"Month of Lies"

Someone once described tryouts as the "Month of Lies". People will say anything when it comes to tryouts. I usually can't wait for it to be over. It's stressful for everyone - players, parents and coaches. Players want to play with their friends. What will the dressing room be like? Will these coaches be fair or will they have their favourites. Some people get what we call the "letter syndrome". All that is important is that they make a "AA" or "A" team. What they often find is the calibre of these teams can be poor and are they can be very uncompetitive. Each year we have players from higher levels come down to play because they just want to enjoy hockey again . I've seen parents take their daughters from one tryout to another to the point where they can't really skate very well because they are exhausted. It's no fun for coaches either. They hate having to tell players that haven't made the team. You hope that you make good decisions based on skill and team chemistry but how can you really evaluate someone properly based on drills done over an hour with 25 or more players on the ice. I've seen players who can do these drills very well but have no hockey sense. While others are not that flashy during the drills but turn out to be higher energy players during games. We try to get out to see other teams in our organization where you might draw players from so that you can have some idea what the players who may come to tryouts look like in games. When it's all finally over - the lies, the tears, the dealmaking, you can go back to playing hockey and having fun.

Can you take the Senators seriously after watching this?

Last Night's Stars

1. Dan Ellis, Predators

Given a two-goal lead early in the first period made the job easier, but Ellis still came up huge, stopping 39 shots to help the Preds pull even at 2-2 with the favoured Red Wings. The second-year NHL pro, in his first postseason, is performing like a cool veteran.

2. Marc Staal, Rangers

Talk about redemption. Just three days after a puck clipped his skate and went in for the Devils' winning goal in Game 3, the rookie blueliner scored his first official NHL playoff goal in the Rangers' 5-3 win. With each game he is looking more and more as a future star. As far as I'm concerned he already is the Rangers best defenseman.

3. Evgeni Malkin, Penguins

The 21-year-old notched a power-play goal and six shots on goal to help the Pens complete a four-game sweep of the Senators. Malkin, who now has two goals in the playoffs, was all over the ice and aggressive in the corners.

Mascot Bloopers

Last Night's Stars

1. Carey Price, Canadiens

President's Choice Memories of Ken Dryden. Not only did the 20-year-old turn away all 27 shots he faced for his first playoff shutout, but he carried the Habs to within one win of advancing to the second round. I've run out of superlatives for this kid.

2. Daniel Briere, Flyers

This is exactly why the Flyers spent a bundle to sign Briere. His two-goal, one-assist showing last night was nothing new, as the veteran forward now has four goals and six points in the series. In fact, no player has more postseason points in the past three years. He got booed during the regular season (not uncommon for players with big contract and big expectations), but all will be forgotten by the Flyer Nation if he continues to produce like this.

3. Chris Pronger, Ducks

The Ducks were basically in a must-win situation last night after dropping the first 2 games at home, and the captain delivered with two power-play goals and an assist. Pronger headed into the game with zero points and five shots on goal. Considering Dallas' postseason play at home (1-7 in last eight), the Ducks are most definitely back in this series.

Last Night's Stars

1. Marian Hossa, Pittsburgh:

The Penguins winger put his former team on the brink of elimination with a pair of assists and his first postseason goal since he played for the Sens in 2003-04.

2. Daniel Alfredsson, Ottawa:

Alfredsson returned to the lineup at far less than 100 percent but displayed the type of character that best defines the NHL playoffs. Too bad his teammates don't follow his lead.

3. Ryan Suter, Nashville:

The young defenseman had his second-period point blast deflected by Alexander Radulov for the Predators' first goal, then tied the game at three late in the third with another cannon from the blue line.

Sean Avery Reaches a New Low

The Sean Avery coverage at times is overblown, but he's actually quite disliked throughout the league, and in a way that goes beyond that of the traditional Darcy Tucker/Jordin Tootoo type pests. Hard to believe the league passed a new rule to deal with the jerk.

Biggest Hit of the Year

Sarich lays out Marleau and the hit was clean.

Last Night's Stars

1. Marc Savard, Bruins.

The Canadiens have owned the Bruins all season but Savard changed all that. He scored on a delayed penalty 9:25 into overtime for a 2-1 win that ended a 13-game losing streak to Montreal and trimmed the series lead to 2-1.

2. Martin Biron, Flyers.

After giving up five goals in the Game 1 loss, Biron bounced back with 24 saves in blanking the Capitals 2-0 for his first playoff shutout and his third in the last four games. Although Huet was pretty good at the other end stopping 39 of 41 shots.

3. Owen Nolan, Flames.

Leaf fans will have a tough time with my third pick but he delivered the go-ahead goal with 3:45 remaining and assisted on two more Calgary scores as the Flames rallied from a 3-0 deficit to beat the Sharks 4-3 for a 2-1 series lead.

Provincial Finals - Midget B

Qtr Lambton Shores 4 - Glengarry 1
Qtr Lambeth 3 - Durham West 0
Qtr Twin Centre 0 - Walkerton 1
Qtr Temiskaming 4 - Barrie 0

Semi Lambton Shores 0 - Walkerton 2
Semi Lambeth 2 - Temiskaming 3

Gold: Temiskaming 5 - Silver Walkerton 2
Bronze: Lambeth 2 - Lambton Shores 1

Yankees Uncover Saboteur

The three-day quasi-nightmare for-superstitious Yankees fans is over: The Red Sox jersey buried in cement by a Yankee-hating construction worker along the third base line at the new Yankee Stadium has been found and will be removed in an "extraction ceremony."

At first, the thought of Red Sox jersey buried in the new stadium seemed like a joke, but yesterday the NY Post published photographs worker Gino Castignoli claimed he took while after placing a David Ortiz jersey under the concrete. Yesterday, two workers remembered where Castignoli worked (he was only on the site for day) and told a construction manager:

They led the manager to a service corridor near the site of the planned Legends Club restaurant, behind home plate and toward the third base side.

After the hardhats pointed to the spot, workers brought out jackhammers and dug furiously for five hours, creating a 2-foot- by-3-foot, gravel-filled pit in their search for the tainted threads.

They spotted the jersey at 3:25 p.m. and called Yankee brass. The cursed shirt was about two feet deep in cement

Last Night's Stars

1. Alexei Kovalev, Canadiens:
His retaliatory slash of Aaron Ward on a third-period penalty kill gave the Bruins a five-on-three advantage and paved the way for Boston's tying goal. But just as he was being fitted for the goat horns, the NHL's leading scorer with the man advantage made amends with slapshot of his own that lifted the Canadiens to a 3-2 overtime win and a 2-0 series lead.

2. Pavel Datsyuk, Red Wings:
Though he only had one assist, Datsyuk was clearly the impact player during Detroit's 4-2 win over Nashville. He won 10 of 15 faceoffs, had two takeaways, delivered three hits, and consistently set the Predators back on their heels with his speed and playmaking.

