Storm are Edged Out by Scarborough Tournament Champions

The Storm came away from the Scarborough Tournament with 4 very strong games and began to realize their potential. The Ottawa Ice were the Pool B winners with 3 straight wins coming into the semi final game with the Storm. It was a close battle with the Ice squeaking by with a 2-1 win.

Ottawa scored early in the game and picked up a second goal in the 2nd period. The game also featured a penalty shot which was called when a Storm player fell on the puck in the goal crease. Kendra came out to challenge the shooter who rang the puck off a post. With 3 minutes remaining in the game, Mari finally put one behind the Ottawa goalie. The Storm pulled their goalie and were generating some great scoring chances when the buzzer went to end the game.

In the other semi final game, Whitby edged out Barrie by a score of 2-1.

Championship Game:

Ottawa 5
Whitby 0

Latest Maple Leaf Rumour

The second coming of Cujo may take place if Toskala's groin continues to give him problems. Stay tuned.

For the Sake of Humanity

Storm Qualify for Semi Finals

Although the Storm lost the final game in the round robin portion of the Scarborough Tournament, their record in the previous games was good enough to move on to face the powerful Ottawa Ice in the semi finals.

The game against Barrie was similar to the regular season games between these teams featuring fast, open and clean hockey. Barrie open up the scoring mid way through the first period when a Shark forward banged in a rebound past Bianca. However, Sheri scored only 11 second later as she crashed the net off the faceoff. Late in the second period, Barrie scored their second goal on a feed from behind the net. The two team exchanged some great chances in the final period by the score ended 2-1.

The line of Genevieve, Marley and Maryssa had some excellent chances but couldn't get one past the Barrie goalie. And the line of Sheri, Amanda and Lauren F crashed the net all night long.

Final Pool A Standings
1. Barrie 3-0-0, 8GF 1GA, 22 PIM
2. North York 1-1-1, 6GF, 3GA, 8 PIM
3. Mississauga, 1-1-1, 4GF, 5GA, 18 PIM
4. Scarborough 0-3-0, 3GF, 12GA, 36 PIM

History of First Round Maple Leaf Draft Picks

Well it appears that the Leafs will end up with a high pick in Amateur Draft this June. Coming last doesn't guarantee the first pick anymore because it's based on a lottery. Below is a 20-year history of Leaf first round picks. Even when they keep their pick, the player doesn't become the impact player you would expect from a first rounder. If they can move some players this year for a first round pick, it will be the first time since 1989 that they will have more than one pick in the first round. Those picks didn't turn out so well anyway.

Year, Prospect, Rank
2007 – Traded for Toskala
2006 – Tlusty (13)
2005 – Rask (21) trade for Raycroft
2004 – Traded for Leetch
2003 – Traded for Nolan
2002 – Steen (24)
2001 – Colaiacovo (17)
2000 – Boyes (24) traded for Nolan
1999 – Cereda (24)
1998 – Antropov (10)
1997 – Traded for Clark
1996 – Traded for Yushkevich
1995 – Ware (15)
1994 – Fichaud (16)
1993 - Jonsson (12)
1992 - Convery (8)
1991 - Traded for Kurvers (turned out to be Niedermayer)
1990 - Berehowsky (10)
1989 - Thornton (3), Rob Pearson (12), Bancroft (21)
1988 - Scott Pearson (6)

Storm on a Streak

The Storm tied Mississauga 0-0 tonight and are now undefeated in the past 3 games including the first 2 games at the Scarborough Tournament. Goals were harder to come by in the second game of the day although there were numerous opportunities. The Storm put on tremendous pressure in the 3rd period but couldn't get the winning goal. The best chance of the game was with 0:35 remaining in the game when Mari found Jackie alone in front of the net but was unable to get a good shot away.

Kendra earned her second shutout of the season and for the 4th time this season the Storm had a penalty-free game.

The other game in Pool A had Barrie defeat Scarborough 3-0. The standing are:

Barrie - 4 pts, +6
North York - 3 pts, +4
Mississauga - 1 pt, -3
Scarborough - 0 pts, -7

Storm Stomp on Scarborough

The opening game of the Scarborough tournament was against the host team and they turned out to be quite hospitable. A rejuvenated powerplay scored 3 times to power the Storm to a 5-1 win, the biggest win of the season. Mari lead the way with 2 goals and 2 assists. Jackie had 2 goals and Genevieve had the other goal.

Much of Thursday night's practice was dedicated to cycling the puck on the powerplay and it was obvious the lesson sunk in. Both of Jackie's goals as well as Genevieve's goal were scored on the powerplay. The Scarborough defense was totally confused and continually left the front of the net open allowing Storm forwards to skate right into goal crease.

