Bay Street Bullies win 5-4!!

The Maple Leafs showed us Leafs fans today that they will be a force to reckon with this season. Obviously, this is pre season and most teams aren’t playing their regular guys but neither were we. This was a fantastic performance and one which will give the guys self confidence and belief that they can win games even when they look down and out.

We saw some of the prettiest displays of skill today by the Leafs. The first goal was an absolutely lovely display of hockey. Kaberle first broke a Flyers’ defenseman’s ankles and nailed Stajan in stride to which turned out to be a sweet goal. After the Leafs started falling apart due to some silly penalties just like yesterday’s game they made a comeback in the third period with one of the best goals I have seen by the Leafs in a few years. Niklas Hagman blew the socks off two Flyers and let a snorter of a wrist shot go that went top shelf past a rightly shocked Brian Boucher.

There is certainly one aspect of the Leafs’ game that will be extremely frightening once November comes and that’s our powerplay. Even without Phil Kessel this team looked downright scary while handling the puck in the opposition’s zone. Some of the passes Kaberle was making seemed to remind me of the old Kaberle from a few years ago. Beauchemin will compliment Kaberle really well due to his ability to make an equally good pass back. Although today Beauchemin didn’t pass instead he displayed the shot no one would want to be in front of as a player. He let an absolute laser beam go that any NHLer would be proud of.

The game winner was a sweet goal as Niklas Hagman iced it with some more top cheese. His wrister is out of this world and one can only wonder how good he could be if someone could set him up all the time. There was a lot of skill on display by the Leafs today but the defensive corps were just as good in keeping the Flyers out when we were down 4-2. Nazem Kadri deserved praise today for his passing ability, he made some lovely passing plays that would have resulted in goals if Kessel was there to receive them.

The only evident weakness from today’s game was Vesa Toskala and that can be somewhat associated to rust as the goals he let in were not due to him not being good instead they occurred to him just not being there at the right time or not anticipating the shots. He will come around as the pre season progresses. This was after all his first full game in a long time.

Overall, this was a sweet game for Leafs’ fans and we all surely will be proud of the talent we have in this team. Nazem Kadri might not be destined for the Leafs this season, but the potential is there for him to be quite dynamite next year. For now we can enjoy the hard working bunch we have right now that really got the Leafs fans going.

Phil Kessel Trade Review

I have waited to let the whole trade sink in before writing about it on TML Nation. The Leafs have given away two first rounders and a second round pick but have gotten an excellent youngster in return. Brian Burke is known for making big moves as he likes to show he’s intending to ice a competitive team right from the get go. There will obviously be a lot of talk about the disadvantages of this trade but there are many advantages that make me drool due to the skill level of Kessel.

So what kind of player did we get with Phil Kessel? We just acquired a guy who can skate extremely fast and if you were impressed with Stalberg’s speed in the first preseason game you haven’t seen anything yet because Kessel is even faster. Speed is not the only factor in his game because he possesses one of the most accurate and quick shots in the league. There is a reason he is called a sniper and that is due to his knack for putting the puck in the back of the net. Kessel is a prolific dangler and he can make many high class defensemen look seriously amateur at times. The prospects of him being there on our first line is exciting and definitely makes me want to get the November when he is back in action after his injury.

There has been talk of his rotator cuff injury diminishing any advances he has made in the past three years. I think that Burke would have looked into this with great attention and we should trust them in this aspect of the trade. The other major argument by critics has been the fact that Kessel doesn’t have anyone to feed him the puck like Savard did for him in Boston. I think that’s a silly statement to make because you always need someone to finish the goals off. It’s not as if Kessel was always standing at the side of the net and tapping in passes from Savard. I personally believe you could put anyone with Kessel and he will excel due to his top class abilities as a sniper.

Many people have started assembling their first line now that we have Kessel. I see him playing with Blake and Hagman on the first line because these two will compliment his game quite well. Jason Blake is extremely quick and will be able to skate at Kessel’s pace causing both of them to have a great time especially when the chemistry between the two develops. I put Hagman there because he makes things happen and his vision on the ice is underrated big time. He makes sweet passes that go undetected by fans and that’s unfortunate. If they decide that Hagman is not the right guy they could possibly put someone like Stajan up there on the first line but I don’t see that happening.

All in all this is going to be an interesting season with the arrival of Kessel. Obviously no one will be cheering for the Leafs to do bad this year and I have to thank Burke for that. I was getting sick and tired of tank nation and now Burke has buried that for a while.