3. Mike Ribeiro, Stars:
His breakaway goal opened the scoring and sucked the life out of the home crowd, but it was his pair of power play assists, including on Mike Modano's third-period game winner, that better exemplified what he brought to the game. He brought the passion out last night and single-handedly overwhelmed the Ducks.

Game 52 Came Too Soon

The season came to a close with a one-sided loss to Lambton Shore by a score of 5-0. The skating and shooting of the opponents clearly demonstrated how much more work the Storm need to do to compete at the highest level of the Midget B tier. Lambton Shore were last year's champions but they may not be good enough this year to win a medal.

Still this team has come a long way over the past 7 1/2 months and 52 games. They really came together as a team and for the most part were able to challenge some very good teams. There is reason to be optimistic about next season.

GO STORM GO!

Last Night's Stars

1. Henrik Lundqvist, Rangers
Lundqvist made 26 saves, some of them spectacular. His goaltending was the difference last night and lifted the Rangers to their ninth victory in 10 games against the Devils this season. Which tells you how this series is gong to go. The save of the game may have come in the second period when Lundqvist stoned Paul Martin on a power-play point shot.

2. Sidney Crosby, Penguins

You cannot overlook the four-assist performance by Sid the Kid including setting up the late 2 goals by Ryan Malone to win the game. Honourable mention should go to Martin Gerber who faced 54 shots in the game and kept the Senators alive until the final few minutes. He would have been a star if his teammates had been able to help him steal a win.

3. Alex Ovechkin, Capitals
How do you make an impression in your postseason debut? By netting the game-winner and lifting the Caps to their first playoff win since 2003. Even more impressive: Ovechkin, whose 446 shots were second-most in a season in NHL history, didn't register a shot until nearly 13 minutes in the third. But he lead all players in the game with 8 hits.

Storm Eliminated from Moving On

Well it wasn't a great way to start a pivotal game. The Barrie Sharks scored just 32 seconds into the game although the Storm played hard the rest of the way. It just wasn't good enough to beat the strong Shark team. The 4-1 loss eliminated the Storm from moving on the the Quarter Finals. In the second of the day the Storm generated some good scoring chances but the Barrie goaltending was outstanding as it has been all season. It wasn't until the third period when Sheri stripped a Barrie defenseman of the puck and went on a 2 on 1 with Marley that the shutout was broken. At that point the score was 3-1. Kendra was pulled in the last minute of the game and Barrie clinched with an empty net goal.

Lambton Shores, with 2 wins has already won a quarter final pot. The other will go to the winner of the Barrie vs. Vaughan game.

The other Storm teams have been doing much better. Bother the Midget A and BB teams have opened up with a win and a tie each. Both are in the running to move on to the Quarter Finals.

New Yankee Stadium has been Sabotaged

The new Yankee Stadium may be cursed!

A devilish Boston fan working on a concrete crew at the $1.3 billion stadium covertly buried a Red Sox T-shirt under what will become the visiting team's locker room to jinx the Yanks, two construction workers told The New York Post yesterday.

"In August, a Red Sox T-shirt was poured in a slab in the visitor's clubhouse. It's the curse of the Yankees," one worker said. "Nobody knows about it. It's in the floors, it's buried."

The workers say they now fear that they unwittingly helped hex their beloved Bronx Bombers.

"I don't want to be responsible for sinking the franchise," said a second worker, who witnessed the sabotage. "I respect the stadium."

Provincial Let Down

Playing in pressure games is tough and the young Storm team certainly found that out in their first Provincial game. In response to the pressure, players reverted back to a style of play that we haven't seen in many months. The result was a disappointing 3-1 loss to Vaughan. It was disappointing because all the players knew that could have done better and the opponents were beatable.

The game started off well and Mari buried a big rebound off a shot by Sheri in the first period. The one goal lead until the second period when the Vaughan captain scored the first of two goals on the powerplay. Less than two minutes later she scored again and the final goal was scored with only 28 seconds left in the period while on the powerplay.

The goal for the next two games to get back to the wide open style of game that has been so successful for the team for the past 3 months.

Last Night's Stars

1. Evgeni Nabokov, Sharks
Nabokov came up with a pure gem Thursday night in the Shark Tank -- and his sixth career postseason shutout. Without it, the Sharks would've gone to the Saddledome in a huge 0-2 hole. And that scrambling, diving save on Owen Nolan was incredible.

2. Carey Price, Canadiens
In addition to the flying Kostitsyn brothers, Price also was making his postseason debut. The unflappable rookie only had to make 17 saves, but more than a few were with heavy traffic swarming in front. The kid also had the weight of 21,273 fanatic Hab fans watching his every move.

3. Dan Ellis
Yup, I'm going with three goalies for the three stars. It's playoffs afterall. Although Nashville lost, Ellis was spectacular stopping 37 out of 39 shots. He had faced 26 shots going into the 3rd period with the score 1-1 until giving one up to Zetterberg on a possibly offside play.

We found a linemate for Marley and Maryssa

Last Night's Stars

1. Gary Roberts

Roberts is always the playoff warrior and in recent years has broken the hearts of Senator fans. Last night was no different as he shook off the rust from sitting out two months with a broken leg with two goals. The first one was 68 seconds into the game and set the tone of the game. Roberts had some typical big hits that at times border on being illegal. Hard to believe he is 41.

2. Joe Sakic

Sakic has always been Mr. Clutch and at 38 that hasn’t changed. His overtime winner last night was his 8^th in the playoffs and set an NHL record.

3. Scott Gomez

The Rangers will win this series if they can generate enough offense to beat Brodeur and the scoring-challenged Devils. Gomez provided the spark last night the Rangers need to take away home ice advantage from New Jersey.

Is Brian Burke Coming to Toronto?

It is almost universally accepted that Brian Burke is at the top of the Maple Leaf's list of prospective General Managers. And why would he be with his track record. There also is a constant buzz that he is headed here once the season ends for Anaheim. But is he really interested in the Maple Leaf job?

According to Burke, the Leafs haven't asked Anaheim for permission to discuss the job with him and he emphatically states there has been no contact. The mere suggestion of which hints towards tampering, which aside from a seven-figure fine for the teams involved and the forfeiture of draft picks, would also force Burke to the sidelines for a year. So expect everyone to be above board. With Fletcher filling in as interim GM, the Leafs can wait until their preferred candidate is available. As well, since Burke's contract expires at the end of the season, I don't think the Leafs would even need to ask permission to approach him at that point.

An important factor is Burke's wife Jennifer who is a a successful television host in Vancouver. Burke told the Regina Leader-Post that the chances of his leaving Anaheim for Toronto are remote. Again, that message may be more to ease concerns of his team as they begin another run at the Cup.

