Preview: Maple Leafs vs Capitals
After last night’s impressive 4-0 victory over the Flyers, the Maple Leafs will attempt to build some momentum tonight versus the Capitals in Washington.
Surprisingly, the Maple Leafs, who have allowed a league-high 164 goals, have won two straight against the Capitals, who lead the league with 171 goals. However, the Caps won their only home game against the Leafs early in the season.
Jose Theodore will start for the Capitals and Vesa Toskala should get back-to-back starts after his 38-save shutout last night. Toskala has recorded both of the Maple Leafs wins against Washington this season, although he was pulled early in the only loss.
The Leafs have lost four straight and eight of their last nine road games. However, they may catch a break tonight as Alexander Semin missed the morning skate and could miss tonight’s game due to an undisclosed injury.
A change for the Capitals as Mike Green will be paired with Jeff Schultz and not his usual partner Shaone Morrisonn. Green was on the ice for six goals against in their 7-4 loss to Tampa and Morrisonn was on for all seven.
Tyler Bozak has four points in three NHL games. Carl Gunnarsson is now a +6 in just nine games.
Make sure to check out Ron Guillet’s post on Jonas Gustavsson and Micheal Aldred‘s post on Tyler Bozak.
**Follow me on twitter: @SantosDan**
January 17th, 2010 at 10:55 pm
Pazuzu wrote:
Quick to judge, are we?
January 17th, 2010 at 11:02 pm
@ Charlie:
Ask him about the cap hit thing – cuz I’m pretty sure the cap relief only lasts one year (which is why I was saying we would recall them, or buy them out). I think we could get a return for Jason Blake though. He is a solid player on the wrong team. A team that isn’t cap conscious, but is competitive, could really use him (ie. Nashville).
January 17th, 2010 at 11:05 pm
This should be the lineup once Burke unloads the tradable pending UFAs:
kulemin bozak kessel
stalb grabo hagman
stemp mitchell blake
orr primeau rosehill
(wallin)
beauch white
komi gunnerson
schenn finger
(xlb)
gust
tosk
-Blake should be given 3rd line minutes, there is no reason for him to take up premium minutes.
- Kulemin, Stalberg and Hagman should rotate as part of the top line depending on who is doing well at any particular time
- Keep the 3rd and 4th lines intact and increase/decrease minutes accordingly
- Keep playing Gustavsson as much as you can
Unless Burke can sign significant FAs and needs the cap room, Blake will still be around next year with the Leafs. Finger, though a decent defenseman, just makes way to much and will be a candidate to go to the Marlies next year IF they need the cap room.
Shopping list for the summer:
- top line centerman – get a first rate guy ~7M
- top line winger (L) – ~4M
- third line center – defensively responsible, can play on the PK (~3M)
- goalie if Gustavsson does not pan out
Give Wilson and his crew 20 games (or 10 if he goes 0-9-1) next year with the new guys and make a coaching decision
January 17th, 2010 at 11:06 pm
Not really, about a year in Toronto and his years in Vancity and Anahiem. A year in toronto that has set the Leafs back about 3 years.
January 17th, 2010 at 11:08 pm
Cameron wrote:
Ummm, I doubt it. I think the consensus throughout the far reaches of the universe is that Blake is vastly overpaid for what he contributes. Not only that, but he is old and one-dimensional.
January 17th, 2010 at 11:14 pm
Cameron wrote:
I stressed the cap thing…
January 17th, 2010 at 11:15 pm
Pazuzu wrote:
So you’re judging his tenure with the Leafs based on what he did with Vancouver and Anaheim….
Um, ok then.
January 17th, 2010 at 11:18 pm
re: Blake
- works hard granted
- takes useless perimeter shots that are the equivalent of giveaways, particulary when you are not winning face-offs
- circles the offensive zone and displays little offensive creativity
- he should be going to the net sometimes WITH but mostly WITHOUT the puck – where he is most effective
- right now there is nobody to replace him – so he might as well stay. He gets shipped out if the Leafs find someone better and/or need the cap room.
January 17th, 2010 at 11:24 pm
Nice goal again by Kadri and a 1 punch fight win.
January 17th, 2010 at 11:26 pm
@ Dirk_Diggler:
Cool! I wish I did play for the Blues…would make a nice rivalry! Unfortunately, I’m not good enough of a player, and…well…about 20 years too old!!! I guess if Dundas wins the Hockeyville challenge that would be good for you. Grightmire arena can’t be that great of a place to play! Or is it? Not sure what the other barns are like in the loop…
January 17th, 2010 at 11:32 pm
@Charlie
Of coarse not, that’s fuckin ridiculous.( BTW would you hire Sather? Or would you look at his track record…nah lets hire Sather and let em buck like he does for the Rags,lol) I’m judging him by his foolish, off kilter, reckless way of “rebuilding” a team and the way he left Van and Ana in cap hell. He is simply reinforcing my opinions on him.
January 18th, 2010 at 12:01 am
[...] Preview: Maple Leafs vs Capitals : Maple Leafs Hot Stove [...]
January 18th, 2010 at 1:10 am
@ Julie Sucks:
No, that’s actually the consensus of Leafs fans who don’t like Blake, and see him only as an obstacle to signing bigger free agents to more expensive contracts. To a team that is competitive, and could have Blake on their 3rd line, Blake would be an extremely valuable third line player. He’s been our most consistent player this year, even if the numbers aren’t there to support it. Don’t let your blind hate for him obscure the fact that he’s a solid player.
