Squash the Buffaslugs!

I hate the Buffaslugs. I think most hockey fans feel the same way. From their bandwagon nature (funny how tough tickets are to get now that the team is an elite team) that bankrupted the team to their constant whining about injuries during last year's playoff run to the mindblowing arrogance of their fans this year and their no-class players last year. Travelling fans can tell you all about the welcoming atmosphere at the Alphabet Arena. And God help you if you have to listen to the games with Rick Jeannerette. You would think that the Flying Buffaslugs had never taken a dive in their lives. Oh, and don't forget that their coach is a dick and apparently a pussy at the same time.

On the Leafs' side, Tomas Kaberle will make his return to the lineup tonight and it could not come at a better time. The Leafs will have the top powerplay unit of Wellwood, Tucker, Sundin, Kaberle, and McCabe together for the first time since December 16th. At that point the PP was clicking at a rate of 24%. Not bad. Since then it's puttered at around 14% and even worse since Kaberle went down at the beginning of the month.

With everyone winning last night the Leafs need these games. The bare minimum is two points and four would be unbelievable (most likely literally). The Leafs are 2-4 against the Sabres this year with three great performances against the slugs in their own building. The Sabres are in a similar position to the senators in last year's finale in that they are comfortably perched at the top of the Eastern Conference. The Leafs need to play with that same kind of desperation. Let's squash the slugs. Go Leafs Go!

V is for Vengeance

Tonight the Leafs face the hero of the New Jersey inbreds in their first meeting since the scrub tried to injure rosy-cheeked Tomas Kaberle. Kaberle will await the doctor's word on whether he will play tonight and the sentiment is that the Leafs would prefer him taking until the weekend to return. The rest of the Leafs meanwhile seem to have their heads on straight and appear set to learn their history lessons:

"I don't think the boys will be looking for him," said Kaberle. "They'll be playing their own game. We just have to get the two points."

That sentiment has been echoed by the team and most fans in a Sun poll want nothing more than the critical two points. As McCabe has pointed out revenge is a dish best served cold and the scrub could conceivably be around next season as well.

Belak might drop the mitts early but the window is only about 1-2 minutes, the amount of time the scrub might spend on the ice and not picking splinters out of his rear, so it will probably amount to nothing. The scrub's obliviousness knows no bounds,

"I'm not looking to go head hunting or anything like that. I'm just want to go out there and play my game. I'm sure if I'm skating down the wing with the puck, he's going to come hit me too. That's obvious."

What was obvious was that the league does not need to employ players that take up minutes that a beer leaguer could fill just as well without the accompanying embarrassing incidents. What was obvious was that, as Kaberle put it, the scrub has no respect for his fellow NHLers. Attitudes like that generally end up coming back to bite the player in the rear whether it's a high-profile teammate that gets him shipped out of town or, in the case of the scrub, whether it's a little more personal attention in future matchups.

Would any Leaf fan be upset at a clean hit injuring the scrub? Nary a tear would be shed and it would be the biggest irony if it was on a play when a Leaf 'was just finishing his check.' But the biggest vengeance would be a win and that is where the focus must lie.

What If?

I rarely read The Sun (Liverpool fan and all) but I managed to catch this story which made me simultaneously cry, laugh in pain, spit my milk at the screen, and slam my head against my desk. Of course, who knows how the trade would have worked out in the long-run. Well, it definitely would have been the best thing that Jonas Hoglund ever did for the Leafs. Player development is a game of maybes and could bes or Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda so maybe this trade would have been remembered as the time that the Leafs traded away three future superstars while gambling on the NHL's Michael Jordan. But as it stands, Vinny would look good in blue and white but I am happy with Kaberle and Antropov who combined cost less and put more points on the board.

Anyway, back to this reality, where the Leafs host the aforementioned Mr. Lecavalier and his friends. This season the Leafs have shown some ability to control the Three Amigos (or at least limit their damage) and hold a 3-0-0 record in the season series against the Bolts. They picked up a pair of 4-2 wins in the Sunshine State bookending a 5-4 victory at the ACC. Tonight they will be looking to complete the season sweep but will have to once again look out for Richards, St. Louis, and the almost-Leaf Lecavalier the latter two which are among the top three in scoring while Vinny leads the race for the Richard Trophy. The Leafs need this win (and all three games this week) as they face a killer 7 days starting Sunday with a game against the Devils and a home-and-home with the Sabres.

Memories

This post was cross-posted at the BoO.
Tonight the Leafs host the Vancouver Canucks in their only matchup of the season. Unfortunately for the Leafs points total, the guaranteed points trips of yesteryear have been waylaid by the new schedule. The Canucks have surprised everyone by icing a competitive team and they currently sit seventh in the Western Conference which has been good enough to keep their bandwagon fans buying tickets (see Mark Messier Years' attendance).

