a broken record…
    http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=broken%20record
    Here is a free advice for those of you that are feeling all “blue” about the Leafs winning another so called “meaningless” game: go buy a pink Islanders “tank” top and write about your feelings on Hockeybuzz.com

  • Wendel

    While I am sure Burke is not happy about not making the playoffs, that was more about show and tell and changing the attitude and expectations of the organization, nice job, Burke and Wilson continue to provide optimism that the Leafs are headed in the right direction.

  • Ace Pinball

    I really wish the Leafs wouldn’t play well together. That’s right. I hope that the chemistry is completely broken in the locker room. Hope that guys playing on the same line aren’t on speaking terms. I hope when the other team takes a cheap shot on our younger guys, that nobody sticks up for them. This will surely fracture any chances of the team winning, and will allow the Leafs to pick 1 or 2 positions higher than they are. I mean, I know for a fact, selecting 8th overall will cause this team to draft poorly. Unless the Leafs lose as many games as possible to try and get an 8.8% chance at the top pick they wasted the season. Shame on any Leafs “fan” who watched the games so long, only to be rewarded with a team that works hard, and COMPETES every night… Disgusting.

    How does Brian Burke put together his team when Ron Wilson keeps coaching them to get better? If anything, Wilson should be fired. Go coach our AHL team if you want to make them better. At least then it won’t hurt our chances of getting better if you are trying to make us better every damn day. It makes me sick seeing Schenn, Mitchell, and Kulemin getting comfortable in the NHL and having success at the same time. Doesn’t Luke know that losing will help them get a higher draft position?

    Next thing the Leafs will do is go out and sign some free agents that will bring talent, and again we go with the winning games. In a perfect world, the Leafs would finish in dead last spot for 15 years. That way we can hoard all that talent, and then wave our magic wand and POOF it will be easy, because they were all drafted high.

    Stupid Leafs management just doesn’t get it. Don’t they watch teams like Pittsburgh, Chicago, Atlanta, Phoenix, LA, Tampa Bay build teams? They consistently get the draft picks we need to build their teams. Stupid MLSE hiring a guy that was mentored by Lou in New Jersey… He’s never drafted high, what does he know about building a team? If the Leafs would stop modeling themselves against teams like Boston, NJ, Detroit, or San Jose they’d go a lot farther.

    PAQ!!! Fire JFJ!!!! BB-Seeing You Later!

  • Roger Boucher

    I can see Stajan and Stempniak being moved to make room for Hanson and Bozak “cross fingers” on next years roster, but i’d keep Poni, cause i think we’re seeing him breakout the same way Nik did last year and that line is a solid one right. And i can’t see Grabs or Kully going anywhere either.

    Grabovski – Kulemin – Ponikarovsky
    J.Mitchell – Blake – Hagman
    Bozak – Tlusty – Hanson
    May – DiDomenico – Berry

    ps. Scott Clemenson should be our only off season pick up this year.

  • Roacho

    @Roger Boucher
    I think that’s the exact reason why Poni should get traded this summer. I think he’s making a case for himself to be reliable offensive player. The Leafs are going in a new direction and it’s not cause Poni’s not good enough, it’s that he may actually be a valued commodity, thus in a trade would accelerate the rebuilding of the lineup.

  • Jordan

    Poni, stajan, and stepniak up front, and Kaberle in back ALL have to be moved. A rebuild involves tearing the team down and thats whats left. This just makes room for younger rookies to prove their ready and makes room for one big UFA name, which I think we still need for the top line IE: Franzen, Gaborik, Cammy, or someone who will put up 30-35 goals, andd can make whoever we draft this year and other young players better….too bad Nash wasnt up for UFA this year :(

  • http://www.tmlfans.ca Schenn

    WOW, some people definetly need to lear how to read!!
    Betterforsome clearly stated in the original post that Schenn has a chance of playing for Team Canada in the World Championships, which as Jason L. stated takes place right after the NHL season ends, during the NHL Playoffs.

    It looks like Anaheim, Washington, Calgary, Nashville, Florida and Washington will make the playoffs, so right there you can eliminate Pronger, Niedermayer, Reghyr, Phaneuf, Weber, Boumeester and Green.

    That should leave guys enough spots open for Doughty and Schenn to make the team and play big minutes ontop of that!

