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Leafs after the First Quarter

Saturday's 3-0 win against the Senators can be read in many different ways. The Leafs have turned the corner. Ottawa was flat. This is what the Leafs can do with a full lineup. Paul Maurice is getting through to the players.

But as Coach Bruce has been quoted "even a blind squirrel will come up with the occasional nut." Bad teams can have great games and great teams can play some awful games. And the NHL season is made up of 82 games.

When looking at the Leafs over the first 21 games, they have been the model of inconsistency much as they have been for the last two seasons. They swing between good and bad games without any predictability. They did everything right on Saturday night but against the Bruins on Thursday, they did everything wrong. Without an extended winning or losing streak, the Leafs will likely repeat the scenario played out in the past two season which is fighting for the last playoff spot right to the last weekend of the season.

Leaf management is reluctant to change the core of this team because on paper it looks good and frequently during the season also looks good on the ice. As well, with the salary cap and structure of teams today, changing your core is not easy. But this team will never succeed because the team chemistry isn't there. Five years ago the Leafs were a tough team to play against. Ask the Senators. Back then they has Roberts, Corson, Domi, Green, Belak and chippier versions of McCabe and Tucker. Today they are playing soft and the only tough guy Belak sits because he can't play a shift without taking a penalty.

During the 1st quarter of the season, some Leafs have had strong starts. Sundin is having his best start in 5 years and has been close to the NHL scoring leader all season. Antropov is having a break out season and has not yet missed a game with an injury. And he is doing it without been on a line with Sundin. Steen and Stajan have begun to develop the makings of a shutdown line that can score on occasion. Wellwood has only played a few games but has shown how important he is to a team that lack much creative play. Kubina has bounced back from a terrible season until he got hurt.

But that's about it. Blake has been unable to find the back of the net. This could be blamed on his health problems but for the fact that he leads the team in shots on net. Toskala has been unable to win the starting job that was his for the taking. McCabe leads the team with a -6 and has made rookie mistakes that get him on the sports news' highlights.

Specialty teams have been awful. Third periods for the most part have been a disaster. They might as well concede games that go into a shootout. If teams carry a designated fighter (who rarely wins games for you) then why don't they carry a designated shootout specialist? Certainly the Leafs need one and a few more shootout wins are all that the Leafs needed the past 2 seasons to get into the playoffs.

What Global Warming?

Bottled Water

...in a can?

NHL Bargains and Busts

When you look at the number of goals scored by top line players and their salaries you can begin to understand how difficult it is to be a general manager in the NHL. With the salary cap there is little room for error but much to gain by finding a inexpensive gem.

For example, on the Toronto Maple Leafs, Jason Blake has scored only 2 goals in 21 games which works out to $500K per goal. Ouch! Nik Antropov has scored 9 goals but since his salary is one-half of Blake's, it works out to $51K per goal. Any GM could live with that.

The NHL goal scoring leader with 16 goals is Ilya Kovalchuk and he is earning $92K per goal. The biggest busts in the NHL are Sergei Sampsonov and Doug Weight. Both are earning $3.5 million but have yet to score. Other busts are:

Michael Handzus $930K/goal
Chris Drury $569K/goal
Jarmor Jagr $512K/goal
Scott Gomez $445K/goal
Patrick Elias $365K/goal
Sergei Federov $359K/goal
Glen Murray $300K/goal
Marc Savard $263K/goal
Patrick Marleau $262K/goal

And the best bargains in the NHL are:

Cory Perry $14K/goal
Patrick Sharp $18K/goal
Mike Richards $19K/goal
Paul Stastny $22K/goal

Ha Ha Ha, Merry Christmas

This will make you shake your head in disbelief.

Santas in Sidney, Australia have been instructed not to use the traditional "ho ho ho" greeting because it may be offensive to women. It seems "ho ho ho" could frighten children and is too close to "ho", a US slang term for prostitute. Sydney's Santa Clauses have instead been instructed to say "ha ha ha".

What's next dressing Santas in business suits?

Flames Were Hot, Storm Was Not

The Vaughan Flames scored 3 goals in a span of 2:53 in the first period and one of their players scored a natural hat trick (3 straight goals) as the Storm fell 6-1. Although the Storm started the game very strong and dominated the play, errors in their own end lead to their downfall. Obviously, the long lay off between games may have contributed to the inconsistent performance from a number of players. The Storm last played on October 28.

On a positive note, SK returned to the ice after tearing an ACL last January. She took a regular shift on defense and played a strong game. Rebecca moved back to play defense and Lauren F took her place on right wing and both looked good in their new positions. In particular, Lauren was ferocious in the corners and forced quite a few turnovers. Mari scored the only goal and appears to have recovered from the ankle sprain suffered against Orangeville last month.