This is a different Canucks team from previous incarnations. Instead of relying on lots of offence, puck moving defence, and shoddy goaltending the Canucks have been getting by on shoddy offence, strong defence, and amazing goaltending. After years of Brian Burke trying to convert backups into starting goalies Dave Nonis pulled the trigger on what will probably become the most important trade in franchise history by ridding himself of Vancouver's favourites Neanderthal attempted murderer Todd Bertuzzi (seriously, Canucks fans defended this guy...weird) and some spare parts for this year's Western Conference starting goalie Roberto Luongo and spare parts. Unfortunately, this move came about four years too late:

Good thing for Canuck fans that Cloutier will not be around to face the league's fifth highest scoring offence.

Thanks to Jay for the trip down memory lane. I had almost forgotten how that 1994 season ended:

Of course, the Canucks could not be expected to defeat one of the greatest leaders in NHL history.

I will be in attendance at the game from about six rows behind Luongo so I will be well placed to see how he deals with the Leafs explosive offence. I will hopefully be able to get some great pics of the Leafs celebrating goals. GO LEAFS!

For the other side of the match-up check out:

Canucks Hockey Blog

Waiting for Stanley (A Sport Bigamist!)

Canucks and Beyond (Alanah will be live-blogging which is always interesting)

Canucks Fangirl

Looking Forward

I am almost done my third installment in the Results Comparison series. After this lamentable run of ineptness the Leafs are in much worse shape than they were at the same point last year. Of course, this is because last year's swoon came in January and February when there was less time to make up the gap. This season still has 51 games and 102 points available to the boys in blue and white with which to make up their single digit deficit. Of course, each game that this streak lasts is one less left in which to get themselves going.

Naturally, War has written a ton of stuff nailing the Leafs and Don Cherry (think Ms. Cox is upset about getting embarrassed on Coach's Corner earlier in the year?) and Famine plagiarized two of Bitter Leaf's posts. Good work you clowns.

Anyway, the Leafs face the Lightning tonight and Carlo will be in the lineup. That means that Encino Man will not be playing defence. Thank God. Feel free to post in-game thoughts in the comments. Hopefully, they will be along the lines of 'wow, good to see the Leafs playing hockey again' and not 'KILL THE LEAFS!'.

Leafs v. Bruins: Game Day Thoughts

Ok, after some technical difficulties everything is back to normal. The recaps for the Bruins game last Thursday and Montreal game on Saturday are up just below this post. Tomorrow, I will have pictures of the Saturday game, a recap of tonight's game, and another installment of the Results Comparison.

Also, visit The Battle of Ontario site where yours truly was selected as one of two Leafs contributors. This site will continue to focus on the Leafs while the other will be mainly as an outlet to mock the senators and rub any Leafs success in their face. Thanks to those that supported my candidacy over at the BoO. We Did It!

Without further ado, here are some thoughts on tonight's game:

The Leafs return to Boston tonight to contest the second in a string of games that would make Bill Murray question his sanity. Of course, during the Leafs last visit our number 1 goalie pulled his groin during a 6-4 triumph and Andrew Raycroft remains in the press box where he shares wobbly pops with The Captain. JS Aubin will be handling the tending duties and he will have the Leafs newest father (congrats to Steen too) Pavel Kubina patrolling the front of the net. This will be only the fourth game in which the Leafs $20M defence will be together.

Keys to the Game

• Goaltending: Last time out the Leafs got it and the Bruins, hilariously, did not. The Leafs managed to get outshot 17-10 in the first period but left with a 3-0 lead. Tim Thomas will probably get the start tonight and will try to improve on the team's horrendous 3.8GA/game.
  
  
• Shooting: The Leafs would do well to pepper the net with shots. Considering that the Bruins are 28th in shots against at 33/game and Toronto is 1st in shots for at 35.1/game I expect it to resemble a shooting gallery.
  
  
• Special Teams: It will be a battle of the nines as the ninth-ranked powerplay (Boston) will face the ninth-ranked penalty kill (Toronto). The Bruins won this battle last time going 2 for 5 but it was not enough. Clearly they will want to keep the PP off the ice (Discipline boys!) but they also have to ensure that Boston's speedsters like Patrice Bergeron and Phil Kessel are not able to isolate Hal Gill. He is great in the stationary penalty kill but I think the word 'lumbering' was invented to describe his skating. Kind of like 'shaky' was invented to describe Ottawa's goaltending.
  
  
• Stepper-uppers: The Soviet Bloc will have to continue their strong play. Nik Antropov and Alexei Ponikarovsky combined for 3 goals, 3 assists, and were +8 last Thursday. Both players used their size to torment the Bruins defence and Poni used his speed to create scoring chances. If both players continue their recent strong play then the Bruins will be hard pressed to find an answer as, despite being the size of a sequoia, Chara can only cover one player at a time.

Overall, if the Leafs can play their puck pressure game they should be in good shape. The Bruins defence is suspect past Ottawa Old Boy Zdeno Chara and the Bruins offence is top-line heavy. Boston is probably tired from chasing AO around the ice last night. If Tim Thomas is more Gerber than Raycroft then the Leafs should prevail.