  • CarltontheBear

    @Roger

    You expect Didomenico to make the Leafs next year? I would expect him to be in the AHL next year.

  • http://www.tmlfans.ca Schenn

    As for next years team, I don’t see the logic in getting arid of Stajan and Stempniak.

    For one, nobody is certain that we’re even going to have Tyler Bozak or any other College players besides Chris Hanson. Another question one has to ask is whether Hanson is ready for the NHL or if he’ll need some time with the Marlies first. However, we should know that after his audition to close out this season.

    With what this organization has right now, here is what I forsee for next season. Assuming the RFAs I used are re-signed, and not including pending UFAs!

    Ponikarovsky – Grabovski – Kulemin
    Tlusty – Mitchell – Blake
    Hagman – Hanson – Stempniak
    Mayers – Stajan – Williams/Stapleton

    Kaberle – Schenn
    Kubina – Van Ryn
    Finger – White

    Toskala
    Pogge

    Now, I know the lineup is going to be alot different than that next season, but I didn’t include anybody who isn’t already in the oraganization, so I’ll simply make a wishlist by position and hope some of them are in this Franchise next year.

    LW – Cole, Havlat, Gaborik, Tanguay, Moen, Pyatt, Sedin and May
    C – Moore, Pahlsson, Lundmark, Cammalleri, Franzen, Antropov, Comrie, Sedin and Marchant
    RW – Afinogenov, Hossa, Kotalik, Sykora, Ouellet, Orr, Dvorak, Samuelsson, Parrish and Bertuzzi
    D – Beauchemin, Leopold, Bouwmeester, Boynton, Foster, Skoula, Komisarek, Oduya and Scuderi

    Of course, if any of those guys are brought in, especially on defense, that would allow for some of the current roster players to be traded for depth in other postions, prospects and/or picks. Also, some of those guys would be brought in for no other reason than for leadership.

    Team is in need of a capable backup, as Pogge obviously needs more time!
    G – Tellqvist, Conklin, Sabourin, Clemmenson, Weekes, Biron, Garon, Gerber and LaBarbera

  • Spitfire

    Rebuilding? Tanking?

    Are you people still following this illusion? BB is going to do everything he can to make the playoffs. Go “cheer” for the Islanders or something if all you want to do is see a team lose and pick a young kid just to have him bust. Then everyone will change their mind and rip on management for creating a losing environment for prospects to be brought up and eventually we’ll trade those prospects for draft picks to try again and the guys we trade will flourish when they aren’t on our team and we’ll just draft another promising player and bust him because the team doesn’t have a winning mentality.

    Stop watching pro sports. All you people care about is drafting. Winning is meaningless to you. You’re not a fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs, you’re a prospect junkie. Disgraceful, any of you who cheer for them to lose.

    EVERYONE fails to see the pros in winning. WE HAVE YOUNG PLAYERS ALREADY. You don’t let Kulemin and Grabovski rot of a poorly run and failure team just to draft Tavares who will come in and have NO support and fail just like the rest. No. you develop Grabo and Kule and Mitchell and Schenn and whoever. You bring in leaders like May and Mayers and Kubina who will protect and teach and be positive influences on the players. And you draft the best player available. Who ever it is, at least you know you can DEVELOP him properly in a winning attitude team that works hard every night. THIS IS HOW YOU SUCCEED. You people don’t understand this concept. WIN NOW, WIN LATER.

    The difference between what BB is going to do and what JFJ is going to do is simple. Develop and hold on to your picks until you are an elite team. JFJ did a great job in drafting, but he tried to fix too many holes through trades and FA rather than developing players. MLSE was impatient and the Leafs failed with a patch-up make-shift team. Now we have solid players and we are in a position to draft solid prospects and we can be confident that they can be developed in a winning enviroment.

    A leafs win is never bad.

  • Jordan

    Well said, thats the point. While on paper it looks like we need to be a top 5 pick, but look back ont he draft in the last 10 years….theres tones of first round busts, and tons of late round allstars. As long as Burke and the staff did a good job of scouting we will have another great bluechipper to look forward to. If he absolutly thought he HAD to get a high pick, he could simply trade up, easy as that….I dont care if they win every game of loose every game, I just want to see the young players play alot and gain some experience, and pot some points to up their confidence