The other Pool A game was Barrie over Mississauga by a score of 3-0. Standings are:

North York - 2 pts, +4
Barrie - 2 pts, +3
Mississauga - 0 pts, -3
Scarborough - 0 pts, -4

What's Happened to Darcy Tucker?

With everything that has gone wrong for the Leafs this season, the one thing that stands out for me is Darcy Tucker. GM John Ferguson showed complete faith in Darcy by nearly doubling his salary and giving him a no-trade clause in his contract. There was some basis to the contract since Tucker has a reputation as a hard-nosed irritant with 6 20-goal seasons.

So with all that security, Tucker is on pace to score 8 goals and 19 points, his worst season since he broke in 11 years ago. I had a very bad feeling when Tucker was signed last year. He's a small player that plays a physical game. I thought even if he was slowed by injuries and age, he would at least provide some passionate leadership. Instead we got nothing. Absolutely nothing.

No scoring. No body checks. No passion. No leadership. Nothing. Each game he just goes through the motion of pretending to be a professional hockey player. He seems perfectly happy to collect his paycheck and go home every day to drive his kids to school or hockey.

That's how life goes for members of the country club they call the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Polar Bears on Hard Times Because of Global Warming

Even Grandpa was a Punk at one time

Tonight Chelios Becomes 2nd Oldest Player in NHL History

Chris Chelios' age on Monday was 45 years, 347 days. That's significant because it's the exact age at which Moe Roberts played his final NHL game in 1951. Chelios is currently third on the list of oldest players to participate in an NHL game, but the next time he takes the ice (tonight's home game against Colorado will be the first opportunity), he'll pass by Roberts for second place on that list. Gordie Howe is the oldest player ever in the NHL, playing his final game at age 52 years, 6 days.

If you don't know who Moe Roberts is (he was a goalie), that's because he only played 8 games in the NHL. The first seven of those games came by the time that Roberts was 27 in the 1930s. On Nov. 25, 1951, Chicago's Harry Lumley was injured during a game against Detroit. The call went out to Roberts, who was the Blackhawks' assistant trainer. Roberts played the final 20 minutes of the game and didn't allow a goal.

Source

Storm Invades Fierce Hockey School

Storm Bounces Back for a Win

The Storm won its second game of the season up in foggy Camp Borden with a 1-0 squeaker against Clearview Ice Cats. Although the score was close, the Storm dominated the play. In fact, the Ice Cats failed to register a shot on net in the first period.

The winning goal was scored by Jessica R who fired what looked like a knuckleball that the Clearview goalie was unable to handler with 0.2 seconds in the second period. Bianca shut the door and earned her first shutout of the season.

The new line of Sheri, Amanda and Lauren F played a strong game and had quite a number of scoring chances throughout the game. All three line played with a lot of energy and provided very few scoring chances for the opponents on this night.

Storm Starts New Year With a Loss

Storm literally had a battle on their hands against the hoodlums from Orangeville. Orangeville jumped into an early 4-0 lead and coasted to a 4-1 win. The game had 11 penalties with Orangeville receiving 8 including 2 game misconducts.

During the last 2 periods the Storm played even with Orangeville and in fact out scored them 1-0. The lone Storm goal was scored by Mari on the powerplay. A number of forwards continue to be unable to capitalize on scoring opportunities. Hopefully that will change soon. Other strong performers were SK, Rebecca, and Amanda.

Juniors Win 4th Straight Gold

Matt Halischuk scored the overtime winner to give Canada a 3-2 win over Sweden. Canada took an early 2-0 lead in the first period but couldn't hold off the Swedes in the 3rd. The tying goal was scored with just 38 seconds left and the Swedish goalie pulled for an extra attacker.

Goalie Steve Mason and defenceman Drew Doughty were named to the tournament all-star team.

Canada has only lost one game over the past four tournaments.

Canada in Gold Medal Game!

The Canadian juniors beat the undefeated Americans by a score of 4-1 to advance to the championship game tomorrow. This was really unexpected as the Canadians although balanced lacked experience and star players. In fact, two leading scores John Tavares and Steven Stamkos are only 17 years old and received limited ice time.

Goalie Steve Mason was Canada's player of the game and lost a shutout with less than 7 minutes remaining in the game. Canada was out shot by the Americans 34-25. The Americans ended the game playing 5 on 3 with two Canadians in the penalty box. Strangely, the Americans never pulled their goalie for a 6th attacker.

Canada will play Sweden for gold. The Swedes beat the Russians 2-1 in overtime. Last year it was the same match ups in the semi finals only the Russians beat Sweden and Canada won over the Americans after a 7-round shootout. The Russians and Canadians had met in the gold medal game for 3 straight years.