The Storm's record is now 1-3-1. Next game is November 20 against Clearview at Grandravine arena.

Alex Rodriguez Crawls Back to the Yankees

Just 3 weeks ago, Scott Boras, agent to A-Rod informed the Yankees that his client would not be returning to New York and would pursue free agency. He supposedly had previously informed the Yankees that the starting point for negotiations was $350 million over 10 years.
At the time I thought Boras was just blowing a lot of smoke to get some action going. After all, the Rangers had to eat part of Rodriguez's contract in order to trade him which was an acknowledgement that no one felt he was worth $25 million per year. As far as I'm concerned, nothing has really changed as far as his market value.

The word on the street is that only the Angels were interested in Rodriguez and likely not anywhere close to $35 million per year. So it appears A-Rod contacted the Yankees owners to explore a return to the team and a meeting was set up - without Boras.

Now the Yankees have always been clear they wanted to have the best player in the game continue to be a Yankee but this turn of event gives the team the negotiating edge. So it is reported that Hank Steinbrenner has asked that the new contract be front-loaded to include a $21 million discount for the Yankees. That is the money the team would have gotten from the Rangers if Rodriguez hadn't used the escape clause in the contract.

So at the end of the day everyone will be happy. The Yankees and Rodriguez are made for each other. A-Rod remains the highest paid player in the game. He will likely save face by blaming his agent and calling it a big misunderstanding.

It's enough to make you ill.

Jiri Tlusty is not the only naked Maple Leaf

Amid the fuss regarding the nude Jiri Tlusty photos on the Internet, I noticed the following quote on TSN.ca:

"It's tough in this city to censorize anything," said Leafs forward Wade Belak on Wednesday. "I've been known to take out the trash naked from time to time. Now with all these allegations with Jiri I don't know if I'm going to feel safer out there."

A naked Wade Belak carry garbage cans is not something I would want to see in the morning. It's a wonder house prices in Leaside haven't dropped.

And is "censorize" a real word?

Don't laugh at this!

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Why is Jiri Tlusty Up With the Leafs?

I don't understand why Tlusty is still up with the Leafs. He was originally called up from the Marlies because there were missing Wellwood, Tucker and Bell from the lineup and players like Battaglia, Belak, Newbury and Gamache weren't good enough. But neither is Tlusty.

In his first game with the Leafs he scored to goals including the game winner. But remember one went in off his butt. In the next 8 games he has only managed 2 assists and has been pretty much invisible. He is averaging 11 minutes and 2 shots per game.

Wellwood, Tucker and Bell are all back so there is no reason to keep him with the big team. And he has had very little North American hockey experience outside of the 9 games with the Leafs, just 37 OHL games and 6 AHL games. The kid is not ready and history has shown you can hurt a player's development by moving him up too fast.

And the latest incident involving the posting of inappropriate photos on the Internet is a good excuse to drop him from the big team away from the media. When was the last time a reporter showed up at a Marlie practice. I would ship his butt (bare or otherwise) back to the Marlies without haste for some maturing.

What is Going on in Dallas?

Dallas Stars owner Thomas O. Hicks announced that Brett Hull and Les Jackson have been named Interim Co-General Managers to run the Stars’ Hockey Operations for the remainder of the season. Earlier Hicks announced that he relieved Doug Armstrong from his duties as General Manager of the hockey club.

Dallas has struggled this season, but still keeping up with the rest of the Pacific Division. They have a similar record to the Leafs but I guess standards are higher in Dallas. It is a bit of a shock since Armstrong has been in the organization for 17 years so you would think he'd be given more slack. But attendance is down.

So instead we have another GM sideshow. I understand Les Jackson is a good hockey person but why Brett Hull? And why co-GMs? Hull has no management experience so why not make him an assistant? He has a tendency to make flippant remarks which is fine as a TV commentator but from a manager can produce conflict in an organization. He has openly stated he doesn't watch many games because he finds the games boring.

Can't wait to see how this develops.

Sean Avery Gets Too Much Attention

While everyone was fussing about a classless idiot, did anyone notice that the Leafs lost at home again. They have only won 3 games at home out of 11 played at the ACC. Only Washington and Phoenix have won fewer home games but these teams have played fewer home games than the Leafs. And once again the highest paid Leaf (that being Bryan McCabe) wore the goat horns on the winning goal by Montreal.