Leafs v. Sabres: Game Day Thoughts

The Leafs travel to Alphabet Arena tonight to face the red-hot Buffalo Sabres. This first trip would have been more appropriate for Halloween since the buds' record in the home of good wings is 4-17-3 (ties) since the Sabres moved to the new rink. That record alone is enough to give you nightmares before you remember that in most games the Leafs have not even been close to winning.

A friend of mine went to see the sens there (yeah, I forgive him) and he tells me it is a shithole arena in a crappy part of town (the words 'particle board' were used to describe the walls by the upper bowl's highest reaches). That might explain why until last season this team had so much trouble drawing fans. Of course, now that they have tied the Leafs season best start (asterisk) and were one win away from the final the fans have found their way back. Good to see the bandwagon doing it's part to support the team. It's always baffled me that Leafs' fans get a bad rap for their loyalty from other fans (all of the Canadian teams) while those same fans demand loyalty from their players (see: Oilers, Edmonton). Why should they stick around if you are going to leave as soon as things turn bad?

Anyway, the net result of the Sabres success is that there will most likely be significantly fewer Leafs fans due to the increased season ticket sales. sens' fans might want to read that last sentence before they start complaining about the number of Leaf fans in Ottawa. This will probably mean that fewer Torontonians will be swearing up a storm on their trip back across the bridge.

The good news is that the Sabres played very badly against the Bruins. The bad news is that the Leafs were brutal against Florida. I won't make any predictions because when they are optimistic they are horribly off (see: games, Ottawa) and when they are pessimistic they are right. So tonight I predict that there will be hockey, Lindy Ruff will make some smartass comments while ignoring his team's proclivity for diving, and Andrew Peters will not get the retribution he deserves (if that lump of hockey crappiness even sees the ice). Go Leafs Go!

Leafs v. Habs: Game Day Thoughts

It goes without saying that this is an important game for the Leafs. Two points would be great but it is more important that they put in the kind of effort that got them off to a good start. Here are the five keys to a win:

1. The defensive zone coverage has to be miles better than it has been the last couple of games. The defencemen, especially, have to do a better job of looking over their shoulders to spot the forwards.
   
   
2. Mats and Wellwood have to find their game after three largely anonymous games. The skipper is settling for shots from the perimeter far too often and Wellwood needs to start taking more shots because it is far too evident that he looks for the pass first almost to a fault.
   
   
3. Keep it simple stupid. The Leafs have to get back to clearing the zone first and looking for the nice pass second. The last couple of games the Leafs have shipped a handful of goals because they have coughed up the puck when they have been on the verge of clearing the zone.
   
   
4. The team's concentration has to be better. The senators scored goals in bunches because the team suffered serious lapses in concentration that resulted in tap-in goals.
   
   
5. Hit the net. The forwards did not take advantage of a shaky Ray Emery on Thursday because they missed too many easy shots. In the third period alone I counted 5 shots that Emery flapped at that missed the net.

The bottom line is that the team has to play smart (not smarter because it's been pretty dumb) and with more effort. The big three of Sundin, Kaberle, and McCabe have to be the team's best players to give them any chance to succeed. They do not have to be perfect but they have to be a lot closer to it than they have been lately. Here is some inspiration, a perfect break in snooker.

Leafs v. Avalanche: Pre-Game Thoughts

The Avalanche pay the ACC a visit on the back of two straight losses and apparently neither one was very pretty. Jose Theodore has had a rough go of things over the past two games and tonight should be no different considering his 5-10-2 (with three ties pre-shootout) in 23 appearances against Toronto. The Leafs are averaging almost 40 shots a game so if Propecia doesn't bring his 'A' game this could be a third straight high-scoring affair. The Leafs have lost the top spot in team scoring to the Sabres after last night's 9-1 crushing of the Flyers which has already led to some blood-letting. Here's hoping for a matching outburst to bolt us back into the lead!

Tonight, Mats Sundin will be honoured by the club for scoring his 500th goal. He has already gotten a nice pair of cufflinks which is nice but, along the lines of Bitter Leaf Fan's thoughts, maybe Canadian citizenship would be the greatest gift.

Injury Watch
Michael Peca will be in the line-up which will hopefully mean that we will see a much better defensive effort from the second line. Nik Antropov and Ben Ondrus are both still making their way back from the IR. Not that either one of them will drop back into forward lines that are starting to click. It will be interesting to see what happens to both once they are completely healthy. I would imagine that they would each get a two week conditioning stint at the Ricoh. As for the defencemen, no news on Carlo but Kronwall skated and it hurt a lot. It seems that with the time he has taken to return from an ankle sprain that he might have the dreaded 'high ankle sprain', a condition which is notoriously tough to recover from fully.

Predictions:
The Leafs will again frustrate with less than 60 minutes of effort but will still emerge victorious. Toronto hockey fans will get to see former St. Mike's Majors deity Peter Budaj when he comes in to relieve a shell-shocked Joey T.

6-2 Leafs: Mats (2), Tucker, McCabe, Steen, Peca