Jeff Finger
A momentum swing in Wednesday's 3-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins can be largely attributed to a couple of in-game changes orchestrated by bench-boss Ron Wilson.
The starting first line of Mikhail Grabovski, Nik Antropov and Alexei Ponikarovsky proved ineffectual in the first frame and rookie Nik Kulemin wasn't clicking with line-mates Nik Hagman and Alex Steen. The team failed to generate anything in the way of offense until late in the third, when Wilson's ad hoc lines began to fire, mounting a near come-back with two goals in quick succession. [more…]
It certainly seemed like a new era tonight in the ACC as a much more motivated and industrious Leafs team took to the ice and out-played the Buffalo Sabres in a 7-4 win for the new-look Blue and White.
Neither team could honestly say they put forth the best they could offer, but that's the nature of these early pre-season games. It still can be said that there were some promising signs from a Leafs stand-point. [more…]
They’re out there. Everywhere you look.
The predictions that place the Leafs anywhere from 10th to 14th in the Eastern conference for the upcoming NHL season. Most hockey pundits are not giving the Maple Leafs much of a shot at a playoff spot, and based on recent history with the club, they have every reason not to.
It wasn’t more than a year ago that head coach Paul Maurice announced his team would make the playoffs and compete for the Stanley Cup. Players such as Simon Gamache and Tony Salmelainen were recruited from Europe by general manager John Ferguson Jr. and provided solid try outs. Colaiacovo was announced to not be in full form for the season opener, which we later discovered he would not be ready until late December, after arthroscopic knee surgery and an awkward fall in a pre-season practice after attempting a slap shot.
...why the Leafs signed Jeff Finger?
Well, at least I got a Finger joke out of the way early on.
When the numbers 3.5 over 4 were first thrown around on the AM640, I figured it was a fantastic signing as Finger was one of the more underrated players in the league I hoped the Leafs would go after. I figured something in the range of $1.5-2M would be a great bargain, but less than $1M a year? Sign me up! [more…]
Rebuild.
That was the game plan going in to the off-season after another abysmal season from our boys in Blue and White.
Given this arduous task was veteran GM Cliff Fletcher. I mean, it's not every day that MLSE realize their failure and place this kind of responsibility on their GM (or… is it?).
Fletcher got to work right away, trading a 3rd round selection in the 2008 draft for Jamal Mayers. While this received mixed reception, the presence of Mayers to the Leafs' now young line-up is going to add some leadership to a team sorely lacking it.