Time for the Toronto Maple Leafs to Raise the White Flag

So here we are at the half way point of the NHL season and the Toronto Maple Leafs are not even at .500 (16-17-8). In fact they are 26th out of 30 teams. Even the most loyal Leaf fan knows this team is not going to make the playoffs for the 3rd year in a row. John Ferguson knows it and is probably busy updating his resume.

I've posted several views on what is wrong with the Leafs - over value and over pay players; trade away draft picks leaving them too reliant on free agents; poor work ethic; not physical enough; horrible team defense. Few players are performing as expected. I considered who was performing "Above Satisfactory", "Satisfactory" and "Below Satisfactory" and this is how I rate the team.

Above Satisfactory: Sundin, Toskala, Antropov, Gill, Devereaux

Satisfactory: Kaberle, Stajan, Steen, Ponikarovsky, Kubina, McCabe, Kilger, Colaiacovo, Belak

Below Satisfactory: Tucker, Bell, Blake, Wellwood, Raycroft, White, Wozniewski, Tlusty, Pohl

Just not enough quality to win on a consistent basis. The only solution is to dismantle this team much the way the Flyers did it last year. Let's face it, once Sundin's play declines they will drop to the bottom of the league. The time to start rebuilding is over the next few weeks leading up to the trading deadline in February.

So who should they trade and who should stay? Better yet, who is tradeable in the NHL marketplace?

Raycroft is not tradeable with 1 year left in his contract because I doubt any GM sees him as a starting goalie and no one is will pay $2 million for a backup.

Few teams can pick up high salaried players because of the cap. Anyway McCabe and Tucker have no trade contracts and I doubt they would want to leave the country club atmosphere. That's why they signed here.

Perhaps you can move Kubina. Someone would have to find over $2 million in cap space for the rest of the season.

If you can teams looking for some grit going into the playoffs then move Gill, Devereaux, Kilger, Belak and/or Bell for draft picks or prospects.

But the player who has to be moved is Sundin. He needs to be persuaded to waive the no trade provision in his contract. Many GMs would be eager to give up a very good package to land Sundin considering his durability, production and leadership. I would expect you can get what Nashville gave up to land Forsberg last year. With so few prospects in their system, it's a trade the Leafs have to make.

So I would hang on to Stajan, Steen, Kaberle, White, Colaiacovo, Ponikarovsky, Antropov, Tokala, Tlusty and who ever you can't move.

Battle of the Sexes

Canada Moves on to Semi Finals

Canada's junior team got enough offense today to move on to the semi-finals on Friday against the undefeated Americans. Canada beat Finland 4-2 in a very close game. Goals came from John Tavares of the Oshawa Generals, Steve Stamkos of the Sarnia Sting, Brad Marchand of the Halifax Mooseheads and Stefan Legein of the Niagara IceDogs (in the empty net).

John Tavares now has 4 goals and 1 assist with very limited ice time. Guelph Storm defenceman Drew Doughty had two assists and was named Canada's player of the game.

The other semi final game will be between Sweden and Russia.

NHL Winter Classic 2008

The outdoor game at Rich Stadium yesterday was an excellent idea. It got the NHL world-wide coverage and positive coverage for once. It was front page news every where. Too bad it was going opposite a couple of college Bowl games. It showcased the NHL's premiere talent, Sidney Crosby and he did not disappoint. You could see how excited the players were to be playing a game outside just like when we were all kids but in front of 72,000 people. The snow flying around only added to the game.

Some people have been critical of the game. They thought it was boring and poor quality hockey. The game reflected the original roots of the game and although the play was slower than usual due to the conditions, it was great to watch. I love to watch NFL football in a snow storm because the challenges presented by weather make the game different than most and to me more interesting. Although I wasn't thrilled about all the delays to fix the ice and resurface in the middle of periods. When I played in outdoor rinks we would put a pylon over holes and you just skated around them. The game took 3 1/2 hours to play.

Now I watched the game in the United States and therefore got to watch the NBC coverage. They used the game to promote their NHL schedule which begins January 20th. NBC used Bob Costas to cover the game and had Mike Milbury doing colour commentary. I thought Milbury was terrible. The low point of the telecast was a promotion for the January 20th game which is between the Boston Bruins and NY Rangers. NBC showed an old clip of Milbury when he played for Boston, where during a brawl he climbed into the stands to fight with a Ranger fan and beat the fan with is shoe (see video below). Obviously this was done with Milbury's consent and he appeared proud of the moment. The piece was an embarrassment for the NHL and only took away from the landmark game being televised.

UPDATE: NBC is happy with the ratings so we can expect more outdoor games in the future.