@JK3
Or he needs someone else to drive the net so that his shots can actually be taken advantage of. Sure, he hits the chest a little more often than I would like, but if someone was driving the net for him, I bet you he would the pads and create rebounds a lot more often. As it is, he knows he’s one man on the attack, and so he has to shoot for the corners, which he sucks at. Part of the reason he and Moore were so successfuly was that Moore would do ANYTHING to score. We don’t have anyone like that. Other teams do.
All of this said, I don’t vote for trading Blake. I’m fine with him occupying time on the third and fourth lines. He hits, and creates a lot of energy, and occassionally buries goals. On a better team, he would draw more calls too. The refs don’t give him the benefit of the doubt here because of the suck factor of the team in general. If he played for Pittsburgh (just an example, not stating they are a trade partner), he would get a lot of respect.
January 18th, 2010 at 1:23 am
@ Pazuzu:
You forget that Burke also took over a laughing stock in Vancouver and made them respectable. It has also come out that he was largely responsible for the team that ended up competing in the Cup finals in 94′, despite the credit going to Quinn. And even though he is often written off in Anaheim for inherting a solid team, I personally think that is ridiculous. Sure, Getzlaf and Perry had been drafted, but selecting gems in the 2003 draft wasn’t exactly rocket science, and Burke’s system still developed them. He completely revamped the defense top to bottom. Traded or let go most of the forwards, save Kunitz, Niedermayer, and McDonald. He traded Fedorov for Beauchemin. He signed Selanne and Niedermayer, and traded for Pronger. He found Penner, and added all the key veteran role-players (Marchant, O’Donnell, etc…). Yea, Anaheim has a bit of cap problems this year, but it’s all pretty easily remedied. They’lly run a light roster next year, and the year after, they’ll have a boat load of cap space.
January 18th, 2010 at 5:56 am
Pazuzu wrote:
Being that he wasn’t the GM of the Canucks after the lockout, I’m not sure you can blame any cap issues on him. Not to mention, I don’t recall there ever being cap trouble in Vancouver right after the lockout.
He won the Cup in Anaheim, so yes there were cap casualties. Same way Chicago is going to lose guys. You going to call Tallon or Bowman bad GMs because of it? No, cause they did what they needed to in order to win it all. Chicago might not win it all and they’ll still be in cap hell. Burke won it all so I think that can be forgiven.
January 18th, 2010 at 9:51 am
Wow, I think I’ve heard it all. We’ve had posters saying we should have kept Tucker, McCabe, Kubina, Antropov, Colaiacovo, Steen and now JFJ? Nice guy, but way out of his element. What’s next, pining for the return of Peddie as pseudo-GM?
January 18th, 2010 at 10:45 am
ingy56 wrote:
I know, it’s beyond ridiculous.
January 18th, 2010 at 1:51 pm
@ Andrew R:
‘they are all young… Gunnarsson, Stralman, Tlusty, Kulemin and Stalberg are no brainers for some sort of decent NHL success.. there are many more – those were just some examples.. and considering that only Tlusty and Rask were 1st rounders – it tells you something.. we should have kept him as a director of scouting.. he has pulled several gems from the late rounds and continues to do so.. Stalberg, Stralman, Gunnarsson are pretty darned good examples.. all 6th round or later and all look to to be better then average NHL players for their positions.. Kulemin in the 2nd – another absolute steal.. wait 2-3 years and it will become more obvious’
Well of course they are all young – every player that’s drafted is usually young. I guess you and I have different ideas of what constitutes success. What have Gunnarsson, Tlusty, Stralberg done to justify you saying that they have some sort of decent NHL success? Kulemin, yes, he’s played better of late – but that doesn’t guarantee that he will be a good example of JFJ’s scouting.
January 18th, 2010 at 4:00 pm
kaz wrote:
The thing is, Hagman has been mired in a horrible slump, and he actually has been since about 4 or 5 games before Grabovski’s horrible injury. Point being, though I agree Grabo is and does make teammates alot better than Stajan usually does, Hagman went into his slump quite some time before Stajan joined his line and until a player snaps out of their slump it’s hard for anyone to make them look good, unless that slumping player is with a real superstar.
Now, regarding Stajan. At his very best, he seems to be someone who may be a 2.5 line centre, if you will (I know there’s no such thing but hopefully you understand what I’m getting at here). IMO he’d be a good 3rd line centre (though absolutely not a gritty one) for a team that doesn’t need or want toughness in bottom six basically as a guy who can provide a slight or modest offensive injection or upgrade there. Plus, I don’t think it’s stupid to think he could fetch us a late 2nd – 3rd round pick. Especially if Moore got us a 2nd and Hal Gill got us a 2nd + a 5th.
Agree or no?
January 18th, 2010 at 4:06 pm
@ kaz:
Hagman has been mired in a horrible slump, and he actually has been since about 4 or 5 games before Grabovski’s horrible injury. Point being, though I agree Grabo is and does make teammates alot better than Stajan usually does, Hagman went into his slump quite some time before Stajan joined his line and until a player snaps out of their slump it’s hard for anyone to make them look good, unless that slumping player is with a real superstar.
Now, regarding Stajan. At his very best, he seems to be someone who may be a 2.5 line centre, if you will (I know there’s no such thing but hopefully you understand what I’m getting at here). IMO he’d be a good 3rd line centre (though absolutely not a gritty one) for a team that doesn’t need or want toughness in bottom six basically as a guy who can provide a slight or modest offensive injection or upgrade there. Plus, I don’t think it’s stupid to think he could fetch us a late 2nd – 3rd round pick. Especially if Moore got us a 2nd and Hal Gill got us a 2nd + a 5th.
Agree or no?
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