Clearly he is happy in Anaheim. He is working for a terrific owner and has constructed a first class organization. But in southern California people care about UCLA football, the Dodgers, the Lakers, etc. But no one really cares about the Ducks. So there may be a desire to move to a better hockey market. That might not be Toronto since someone like Burke would be a welcome addition to most NHL teams. As I see it, there are 3 possible scenarios.

1. Burke will use the Leaf vacancy to leverage a mega-contract from the Anaheim owner.
2. Burke is trying to create a bidding war for his services and will go to the highest bidder.
3. Burke is intrigued by the Leaf offer and will bolt from the Ducks once his contract expires.

Only time will tell which scenario plays itself out.

Classiest Player in the NHL

Alright, hockey fans. After months of deliberation and tireless research, we have narrowed the field to three nominees for the title of “Classiest Player in the NHL”

Nominee No. 1 - Jarome Iginla

This will even bring a grown man to tears.

Nominee No. 2 - Sean Avery



Nominee No. 3 - Steve Downie




POLLS ARE NOW OPEN!

NHL First Round Predictions

Detroit Red Wings vs. Nashville Predators
Detroit has several players on their roster (Lidstrom, Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Rafalski) who should be better than any Nashville player in this round. Lidstrom is likely the second best player in the league this year and will get Hart Trophy votes. Detroit should win.

San Jose Sharks vs. Calgary Flames
Calary has the three same players carrying it - Iginla, Kiprusoff and Phaneuf. But that's pretty much the NHL these days under the salary cap. Joe Thornton, Brian Campbell and Evgeni Nabokov are approximately equal to the big three in Calgary but the supporting cast is better. I'm taking San Jose.

Colorado Avalanche vs. Minnesota Wild
Colorado really improved down the stretch adding Peter Forsberg and Adam Foote and having Paul Stastny, Joe Sakic and Ryan Smyth return from injury. Forsberg hasn't played much but has looked good. Avs should win.

Anaheim Ducks vs. Dallas Stars
Anahein is just too strong for the Stars. This one might not be very pretty considering how much Dallas has struggled lately.

Montreal Canadiens vs. Boston Bruins
A classic original 6 match up. Montreal has a very good balanced attack and Carey Price. That should be enough to win in the first round.

Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Ottawa Senators
Ottawa fell apart in the stretch and lost Daniel Alfredsson to injury. Pittsburgh may still have questions in goal, but they made a big trade adding Hossa to go with Malkin and Crosby (who may not be 100% healthy). Pittsburgh looks like the team to beat here.

Washington Capitals vs. Philadelphia Flyers
Washington has been the best team in the east for the last couple months of the season and needed that run to barely make the playoffs. The Flyers actually finished with a better record but they struggled at the end of the season. Ovechin was the best player in the regular season but has never played in the playoffs. Still I like Washington in this one but I expect it to be close.

New Jersey Devils vs. New York Rangers
The Devils have a better team on paper and the better goalie. Still I'm thinking that if an upset is going to happen in the first round, this might be it. So I'm picking New York.

Leafs Pick 7th

The Leafs pick 7th overall in the first round of the Entry Draft which should be a pretty good player considering the strength of the draft this year. There are 4 outstanding defenseman in the draft although they may all be gone by the 7th pick. Here is a history of 7th picks over the last 10 years. However, not every 7th pick turns out to be a star player.

2007 - Jakub Voráček - Columbus
2006 - Kyle Okposo- NY Islanders
2005 - Jack Skille - Chicago
2004 - Rostislav Olesz - Florida
2003 - Ryan Suter - Nashvillie
2002 - Joffrey Lupul - Anaheim
2001 - Mike Komisarek - Montreal
2000 - Lars Jonsson - Boston
1999 - Kris Beech - Washington
1998 - Manny Malhotra - NY Rangers

Storm Warm Up for the Big Show

The Storm shook off some rust tonight in the first period and then coasted to 3-2 win over the Vaughan Flames in an exhibition game. As the game progressed the skating and passing improved and in the second period the Storm exploded for three goals in just five minutes. The last two goals were scored 17 seconds apart with less than one minute remaining in the second period.

Scoring for the Storm was Jackie, Lauren N and Marley. In addition, Sheri picked up a pair of assists. Jackie scored on the powerplay when she skated from the faceoff circle to in the front of the net and lifted a shot into the top corner on the goalie's glove side. Late in the second Lauren fired a wrist shot at the net that changed directions when it went off a Vaughan defenseman past the goalie. With just 17 seconds remaining Marley crashed the net off a faceoff to bang in a rebound. It was overall a good effort.

On Friday morning the two teams meet again but this time the game counts.

Renovated Museum Station

On April 8th, the TTC will be unveiling the $5 million renovated Museum station. The load bearing columns are based on artifacts displayed in the Royal Ontario Museum – a First Nations' house post, a figure representing the Egyptian god Osiris, replicas of imperial Chinese columns from the Forbidden City, pristine Doric columns from Ancient Greece and a column based on a Toltec figurine at the Gardiner Ceramic Museum.

The trackside walls have sleek aluminum panels instead of tiles. There's a bold new MUSEUM sign on the walls, with hieroglyphics contained in each letter that come from the tomb of an Egyptian nobleman who died around 2,300 BC.

This is the first of three station renovations planned on the University line, a cultural corridor that includes Osgoode station, beside the Opera House, and St. Patrick, a few minutes' walk from the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Below are before and after pictures.

Free Agent Signings

If you were disappointed in the Jason Blake signing well he wasn't the only free agent disappointment. Of the top 25 scorers in the NHL in 2007-08, not a single one was acquired as a free agent last summer. The top free agents were Daniel Briere (28th) and Scott Gomez (37th), and it took a boat full of money for the next 7 years or so to sign them. And for that you get 70-point seasons from players at the supposed peak of their careers.

Of the top 50 NHL scorers, only 14% were acquired through free agency. Most of these top scorers were still playing for the team that drafted them. The lesson here is, if you're a team like Toronto that will be looking to add a scorer via free agency in the off-season, be prepared to (a) overpay and (b) receive dwindling production. So hang onto Sundin until you can develop your own scorers. With the salary cap and parity, most teams are able to afford their top stars and sign them long term.

Leaf Fans are Pathetic

Great Career Ended This Weekend

Who would you want to avoid in the NHL East?

There is no question I would not want to be facing the Washington Capitals in the first round of the playoffs. They are coming in with tremendous momentum and Ovechkin is destroying team records as he carries the Caps into the postseason. He will likely make Bruce Boudreau coach of the year. Talk about being in the right place at the right time.

When Ovechkin hit the magic 60-goal mark on March 21, he became only the 38th player to do so in league history. Until this season, however, every 60-goal campaign had come in a season that averaged at least 6.13 goals a game. The NHL has averaged 5.45 goals scored a game this season, which means 2007-08 is set to become the sixth-lowest-scoring season in the past 50 years.