4-3 Leafs Beat Pens

We had a game today?! Barely anyone noticed the game because everyone was too busy thinking about Phil Kessel and the trade to bring him over to Toronto. The game was a good one for the Leafs as they beat the Stanley cup champions at their house, 4-3. Obviously, the Penguins were playing an extremely weakened team with Malkin being the only superstar on the ice unless you want to count Fleury as well.

The game seemed to be getting out of hand early on as the Leafs kept taking silly penalties which even led to two goals. The penguins seemed to be playing with extreme confidence in that first period but sadly for them they came out flat in the 2^nd period. The Leafs cashed in on four power plays and turned the game upside down in a few minutes. There was a little fight back from the Penguins at the end but they really were out and the idea of them making a comeback was not looking promising. They had a few opportunities that were easily denied by Macdonald who seems to be quite a goalie and would have made a fine backup for Toskala if we didn’t have Gustavvson already.

John Mitchell stood out today with his all round game. He did all the little things right and made us appreciate his work ethic and ability to understand the game so well on the ice. He also chipped in with a nice goal that certainly capped off his night with a little style. He was one of my favourite leafs last season and he seems to be heading in the right direction this season as well. Ron Wilson will certainly be looking to put him on the ice quite often due to his ability to do everything with ease.

Jason Blake who was playing in his first game of the preseason came back into action as if he never had gone away for the summer. He was skating with the same intensity as he would in a regular season game and he was all over the Penguins with his speed and agility. They didn’t know how to handle him and he created quite a few chances. Now with Phil Kessel becoming a Leaf many fans will be drooling at the prospects of Blake and Kessel lining up together. The speed of that line will make many opposition defenders cry before and after the game.

Ron Wilson coached a good game and the approach to penalty killing has impressed me this pre season. They are much more attacking in the way they go about killing penalties. Last season, we would all see the Maple Leafs hanging back for the opposition to carry the puck into the zone or to dump it in. In the three games we have seen so far they have jumped right on the puck carrier in the neutral zone which has left the opposing puck carriers confused and in a little shock causing turnovers. The foot speed of some of the Leafs is astonishing and perhaps the new bikes in the gym should be complimented.

Overall , it was a good game and wins are wins no matter what time of the year they come. I hope the Leafs continue developing and become a force to reckon with this season.

Leafs Lose Nail Biter

There was no television coverage of this game but I had a few relatives who went to the game and gave me some inside scouting on the players in today’s game. The Leafs unfortunately didn’t come out on top in this encounter with the Bruins by losing in overtime, 6-5. There was some excellent hockey played by the Leafs although they made some silly mistakes that cost them the game in the end.

James Reimer was a tad disappointing and seemed to be extremely nervous or some would even to as far and say lazy. He seemed to be struggling to save the easy ones and made them look extremely difficult. There were signs that he was flopping around and not totally aware of the angles he was supposed to cover. I am going to give the kid the benefit of the doubt and say that he just had a bad day in the office with nerves playing a role as well.

Christian Hanson was on top of his game today, he scored a hat trick and that certainly made him the best player on the ice. Although he did some of the little things very well today and that seemed to aid him in finishing off a couple of those goals. Christian Hanson was supposedly superlative on the boards today and won quite a few battles that would make Burke grin sheepishly with delight. He certainly will be getting some attention now from Burke and Wilson in regards to an opening night roster spot that he covets so dearly.

Nazem Kadri was quite good and did a lot of things well today. He chipped in with a goal as well which certainly doesn’t hurt his confidence going into the season. He was much better then yesterday and seems to be improving day by day. He showed some flashes of brilliances that got the crowd excited and his dangling ability is quite good when it comes off. There is the “Hog” element to his game that might irk some fans and coaches but he’ll get better once he notices that passing is noticed as well.

Tyler Bozak got on the score sheet as well, his goal was the best of the game as he let go an absolute bullet from the faceoff circle. Obviously he should be one of the better players on the ice in this tourney as he’s amongst the oldest attending, but still the talent of the guy speaks loud and clear. He will certainly be vying for a spot on the top 2 lines this year. Can he continue with his excellent form? This is the question that he will have to answer in the next game.

Some of the other guys that were impressive in today’s game against the Briuns were Blacker and Devane. Jesse Blacker showed up and played an excellent game on the defensive side of things again. He was always in position and showed the staff that he deserves to be taken seriously. As for Devane he basically broke his hand on another guys face. Unfortunately we don’t know what happen to the other guy’s face, I am sure it was not rated G in terms of amount of blood. He was the spark plug that got the Leafs going after they were down 2-0. He deserves credit for boosting their morale and getting them to go out and play as a unit and fight for each other.

