Tonight’s loss against the Northeast rival Buffalo Sabres seemed to play out like the typical Maple Leaf ’09-’10 regular season game thus far. A fairly decent effort for about 75-80% of the game, a few brain cramps here and there, a ton of unconverted offensive opportunities, an unlucky bounce or two, along with the end result of an “L” in the record books. +Continue Reading
The Leafs hope to get their first three-game winning streak of the season tonight when the Buffalo Sabres roll into the Air Canada Centre. Toronto has gone five straight games without a regulation loss (3-0-2) and hope to continue their stretch of strong offensive performances (3.8 goals per game). They’ll be in tough against a Sabres team that is back on the winning track after a slight skid, supported by one of the hottest goaltenders this season in Ryan Miller.
Via TSN: “Mikhail Grabovski and Francois Beauchemin were involved in a scuffle and had to be separated, reports AM640 in Toronto. The radio station is reporting the pair was involved in an argument and Grabovski tried to punch Beauchemin. Jason Blake and assistant coach Tim Hunter got between them.” +Continue Reading
Ho hum, a Saturday night without hockey in Toronto. Here are some interesting/random thoughts to consider:
- Now with 8 goals on the season, Phil Kessel has more goals in his 12 games than the Bruins’ highest leading scorer Patrice Bergeron (7 in 25 games played). Wow.
- With Kessel in the lineup, the Leafs are 5-4-3, earning 13 out of a possible 24 points. Without him, they’re 1-7-4. Yikes.
- More on Kessel; For some reason, he seems to love the weekend adrenaline rush. 20 goals and 35 points in 33 Friday, Saturday or Sunday games for Phil last season. This year, he’s got 5 goals and 8 points in 6 weekend affairs.
- The Leafs are dead last in the NHL with a 5.4% shooting percentage, compared to the ridiculous 12.8% of the Colorado Avalanche. Jason Blake’s sniping ‘em at a 2.6% success rate. In other words, he’s going to score every 38.4 shots… Fantastic. Meanwhile, Hagman’s putting them in at an godly 18.6% clip.
- Francois Beauchemin is playing very well of late with 5 points in his last 10 games with a -2 rating, and averaging just a tad under 26 minutes/night during that stretch. Compare that to the 4 points and -7 rating he had after the first 14 games.
alex.tran@mapleleafshotstove.com
Johnny Bower Bobblehead Night Saturday (today) at Ricoh Coliseum as the Marlies take on the Minnesota Wild AHL affiliate Houston Aeros. (Note**Bower will be in attendance at Ricoh).
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The OHL featured almost an identical hit that had Michael Liambas being suspended for an entire season, now the NHL gets its first taste of the hit. Patrick Kaleta hit Jared Ross in almost a complete copy as the Liambas hit.
I have always believed that a persons real intelligence level is a sum of what they allow themselves to learn from others. Book smarts, education, degrees, etc are all an indication of knowledge – but, nothing adds to a persons real world IQ more then lessons learned. Real intelligent people are able to learn by watching and listening to others rather then needing to learn everything themselves – you know, the hard way (sadly, the path I usually end up taking). I am continually striving to get better at learning from others and gather as much IQ as I can from the experiences, observations and hard knocks others are willing to share with me. As this pertains to hockey specifically, I had an opportunity to watch a Leafs game with Gus Katsaros last week and also the opportunity to meet with and speak to Garrett Bauman. Gus and I had some nice seats for the New York Islanders game sitting at the face off circle in the offensive zone where the Leafs tallied some 50 of their 61 total shots. I had meant to do a post game blog at the time, but, life got busy and I guess it is too late for that now. However, that day yielded several interesting hockey learning opportunities for me personally and I decided that these lessons alone would make great blog material.
This latest edition of Stick Work with Fab&Kats, features the co-hosts, expanding on the winning means nothing blog in an expanded forum.
Fab and I pick our Torontosaurus Rex. Fab goes the conventional route, while I pick a defenseman … It’s an abreviated, yet content-rich edition.
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I’ll be posting at FAN590 and Prime Time Sports personality, Bob McCown’s site Fadoo.ca moving forward in addition to MLHS.
My first post consisted of more point system analysis, looking at how post-expansion increases in tied games precipitated the implementation of overtime in the early 1980′s. It needed tweaking once again and then once again in the late 1990′s, and then fully eliminated with the final implementation of the shootout.
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It was the best of times, it was the worst of times and it was the most idiotic decision in Dominic Moore's career. From a player who was initially claimed by the Maple Leafs off waivers from the Minnesota Wild, and became the ether to Jason Blake's resurgence last season, it seems either greed, a serious misjudgment, or just flat out stupidity cost him nearly $4M dollars.
By Gus Katsaros
The Leafs aren’t as bad as a four win first quarter. They were a playoff bubble team prior to the season, and the postseason wasn’t necessarily the goal, as was becoming competitive enough to stay in the run. They aren’t a bottom five NHL club, and unlikely to finish in a lottery position.
This season continues the transition like last season into shaping Toronto into a respectable organization, from management, down. That hasn’t changed with the off season moves, aside from some specific performances.
‘Spirit is Everything’ is a fitting slogan .. because winning this season, means nothing.
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