Gretzky's 92-goal campaign in 1981-82, for instance, came in a year when goal scoring reached an all-time high, 8.03 goals a game. Comparing the two vastly different eras is difficult, but Gretzky's season, percentage-wise, converts to 64 goals in 82 games by today's standards. That's how good Ovechkin is.

So tell me which team you would want to avoid in postseason? Poll is on the sidebar.

5 MLSE Employees Fired

if it wasn't enough that the Leafs are out of the playoff and rudderless, still without a GM, and the Raptors are now at risk of missing the playoffs too, there's been a shake-up at the senior executive level.

Jim Edmands, director of sales and service, has resigned, following a discovery of ticket irregularities during the last week of March. Five other employees have been fired.

It's not clear what kind of "irregularities" occurred. If I were venture to guess it would be the discovery of employees supplying scalpers with tickets. Or maybe something more sinister like spiking the players' water bottles with tranquilizers.

Why The Leafs Stink

There is absolutely nothing new in the Macleans article this week. They break down 41 years of Maple Leafs futility including all the bad draft picks and bad coaches. They also discuss the Maple Leafs' general managers who authored some of the most disastrous trades in NHL history. Because you want to be reminded about the Kenny Jonsson and Roberto Luongo for Wendel Clark and Mathieu Schneider trade or about 1st round picks like Brandon Convery, Jeff Ware and Luca Cereda.

I strongly recommend not bringing these Leafs back

I really thought I was done dumping on the Leafs until I saw last night's game. Despite how the announcers called it and despite the fact the league indicates that the hit was clean, Mark Bell hit on Alfredsson was uncalled for. It's not like Bell has been throwing body checks all season. In fact, he has shown very few signs of life out on the ice. And that shoulder he hit Alfredsson with had some elbow in it. Check it out for yourself below. It was borderline and on a guy with his head down. Beside it was a game that meant nothing to the Leafs and they played like it didn't matter. Just another example of how the players show little respect for each other on the ice. Oh and earlier in the game Bell knocked Mike Fisher out of the game with a knee injury. By the way Ferguson wasn't forced to take Bell with Toskala. He claims he wanted him.

Even worse was Darcy Tucker. After his shoving match with Dany Heatley he can clearly be seen mouthing the words "watch your knees". Now if you recall, Heatley seriously injured his leg in that fatal car accident he was involved in while with Atlanta. Yelling threats like that is totally uncalled for. Why does the NHL allow it. Other professional sports league would fine a player for that.

Just another example of why this roster needs to be cleared out.

Oops, Cubs commit another error

Let's face it the Chicago Cubs are more inept than the Toronto Maple Leafs. Given the Cubs century of futility, it's only fitting that once again a joyous event in team history is tainted with failure.

As part of Monday's Opening Day festivities, the team unveiled a statue of Ernie Banks outside Wrigley Field. Banks was the National League Most Valuable Player in 1958 and 1959 while playing shortstop. A first-ballot Hall of Famer, Banks played his entire career with the Cubs (1953-1971). He was a 15-time All-Star and won a Gold Glove at shortstop in 1960.

Well it seems along one side of the statue's base, sculptor Lou Cella of Fine Art Studio of Rotblatt-Amrany carved Banks' famous quote "Let's Play Two" into the block of granite. Except he forgot the apostrophe, so it reads, "Lets Play Two."

An engraver came by today and added the missing apostrophe. Still just another reason to dump on the hopeless Cubs.

Maybe Next Year....

Maple Leaf Season Highlights

Darcy Tucker shows that he can still yap with the best.




Bryan McCabe scores on his own net in overtime.




Vesa Toskala gives up a 178 foot goal.




Ponikarovsky blows a lead against Carolina with seconds left.




Colaiacovo gets hurt, again.




Andrew Raycroft misplays another puck.




Andy Wozniewski shows off his foot speed.

How do the Leaf defensemen compare?

People often focus too much on scoring when it comes to defensemen. I think Bobby Orr created this expectation that defensemen should also score. So with Pavel Kubina's recent scoring splurge, fans are having second thoughts about his usefulness. The same can be said for Anton Stralman after his 2 goal performance against Montreal. I like to look at =/- stats. How do they perform in 5 on 5 situations. Here is the ranking of Leaf defenders.

Wozneiski; 48 games +5
Kubina; 69 games +4
McCabe; 51 games +3
Kronwell; 15 games +1
Colaiacovo; 28 games -4
White; 71 games -7
Stralman; 47 games -7
Kaberle; 79 games -8

It seems the defensemen you are most likely to get rid of are a plus while the "keepers" are a minus. Why is that? No clue. Maybe the stay at home defensemen fair better than the rushing defensemen.

In Honor Of Opening Day: Worst First Pitch Of All Time

North York Storm Midget B Tryouts

Tryouts will be at The Rinx which are located at 65 Orfus Road just south of Yorkdale off Dufferin.

Thursday, April 24th, 9:00 pm - 10:00 pm (Rink 3)

Friday, April 25th, 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm (Rink 1)

Saturday, April 26th, 3:20 pm - 4:20 pm (Rink 3)

Gordie Howe Turns 80

Monday is Gordie Howe's 80th birthday. He was an incredible athlete, playing professional hockey into his 50s. In fact, at 50, he led his team, the New England Whalers of the World Hockey Association, in scoring with 96 points. He played 25 seasons for the Detroit Red Wings and was a top-five scorer in the NHL for 20 consecutive years. He could do it all - score, bodycheck and intimidate his opponents, for 32 seasons.

Happy birthday Mr. Hockey!

Below Gordie Howe scores a "Howe Hat Trick" (of sorts) with a goal, high-stick and ejection with the WHA Houston Aeros vs. Winnipeg Jets Dec. 2 1975.

Raycroft Playing Tonight

Tank Nation will be rejoicing tonight. Andrew Raycroft, the poster boy for every wrong move by ex-GM John Ferguson will be moving from his regular spot at the end of the bench, replacing his baseball cap with his facemask to face the 1st place Canadiens. Now if the coach can only give more ice time to his indifferent veterans Bryan McCabe, Darcy Tucker and Jason Blake we can have a perfect finish to this miserable season - six striaght loses.

Below is Raycroft's career in 5 seconds.



UPDATE: Toskala played again last night. Raycroft is scheduled to play against Buffalo on Tuesday. Meanwhile the Leafs who fell as low as 28th overall are now 22nd and could still move up a spot or two.

Storm Banquet was a blast

The rest of the pictures are right here.

Maple Leafs Make Vacation Plans

While the rest of us have to wait until May for some nice weather, the Leafs are likely busy making travel plans for some well deserved rest. As expected their season ends next weekend. Next Saturday's game against Montreal might be Mats Sundin's last NHL game. It will be the last game as a Maple Leaf for several of his teammates.

This week's games against the Bruins were representative of the season as whole. Bad defense, weak penalty killing, no toughness, no intensity and no veteran leadership outside of Sundin. Last night in the 2nd period I counted 3 tournovers by Bryan McCabe alone. Jason Blake went for a nice skate but as always never much of a threat on the ice. Darcy Tucker who used to hate to lose - seems to be okay with it now.

