Jean Sebastien Giguere
Fresh off last night's hard-hitting victory over the Ottawa Senators, the Maple Leafs face another physical game tonight as they visit the Philadelphia Flyers.
Tonight's game will be the fourth in six nights for a Toronto squad which has undergone some significant changes in the past week. The Leafs will enter the game physically tired, but mentally inspired following Saturday's victory over Ottawa and a terrific effort in a shootout loss to the Boston Bruins on Thursday night.
Earlier today on a certain Toronto radio show, a grim portrait of Jonas Gustavsson's future was painted, citing the 32 games he has appeared in so far in his career - most of those starts behind a lacklustre team - as evidence that he may never develop into the sort of goaltender the Leafs envisioned when signing him out of the Swedish Elite League.
The crux of the argument was that 32 games should be enough for Gustavsson to have shown some ability to adapt to goaltending coach Francois Allaire's techniques, and that at 25 years of age it may be too late for him to make the necessary adjustments for NHL success.
Random talking points on a variety of topics including Giguere's shutout streak, a refreshing new attitude, the Schenn/Phaneuf connection, pending UFAs and more.
Not one player on the Toronto Maple Leafs' 2009-10 squad has had their name chanted in the Air Canada Center. It took Dion Phaneuf all of 6 minutes and 51 seconds.
When Travis Zajac had his face plastered into the boards, I just knew we had found our very own Chuck Norris. Then, Phaneuf dropped the gloves with Colin White and my man-crush officially began.
In the wake of Sunday's blockbuster trades, one cannot help but wonder what's next for the Toronto Maple Leafs? Who's next to go? Who stays?
In any case, I think that it's pretty safe to say that this season is a write-off. We're not making any moves to make a run at the playoffs this season. So, let's look forward and take a look at what the Maple Leafs should look like next season. [more…]
The Maple Leafs have traded G Vesa Toskala and F Jason Blake to the Ducks for G Jean-Sebastien Giguere. [more…]
TORONTO -- Leafs general manager, Brian Burke, has repeatedly stated he will not ask Tomas Kaberle to waive his NTC. This situation, however, could be key to shoring up the goaltending the Leafs need.
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- The Toronto Star has an interesting article that mentions the Leafs would be at least open to talk of a second NHL team in [more…]
Even in the days of modern technology, many still profess that meteorology is an inexact science more guess work than theory. The very same can be said when scouting goaltenders. For every Mark-Andre Fleury (selected 1st overall in 2003) there’s a Brent Krahn (selected 9th overall in 2000). Meanwhile recent Vezina nominees and winners such as Tim Thomas, Mikka Kiprusoff and Evgeni Nabokov had to wait until the 217th, 116th and 219th selections respectively to see their names on the board. Indeed, the vast majority of netminders who started a game last season in the NHL had long waits deep into the second day to see their dreams realized while others went completely unnoticed only to resurface as free agents years later.
I had the opportunity to catch Kurtis McLean at Hockey Heritage North in Kirkland Lake, Ontario and ask him a few questions about his career and his future in the NHL. The 28 year old NCAA and AHL star has been nothing short of a hard worker and the type of player every team wants in their system for strength and leadership. Kurtis talks about his career, his first NHL goal, and who he thinks the Islanders are going to select with their 1st overall pick.
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Newest goaltending consultant to the Leafs, Francois Allaire, father of the modern butterfly with exceptional credentials including working with Patrick Roy, Brian Hayward, as well as the guy who morphed Guy Hebert into an All Star in 1997 and J.S. Giguere. Most recently he worked with Ducks back up-turned-starter, Jonas Hiller to backstop the Ducks to a seven-game Round 2 of the 2008-09, Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Fine credentials indeed, but what can he do with the batch of Leafs goaltenders?
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Through 45 games the abject tandem of Toskala and Joseph has combined for the worst team save percentage in the NHL and by an ever increasing margin. Where .900 is seen as a barometer for average net minding in the modern game, the Blueshirted duo has managed just .886 between them. Subsequently the hard work put into making the Leafs sixth in shots against with a 28.3 per game average is being undone by a last line of defence that bares a startling resemblance to the Maginot line. Worse still the current status quo threatens to undermine the very rebuilding process Toronto are pinning their future on.