These games are turning out to be an excellent way to see how our prospects are doing in terms of their development. We have some excellent players in the cupboard right now and Burke will certainly be looking to add more. This was a great game and the Leafs will be looking to do well in the next game as well.

Leafs win 3-1 Over Pens (Rookie Tourney)

The Rookie tourney has finally begun and the Leafs played the Penguins today. Firstly I want to get something off my chest about today’s broadcast...it sucked. I haven’t seen such an atrocious hockey broadcast in my life, if you’re going to show us the game at least don’t do such a garbage job. Anyways from what I saw, I will discuss the positives and negatives from today’s game. The Leafs winning 3-1 was a good start to the tourney indeed.

Time to begin with the man who amazed everyone in Leafs nation today and that’s Swedish rookie Viktor Stalberg. If you want to see skating perfection, this man is the guy you want to see. He can absolutely fly down the ice with utmost of ease and grace. His shot is definitely NHL level and that wrister will have many goalies around the league in utter shock and disbelief. His shot is superlative and deserves all the praise. He could be the find of the year for the Leafs in terms of their prospects.

The next guy I will talk about is our first round selection this year, Nazem Kadri. Nazem was not a big impact in this game and was trying to do too much on his own. He will have to start realizing soon that what he could do with the Knights is not possible against the big boys. He was trying to dangle the puck a lot and it’s tough with the good defenders to get past them. He did have a couple of nice chances and got on to hit the bar and come out. He has serious potential but he will have to improve in certain facets throughout the tourney and this year.

Tyler Bozak was impressive in what I saw of him today. He has good vision on the ice and made a pretty pass to set up Stalberg on the first goal. He seems like he will do well with the Leafs this year, but I don’t want to jump the gun. Bozak is just like Stalberg in terms of his skating ability, perhaps he’s not as smooth but he can absolutely fly down the ice.

Jonas Gustavvson was amazing today and made some absolutely stunning saves. He is extremely good at standing up and taking a huge chunk of the net out of the equation. He definitely will be an interesting goalie to look at. There was a negative facet to his game today and that was the rebounds he let out. He needs to start absorbing the puck better instead of letting it hit him and bounce out. This is something Allaire will certainly talk to him about but he has a ton of skill and he will get a lot of fans drooling of the prospects after today’s game.

There were a few other guys like Blacker and Stefanovich who were decent today. Blacker seems to be a very good pick up, he can skate well and he is sound in terms of his positioning. Usually from your defender you want him to be smart with the puck and Blacker is exactly like that. Burke seems to have made a smart pick by getting him in the draft. Mikhail Stefanovich was not that good today but at best he was fine. He will need to wake up and start contributing soon in this tourney if he wants to be looked at ahead of Stalberg.

Trade Report: Maple Leafs Swap Picks

A minor trade has occurred and The leafs are part of it. This is how it has panned out according to Bob Mackenzie of TSN.

The Maple Leafs have re-acquired its own 2010 2nd round draft pick from Chicago in exchange for its own 2011 3rd round pick and the 2011 2nd round pick recently received from Calgary as part of the Anton Stralman trade.

What could this trade mean in terms of future moves? Time to turn up the heat on the rumours again.

Here is the link to the TSN article regarding this trade: http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=290103

Adam Wallace Earns Tryout

A lot of talk has been made of the tryout offer made to Jason Allison, but Burke has given a tryout offer to a few other players as well. One of those players is fighter Adam Wallace. He probably won’t have much of a chance making the 4^th line on the Leafs but he will again add some competition for those aspiring to be in the Leafs’ bottom six.

Adam Wallace is a normal hardnosed defenseman, who is only 19 years of age and that will certainly do him no harm entering into this minicamp. Adam Wallace played for the Windsor Spitfires the past three years, so he does know a lot about playing hockey with older guys. He has worked extremely hard to get this tryout and I will certainly be expecting him to bring his 110% out there on the ice with the other rookies in the upcoming tourney. He will definitely be getting ample chances to show why he has been awarded this tryout from Burke.

This young defenseman has all the traits that Burke looks for in his players. He is extremely belligerent on the ice and that can be confirmed with the amount of fights he got into last season with the Spitfires and he came out on top in many of those fights as well. He is 195 pounds and 6’1’’ and he’s still growing in terms of muscle mass. He has worked hard over the summer and will be looking to make a difference and get the coaches and Burke to look at him twice and perhaps think about putting him with the Marlies.