Thanks to John Ferguson, the Maple Leaf lineup is pretty much set for next season which makes Cliff Fletcher's job that much challenging. The Marlies may have a lot of NHL experience next season. Here is the salary or status of the Leaf team (as well as the cap hit) for next season.

Sundin - UFA
Blake - $4.5 million (cap hit $4.0)
Tucker - $3.0 ($3.0)
Ponikarovsky - $2.24 ($2.105)
Antropov - $2. 15 ($1.973)
Bell - $2.5 ($1.796)
Steen $1.7 ($1.7)
Stajan - RFA
Wellwood - RFA
Tlusty - $0.85 ($0.7)
Devereaux - $0.6 ($0.575)
Moore - UFA
Pohl - UFA
Battaglia - $0.65 ($0.65)
McCabe - $6.15 ($5.75)
Kubina $5.0 ($5.0)
Kaberle - $4.25 ($4.25)
Colaiacovo - $1.4 ($1.283)
White - $0.85 ($0.85)
Stralman $0.615 ($0.615)
Wozniewski - UFA
Kronwall - $0.5 ($0.487)
Toskala - $4.0 ($4.0)
Raycroft - $2.2 ($2.0)
Clemmenson - UFA
Pogge - $0.55 ($0.55)

So the cap hit on the contract commitments for next season is $41.285 million without Sundin, Moore, Wellwood and Stajan. Might be an expensive Marlie lineup.

Some Recommended Stretches for Carlo Colaiacovo

Leaf Victory Flowchart

click on flowchart to enlargen

Source

Who the Maple Leafs Should Bring Back Next Year

My loyal blog readers have expressed their views on what moves the Leafs should make this summer. Now it's my turn. A total rebuild is no guarantee of success. Successful franchises like Detroit and New Jersey never seem to rebuild. While other franchises are constantly rebuilding. In today's cap world you need the most bang for your buck. There is little room for error. Even when you've spent wisely, injuries can destroy an entire season.

Looking at the Leafs, I think you hang on to players 1) who provide value relative to their salary; 2) fill a specific need; 3) are cheap; and 4) may not provide much value right now but will likely in the future. If you don't fall in one or more categories than you need to go. I'm also not big on buying out contracts. You are limited to only 3 buy-outs under the current collective agreement and the cost of a buy-out limits you financially for years. For example, the Leafs are still carrying the Belfour buy-out this season. So here is my list:

Vesa Toskala: An elite first string goalie is a necessity in the NHL. Toskala fits that description and will earn his $4.0 million salary that kicks in next season.

Andrew Raycroft: He earns $2.2 million next season, which is too much for a back up. He should be shipped to the Marlies to free up cap space. Perhaps if he bounces back some NHL team may show some interest. His replacement could be Scott Clemmensen or any other cheap back up available over the summer. Justin Pogge has been sharing the net with Clemmensen because he has not shown enough to win the first string job. He should stay with the Marlie until he establishies himself as a #1 goalie.

Mats Sundin: Sundin is looking at the Leafs on a season to season basis. Frankly its hard to rebuild a team when a key player will not commit beyond one season. I would be happy if he retired and those dollars go to a younger free agent who you can sign for a longer period (eg., Hossa).

Nik Antropov: Brittle and slow. But he has size and a scoring touch. His $2.15 million salary for next year makes him a bargain if you can get 70 games out of him.

Alexei Ponikarovsky: Good skater and good size. Average scoring ability. Salary is reasonable and he will be a decent 2nd line player.

Darcy Tucker: We all know that Tucker plays with a lot of heart and emotion - when healthy. When he is banged up all his shortcomings become very noticeable - lack of size, speed and defense. You can't get rid of everyone so he is worth bringing back after a summer of R&R.

Jason Blake: Ferguson's worst free agent signing and you knew it the day it was announced. Giving a 5 year contract to a small 34 year old forward who is not really good enough to play of a 1st line makes no sense. You will never be able to move this contract. Maybe they can find a centre for him that will help get a little more offense out of him.

Alex Steen: Just signed a new deal. He has moments of great hockey interspersed between a lot of mundane hockey. Easily pushed off the puck. He will never live up to a first round pick but is a decent 2-way player who will fill in on a 2nd or 3rd line. He is still young.

Mats Stajan: Developing into a solid 2-way player. Will be an excellent shutdown centre who can contribute offensively. A definite keeper.

Mark Bell: I cannot see him earning his $2.5 million salary next season. Would look much better in a Marlie sweater.

Kyle Wellwood: He has been awful but at 24 he is too young and his hands are too good to write off quite yet. He is a RFA this summer and won't be earning a raise. He needs to improve his fitness level, drop some weight and play with more intensity. If a good trade offer comes in, grab it.

Boyd Devereaux: Strong skater and defensive player who can chip in with some scoring. Not sure why the Red Wings didn't keep him around. Next year's salary is $0.6 million which is good value for a 4th liner.

Dominic Moore: Very fast and a gives you 100% effort on every shift. Very good on face offs. He is only 26 and although an UFA in the summer will be cheap to resign. Good value as a 4th liner.

John Pohl: Not as good as Moore and 2 years older. Will be an UFA this summer. I would let cut him loose.

Jiri Tlusty: He should have been with the Marlie all season getting lots of ice time. Unless he can earn a spot on one of the top 3 lines, I would have him play next season on the Marlies. Another season of 8 minutes of ice time per game will not benefit the team or Tlusty.

Jeremy Williams/Kris Newbury/Darryl Boyce/Alex Foster: Young players at various stages of development. One or more might win a spot. Right now, the Leafs seriously lack toughness and only Newbury provides that.

Tomas Kaberle: Best defenseman on the team and is paid a reasonable salary. The offense and powerplay would seriously falter if he is moved and fortunately he vetoed a trade. At 29 he has years of good hockey left and has few injuries. He seems to make his defense partner play better by doing all the puck handling or them.

Pavel Kubina/Bryan McCabe: The Kubina signing made no sense. You don't pay a 3rd defenseman $5 million because he will never get enough ice time to justify that salary. So one of these two players has to go. I don't really care because neither is worth the money. Kubina has a provision in his contract that gives the Leafs a 6-week window to trade him this summer. Alternatively, McCabe may agree to move to a New York team in a trade if they will have him. Maybe the Leafs might get lucky this summer.

Carlo Colaiacovo: Very talented so you need to stick with him. He is only 24. However, he is one of those players who you would move for the right offer.

Ian White: Only 23 years old. Why would you give up on him?

Anton Stralman: The type of player you rebuild around.

Andy Wozniewski: An UFA this summer. I volunteer to help pack his bags.

Stefan Kromwell: Also only 24 and cheap. Defensemen take longer to develop. He has size and is a good skater. You need players like this to provide some depth to your team.