The possibility that the Leafs will make the playoffs are slowly slipping away. Now how can that be considering they have been in 8th or 9th place for the past month and playing .500? Well that's because .500 is not good enough when teams get awarded a point for losing after regulation time has ended. Just like last year, the Leafs will likely need 92 to 94 points to make the playoffs. Since they only have 19 points in 19 games they will need to 75 points in their remaining 63 games to reach 94 points. That is a winning percentage of .595 in their remaining games. I don't see this team doing that. See you later JFJ.

As for Sean Avery, well I'm not going to say anything because I don't want to be sued. But he's no role model. And you will find he will likely play on a lot of teams throughout his hockey career as teams and teammates tire of his act.

Sad, But True

Coach Bruce has been working on these dance moves...just ask him

Hockey Hall of Fame Inductions

I was fortunate this year to be invited to the Hockey Hall of Fame (HHOF) Induction ceremonies. The invitation came through Jim Gregory who is a long-time family friend and one of the nicest people you could ever meet. Jim has a long history in hockey and was the General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1970s. He went on from there to become an executive with the NHL where he is still employed. He is actually the chair of the Hall of Fame selection committee and was finally included in this esteemed group.

While managing the Leafs, Jim actually pulled together an impressive lineup with Darryl Sittler, Lanny McDonald, Borje Salming, Ian Turnbull and Mike Palmateer. He might have been able to build a championship team but the owner Harold Ballard pulled the rug from under him to bring back an old crony, Punch Imlach. Imlach dismantled that team and the Leafs went through 15 years of awful teams. The Toronto Sun has an excellent bio on Jim Gregory.

And it worked out that the Class of 2007 was probably one of the most stellar groups to go to the Hall: Mark Messier, Ron Francis, Scott Stevens and Al MacInnis. Some are saying it's the best group ever inducted in a single year.

Saturday night was a reception held at the HHOF for Jim and was attended by family, friends and colleagues. Gary Bettman and Colin Campbell represented the NHL. Some former players who played under Jim attended included Sittler, Salming and McDonald. Salming looked like he could step out on the ice and play with the big boys. Red Kelly who coached under Jim was there as were several ex-Leaf GMs, Gerry MacNamara, Gord Stellick, and Cliff Fletcher. Johnny McLellan's widow (he coached the Leafs under Jim) came out. I spotted a few broadcasters, Harry Neal and I think Howard Berger. It was a great night and a good opportunity to mingle compared to the following night.

Although we were fortunate to get tickets for the ceremony, our tickets did not get us into the Great Hall were the proceedings took place, Instead we were in the actual HHOF watching over video feeds. The place was packed. There was a reception before the ceremony with great food.

I was able to get some photos off the video which you can see below. Mark Messier was the last to be given a tribute and to speak. All the inductees were quite emotional but Messier was a wreck within 3 minutes. He spoke the longest, I think for over 15 minutes. He could barely get through his speech. I captured just a very small bit of it which you can see below. Messier was quite humorous and joked that he was glad to spend time with Gregory on the weekend. "I finally met somebody who was crying more times than me this weekend." Messier opened with a story how he and his family were coming into downtown Toronto from the airport and their car was stopped at a traffic light when an older gentleman spied him while crossing the street.Messier had the window down, so the man leaned in close and said (Messier did this in an authentic Canadian accent), "Messier, eh? You're here for that old-timers' game." It was a priceless and humble moment and had the place in stitches.

Afterwards they all came down to the HHOF main area where we were situated to sign the induction book and pose for pictures. Joining them were a number of HHOF members including, Johnny Bower, Darryl Sittler, Marcel Pronovost, Clark Gillies and Borje Salming. In the crush I was able to take a few photos. There were so many hockey personalities there to honour the group, former teammate, coaches and managers of the 4 players. It was an incredibly emotional evening and I'm still trying to sort through it all in my mind. ESPN has a great post on the event.

Glenn Healy to Replace John Ferguson?

While watching Hockey Night In Canada's Hot Stove Lounge Roundtable on Saturday night, I head former Toronto Sun columnist Al Strachan suggest that Glenn Healy was rumoured to be replacing John Ferguson. I had a good laugh at the time. But Howard Berger remembers that Healy was one of the names bounced around when Ferguson was hired in 2003. And Maple Leafs’ chairman Larry Tanenbaum was particularly fond of Healy, and he remains so today.

At MLSE anything is possible. Though the last thing the Leafs need is another inexperienced GM.

Jones Soda release holiday flavours

The Christmas pack has Sugar Plum soda, Christmas Tree soda, Egg Nog soda and Christmas Ham soda. The Chanukah pack has Chocolate Coins soda, Apple Sauce soda, Latke soda and Jelly Doughnut soda.

All flavours are caffeine-free and kosher (even the ham flavour).

Source

Are there too many signs?

The pest is back