That's a total of 16-17 returning players. So this is not a total rebuild but you need to change some of your core players. This team is too soft and weak defensively. The collective agreement will slow down the process so it will likely take two summers to bring about the necessary changes.

NHL Eastern Conference Playoff Race

Eastern Conference

1. Montreal - qualified, reached 92 points March 20
2. Pittsburgh - qualified, reached 92 points March 22
3. New Jersey - 0-6-1
4. Ottawa - 0-4-1
5. N.Y. Rangers - 2-5-0
6. Carolina - 2-3-0
7. Philadelphia - 2-3-0
8. Boston - 3-3-0
9. Washington - 4-1-0
10. Buffalo - 5-1-1
11. Florida - eliminated, March 25, max 91 points
12. Toronto - eliminated, March 25, max 90 points
13. N.Y. Islanders - eliminated, March 12, max 85 points
14. Atlanta - eliminated, March 11, max 80 points
15. Tampa Bay - eliminated, March 4, max 80 points

Leafs and Panthers lose last night and can no longer reach 92 points. Washington moves past Buffalo but need to play near perfect hockey the rest of the way to pass Boston or Philadelphia.

Don't blame me, blame the MLSE board

Hey, last night was not my fault. I said I was reluctantly jumping on the Leaf bandwagon. Afterall, they hadn't won more than 3 games in a row all season and after last night they still haven't.

Only Hollywood has Cinderella teams win 9 games in a row to clinch a playoff spot on the last day of the regular season. The script usually has the team go on to win the Championship. But in the movies the team is never controlled by a pension plan, run by an interim manager and stocked with complacent players with no trade contracts.

Hottest NHL Teams Since the Trading Deadline

This year's playoff race is quickly turning into one of the wildest - and weirdest - in the history of ever. So who do you think has the best record since the trading deadline? Four teams not holding a playoff spot.

Florida: 8-1-2 (.818)
Edmonton: 11-3-0 (.786)
Toronto: 8-3-1 (.708)
Washington: 9-4-0 (.692)

So much for deadline deals to strengthen you for the run. Only Washington stocked up. And the other 3 teams were useless leading up to the deadline. How do you explain it?

NHL Eastern Conference Playoff Race

Eastern Conference

1. Montreal - qualified, reached 92 points March 20
2. Pittsburgh - qualified, reached 92 points March 22
3. New Jersey - 0-6-1
4. Ottawa - 1-4-1
5. N.Y. Rangers - 2-5-0
6. Carolina - 2-3-1
7. Philadelphia - 3-3-0
8. Boston - 4-3-0
9. Buffalo - 5-1-1
10. Washington - 5-1-0
11. Florida - 5-0-1
12. Toronto - 6-0-0
13. N.Y. Islanders - eliminated, March 12, max 85 points
14. Atlanta - eliminated, March 11, max 80 points
15. Tampa Bay - eliminated, March 4, max 80 points

If you assume 92 points is required to make the playoffs in the East, then 2 teams have already qualified and 3 teams have been eliminated. The list indicates the record each team needs in the remaining games to reach 92 points. There is virtually no room for a loss if you are Buffalo, Washington, Florida or Toronto unless Boston and Philadelphia collapse over the next 2 weeks.

Nerd Trying a Slam Dunk

Chocolate Bunny Meltdown

Gold? Go Figure!

I've watched a figure skating for a long time and gold medal performance from Jeff Buttle this weekend has to be one of the most impressive I've seen. Although he does not have a quad jump, his program was technically quite difficult and artistically performed. It has been a long climb for Jeff and I thought he might have peaked 2 years ago when he won silver at the Worlds.

Canada was the big winner this year at Worlds as the only country with 3 medals. There was silver for ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir and bronze for the pairs team of Jessica Dubé and Bryce Davison. There has been a significant shift in the skating world over the last 4 years. The Russians often would walk away with half of the 12 medals and would dominate the pairs and ice dance categories. They only won a bronze in the ice dance. The Americans used to be a power in single skating but also came home with just a bronze by Jonny Weir. As the rest of the world catches up the medals are now spread around with Japan, Italy, South Korea, France, Germany and China also winning medals.

I'm reluctantly jumping on the Leaf bandwagon

I guess the Toronto Maple Leafs deserve some fan support. They have won 12 or their last 15 games and had some dramatic come from behind wins. Quite a contrast to earlier in the season when they blew leads in the 3rd period on a regular basis.

So since they've taken themselves out of contention for a top draft pick, I might as well cheer them on. Two weeks ago I declared them officially out of the playoffs. Afterall they had only 11 games remaining and needed 20 points to reach 92 points. And they hadn't won more than 3 games in a row all season. Well they still haven't won more than 3 straight but with only 6 games remaining anything can happen.

But I still don't believe the will make it. Even if they won every single game, 92 points might not be enough considering the way Florida and Washington have been playing. In fact in the past two weeks although the Leafs have closed the gap on 8th place marginally, they are still stuck in 12th place. But yes they are not mathematically out yet. So here is why the Leafs have been winning:

1. Vesa Toskala
Not too many goalies playing better than Toskala these days. Great goaltending can carry you a long way. In fact how many teams in the East other than New Jersey are getting better goaltending than the Leafs? Likely none.

2. Mats Sundin
Mats was carrying the team all season but just couldn't drag them into a playoff spot. This team too often sits back and waits for their captain to get things happening. It's no coincidence that the team plays better when he is injured. The centres have all responded positively to an increase in ice time. I'm not joking but if he comes back too soon, they will come up with a bad game and end this run. It always seems to happen.

3. Matt Stajan
This season has seen Stajan begin to live up to his potential. He is a smart two-way player that was expected to be a decent 2nd or 3rd line centre. With Sundin out of the line up he has stepped it up considerably and is contributing offensive;y. I don't expect it to last but he will develop into good NHL player.

4. Pavel Kubina
Since coming to the Leafs, he has either been hurt of playing like I wish he was hurt. He was slow and prone to coughing the puck up. When McCabe was hurt he moved up to play with Kaberle and the combination of the new partner and more ice time has done wonders. He has been playing very well and contributing offensively. He has scored some big goals in the past 2 weeks. I personally think that Tomas Kaberle is just such a good hockey player that he improves everyone on the ice with him.

GO LEAFS GO!

Brampton Results

The winner of the Midget B division was Norfolk who defeated Brockville this afternoon by a score of 3-1.

A big congratulations to the Storm Midget BB team. They won the Midget BB division and went through the tournament without a loss.

Go Storm Go!

Happy Easter

Hericanes Blow by Storm

Well the quarterfinal match up was against the Norfolk Hericanes who finished 7th out of 8 teams in the powerful West Division in the LLFHL with just a 5-13-6 record. But we quickly learned that there are no weak teams in the West. Norfolk beat the Storm in every aspect of the game, skating, puckhandling, passing and shooting. They won just about every battle for the puck and stripped Storm players of the puck throughout the game. They also walked away with a convincing 4-0 win.

But it was a valuable lesson on how to be aggressive on the puck. We will likely see similar efforts from teams that actually qualified for the Provincial Championships (yes, Norfolk did not qualify).

In other Storm news, the Midget A team finished 3rd in their Pool and qualified for an Elimination Round but failed to move on. The Midget BB team came f1st in their pool and moved on the the quarterfinals. As of midnight the scores for the Midget BB game had not been posted or had the games of the other Midget B quarterfinal games.

Did I say we had as much chance of making the playoffs as the Leafs?

OK. Maybe I did. But then my math skills are better than Mats Sundin.

Yes, it's true that before this afternoon's against Etobicoke I did say mathematically we could make the playoffs in the Brampton Tournament but our chance were about the same as the Maple Leafs. Afterall, we only had one point in the first two games of the Tournament and 11 teams out of 18 had better records than we did. Only the top 2 teams in each of the 3 Pools made the playoffs plus 2 wild card teams.

But I did also say that if the right combination of teams won and loss, if we beat Etobicoke and if we scored a bunch of goals then we would have a decent chance. Well we beat Etobicoke. We scored 4 goals. The right teams won and lost with goal margins that didn't hurt us. And as it turned out we were the first-seeded wild card team.

Against Etobicoke everything seemed to go right. We hit the ice full speed and never looked back. We scored all 4 goals on the powerplay and successfully killed off 5 penalties of our own including 2 separate 5on 3 situations. Again, Kendra and Bianca shard the shutout with the help of a couple of goalposts.

Mari again lead the offensive with 2 goals, her 19th and 20th of the season. The second goal was her 30th point of the season to tie a team record set my Heather last season. Lauren F crashed into the net for her first goal of the season and Rebecca also scored a goal.

It was quite clear after whether we had been successful in grabbing a playoff spot although the team played very well in all three games. But later in the afternoon as the scores began to be posted, it became clear that we had made it.

Poll Results on who should the Maple Leafs get rid of this summer

So below are the results of the poll on who the Leafs should get rid of this summer. I could have listed the entire roster but left of Toskala, Antropov and Sundin, three veterans that the team has to keep right now as well as the young cheap players who have sufficient upside (though they may never fulfill expectations) like Tlusty, Steen Stajan, Stalman and Coloaiavaco. Though I'm sure people will disagree with these players as well.

Andrew Raycroft 90%
John Pohl 70%
Andy Wozniewski 60%
Darcy Tucker 56%
Mark Bell 46%
Ian White 40%
Bryan McCabe 36%
Pavel Kubina 36%
Kyle Wellwood 36%
Jason Blake 33%
Boyd Devereaux 36%
Dominic Moore 30%
Alexei Ponikarovsky 30%
Tomas Kaberle 16%

It is pretty clear at the top end and the bottom end which players in the list should go and which should stay. Though I would love to hear an argument on why the Leafs should hang onto Raycroft from the few people who thought he should stay. Also I can't understand why some people felt Kaberle should go. He may only be an average defender in his own end but few defenseman in the league have his puckhanding ability. He makes whoever is paired with him (McCabe, Kubina) look good and he salary is very reasonable. In fact he is 3rd on the team's defense pay scale but clearly the best defenseman. The group in the middle is seem to be bunched together. Obviously you have to keep some players for next season even if you totally rebuild and a number of players would be difficult to move out.

Ranger Fans a Little Louder Than Leaf Fans

Good Friday at the Brampton Tournament

Well after a three week layoff, the Storm finally got back on the ice, in fact twice, on the first day of the Brampton Tounament. The first game was against the Lindsay Linx who were 10-8-6 during the regular season. The rust was apparent during the first half of the game but slowly the skating legs began to return. Lindsay jumped into a 1-0 first period lead. The Storm pressed throughout the third period but failed to score despite several excellent chances. So the Storm lose another game by a score of 1-0.

Later in the day, the Storm were up against the Guelph Thunder who were 11-4-9 during the regular season. Well with the Storm and Thunder out on ice all we were missing with the Lightning (ok, excuse the pun). It was another typical hard skating game that at one point looked like it would be a scoreless tie. But in the third period Guelph scored a powerplay goal with Lauren F in the penalty box. However, the Storm fought back with Mari scoring a goal with a few minutes left in the game. It happened to be Mari's 18th goal this season which set a single season record for the Midget B team. The previous mark of 17 goals was set by Alex Matyjiw in the 2004-05 season.

The single point in 2 games will make it difficult to make the quarter finals unless it's as one of the two wild card teams. The Pool C standings are:

Brockville 4 pts
Lindsay 4 pts
Etobicoke 2 pts
North York 1 pt
Guelph 1 pt
West Northumberland o pt

Poll Results for NHL MVP

Well opinions shifted significantly from December for good reason. Since that time injuries have slowed down some players while others surged in the second half. The voting pretty much split between Ovechkin and Brodeur. Neither players were MVP contenders in December. Back then the vote was split between Lecavalier, Crosby and Sundin though a lot of Leaf fans skewed the vote here. Below is the current poll results with December in brackets.

Ovechkin 35% (0%)
Brodeur 26% (0%)
Malkin 11% (0%)
Crosby 8% (29%)
Sundin 5% (26%)
Kovalchuk 5% (11%)
Alfredsson 2% (5%)
Zetterberg 2% (5%)
Lecavalier 0% (26%)
Leclaire 0% (5%)

Another Nasty Injury

Sharks rookie Torrey Mitchell shoves the Wild defenceman Kurtis Foster into the boards on an icing call. Mitchell gets a 2 minute tripping penalty. Foster gets surgery to fix a displaced fracture in his left femur and gets a steel rod inserted in his leg.

So does this look like an intentional act? Mitchell claims he fell into him. Should he have shown more caution going into the boards at that speed? Does it merit some sort of additional punishment like a suspension? Do enough of these injuries occur to justify bringing in no-touch icing?

Bobby Orr Turns 60

Hard for me to believe it but Bobby Orr has turned 60. One of hockey's biggest legends. He is a Canadian cultural icon. Legend has it that the Maple Leafs screwed up signing the local phenom. Stephen Brunt of the Globe has done an excellent story on Orr.

One of my favourite Orr memories was the famous Quinn hit. In 1969, Pat Quinn was a slow hulking defenseman for the Maple Leafs who caught Orr with his head down and knocked him out. Quinn was assessed a questionable elbow penalty - mostly for having the gall to knockout a hockey God in BOSTON! The Boston fans went crazy. Quinn had to be escorted from the penalty box because some of the fans began hitting him. Garbage rained down in Quinn's direction. Finally police were brought in to safely escort Quinn to the dressing room.

Hard to say who the greatest NHL player of all time. The game has evolved so much that comparisons don't work. But I never saw a player dominate in the way that Bobby Orr did in his era. When he played he was the fastest skater, the best stickhandler, and the most accurate shot. He was so good he made stars on other teams look ordinary. He was the only defenseman to win a scoring championship.

For those who never got to see him play, look at this highlight reel of Bobby Orr rushing the puck.

LLHL Playoffs - Round 2

Here are the results of the second round of the Midget B Central Division:

Barrie vs. North Simcoe > Barrie advances with 2 wins
(Barrie had won season series with 1-0-2 record)

Aurora vs. Orangeville > Aurora advances with 2 wins
(Aurora had won season series with 2-0-1 record)

Happy Purim...

...from Nosh the Hamentash!

Ooops, Toskala Lets in a 200 Footer

Baseball Players are Wimps

I noticed that Blue Jay pitcher A.J. Burnett has been whining about the finger nail he lost in a car door at spring training. He can't throw his curveball until the nail grows back in so poor A.J. has been working on a changeup during spring. I wonder if this were the regular season, whether Burnett would have spent some time on the disabled list.

It reminds me of some other whimpy injuries that have disabled Blue Jays in the past. Rico Carty was disabled my a plastic toothpick in his finger. His batting average dropped from .320 to .245 as a result of that injury. Bob Bailor was disabled after being cut my oyster shells. Paul Molitor dislocated a knuckle when it got stuck in another player's glove. Glenallen Hill missed a few games after falling out of his bed while having an arachnophobic dream about spiders. He dreamt that spiders were devouring him, jumped off his bed, fell through a glass table, and crawled through the shards of glass.

But there are some stranger injuries on other teams. Charlie Hough broke his pinky finger while shaking hands. Mickey Tettleton went on the DL with a severe case of athlete's foot - caused by tying his shoes too tight. I'm not making this stuff up.

Jose Cardenal missed a game in 1972 because he was kept awake all night by crickets chirping in his hotel room. Jose Cardenal missed a game in 1974, because he couldn't blink. He swore his eyes were stuck open. OK, Jose had issues.

Rickey Henderson missed several games because of frost- bite. In August! Kevin Mitchell strained a muscle while vomiting. Reliever Larry Anderson strained a rib muscle getting out of a Jucuzzi.

Terry Harper injured his shoulder after giving another player a high five. Greg Harris injured his shoulder trying to flick sunflower seeds into the stands from the bullpen.

Baseball players are the softest athletes on this planet.

Most Expensive NHL Suspension

I was thinking that the 8 game suspension that Chris Pronger was serving might be the most expensive since he will be giving up about $609,000 in salary of his annual salary of $6.25 million. Chris Simon's 30 game suspension only cost him $174,000 since his annual salary is just $475,000.

When you look back at the longer suspensions, naturally Todd Bertuzzi's name jumps out at you. With all the ruckus around the length of his suspension, it was only 20 games because of the lockout. However, 7 of those games were playoff games and players are paid in full by the end of the regular season. So I am guessing Bertuzzi only lost salary for the 13 regular season games he sat out. However, his contract that year was $6.8 million which means he lost out on $1,078,000.

Now that hurts. But not as much as what Steve Moore lost.

Leafs Back in the Race for 1st Overall Pick

Tank Nation has been pretty glum lately. Cliff Fletcher was unable to blow up the team. Then the team goes on 3 week stretch where they are playing their best hockey of the season. So with Nik Antropov and Mats Sundin on the shelf for a while, Tank Nation must be feeling pretty good these days.

Right now the Leafs are in 25th place overall which takes them out of contention for the 1st pick in the draft since you can only move up 4 places. But they have an 6.2% chance of winning the lottery which means 2nd pick overall. And if the Islanders who are 3 points behind the Leafs can catch them, the Leafs will have an 8.1% chance at the 1st pick overall. Let's hope that Swedish groin hurts for a little longer.

It's incredible how little depth the Leafs have. Colorado, Detroit, Boston and Pittsburgh have had injuries to key players and continued to win. You would expect high-priced help like Darcy Tucker and Jason Blake to step it up but that hasn't happened. Makes you wonder why so many people voted to keep Blake in my poll in the sidebar.

On to one juicy Sundin rumour. The source is Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun. The same Steve Simmons who said last summer that Sundin needed potentially career-ending hip surgery. It's funny that after that story was proven to be false. Anyway Simmons has reported (cough cough) that the Montreal Canadiens had offered for Sundin - Christopher Higgins and their first, second and third-round draft picks. Toronto agreed, but Sundin refused to go.

No Suspension?

I've always said the NHL looks the other way when it comes to fouls by Chris Pronger. How is that different than the following the earned Chris Simon a 30-game suspension?



UPDATE: The NHL just handed Pronger an 8 game suspension. It's about time!

The Maple Leaf Rebuilding Program

Naturally, the Maple Leaf Rebuilding Program has nothing to do with condo construction. As Cliff Fletcher has alluded to on several occasions, he will embark on rebuilding the team so that it can compete for the Stanley Cup. Of course he will only start the process that will hopefully completed by his successor.

So who would you keep or get rid of this summer? Keep in mind you need to ice a roster of 23 players in the fall so you can't get rid of everyone. Some players maybe worth keeping as spare parts rather as key players to rebuild around. Has the performance of some of the players in the past few weeks made you reconsider their value to the team? Throw in your two cents by taking the poll on the sidebar.

Awareness Test

*Click Here*

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Introducing Your Dysfunctional Maple Leafs..."

...cue the music.

Let me see, at the beginning of the season, Leaf management characterized the team as one that could contend. Not for a playoff spot, but for the Stanley Cup. As for the players, well they just sucked for 4 entire months. In January management decides the team sucks. They fire the GM and bring in Cliff Fletcher who has nothing nice to say about the team. He wants to blow it up and start again. Except the players disagree and start playing inspired hockey. In fact some of the most maligned players are carrying the team.

Leaf Nation, what are you supposed to do? Cheer the team on or sign up for Tank Nation? Welcome to the most dysfunctional team in the NHL. Where management, the coaches and the players are never on the same page.

Either we are watching the biggest comeback in NHL history. Equal to the 1989 Blue Jays who were struggling in sixth-place in a seven-team A.L. East division with a 38-45 won-lost record before going 51-28 in the final 12 weeks of the season to win the division crown by two games over the Orioles. Or our inspired Maple Leafs are chasing their favourite spot - 9th place.

Maybe this year is different. No I don't mean the Leafs will pull it off. It would take Divine Intervention for the Leafs to make the playoffs but the Big Guy appears to be too busy getting Barack Obama elected President. I think this year most members of Leaf Nation aren't fooled by the late season charge. We've seen it before. Cliff Fletcher isn't being fooled either.

What's really happening is that players and coaches are auditioning for jobs next year. Whether you have a no trade contract or not, people are being evaluated and no one wants their head on the chopping block. Maybe some late season heroics might change some minds about your value to the team.