He had 174 penalty minutes and he didn’t do much damage in terms of scoring, he is a typical stay at home defender and he knows what to do at his end of the ice. The problem of not scoring is something that can be corrected if he shows promise with his defensive game at the camp.

He will probably go undetected in the rookie tourney but we should be on the lookout for him and how he progresses throughout the camp. These are the types of tryouts that will perhaps get Burke another diamond in the rough that he would love to find. Just like the Allison tryout, this is a win-win situation for the Leafs. Adam Wallace will most likely find it tough against really good forwards, but the ball or shall I say the puck is in his court and it’s time for him to step up and show his potential out there on the ice.

Weekly Roundup

Not a lot has gone on over the past week but I still have a few interesting tidbits about the Leafs to talk about. I can’t wait until the pre season begins so we can actually start talking about the on ice game instead of all the off ice discussion we’ve had. The Leafs are poised to be a hard hitting team this season, and we all hope that they also are able to score a few goals for our sake.

First up is the story of Brian Burke releasing the names of the top 6 defensemen he feels will be playing against the Montreal Canadiens when the regular season begins. The names are in no special order... Mike Komisarek, Francois Beauchemin, Tomas Kaberle, Garnet Exelby, Jeff Finger and Luke Schenn. This was pretty much the expected top six although a few people had Ian White pencilled in over Garnet Exelby. It seems that Garnet is high on Burke’s list as a defenseman. I am sure Mike Van Ryn, Frogren and White will give these guys a run for their money in training camp. This is definitely going to create a healthy competition amongst the ranks.

The whole veto issue is getting out of hand now and it’s getting boring as well. No Leafs fan wants to see Balsillie face every day on the news talking about how the Leafs are being mean to him. If the Maple Leafs have the right then by all means they should use it as a business entity. There is no reason for them to be nice to Balsillie, but this should all be kept behind closed doors as most people really don’t want to hear about this garbage.

Tyler Bozak has been beefing up over the summer and he’s made some significant progress in the muscle department. He will certainly be willing to take the hits and hopefully dish them out as well without getting himself hurt. The fitness trainers with the Leafs will be paying significant attention to how these youngsters are going about their fitness regime. Brian Burke and Ron Wilson are always keen on players that are fit and most of these guys know that and are really burning it up in the weight room these days. Also, to fit the category of being a hard hitting team, the Leafs will have to definitely spend some time in the weight room to beef up.

Now with some news that has nothing to do with the Leafs and that’s the signing of Roberto Luongo for a 12 year extension. Quite an extension that is especially if he goes on and gets himself injured. These days a lot of the NHL teams are signing their superstars for huge contracts that won’t hurt them financially. It’s really getting silly these days with the amount of players that are on “Life” contracts basically. I hope the NHL does something about this otherwise we might be seeing these types of contracts for every superstar in the league.

Not much to talk about over the past week, but we certainly have had some interesting revelations like the Top 6 defensemen Burkie expects. Although for everyone’s sanity I would like a court order stating Balsillie cannot go within 50 meters of a microphone. I have had enough of that man for a while.

Let's Draft Again (2000-2001)

So basically I will start from the 1999-2000 draft all the way to the 2007-2008 draft because in those years I think we made some poor choices. The last two season have been not as bad and I will like to give credit the current scouting team for their excellent work in getting players like Schenn and Kadri. They might not be the best players in the draft but as of now they are two very good prospects. What I will do is i will redraft the seven rounds and instead pick the best player that went soon after the Leafs drafted. There will be times where I will decide to keep the players the Leafs selected due to them being good players and better then ones that followed them.

The 1999-2000 draft was not that bad for the Leafs but they did miss out on a few key players that might have been good pieces to add to the puzzle. Now we will be looking at the 2000-2001 draft and see if we missed any gems in that draft.

**The order of the players is by rounds... so first players is from the 1st round and so on. **

2000

Players We Drafted – Carlo Colaiacovo, Karel Pilar, Brendan Bell, Jay Harrison, Nicolas Corbeil, Kyle Wellwood, Maxim Kondratiev, Jaroslav Sklenar, Ivan Kolozvary, Jan Chovan, Tomas Mojzis and Mike Knoepfli

Players We Should Have Drafted – Colby Armstrong, Fedor Tyutin, Tomas Plekanec, Aaron Johnson, Patrick Sharp, Kyle Wellwood (i would keep the fat munchkin), Marek Zidlicky, Jussi Jokinen, Derek Boogaard, Cristobal Huet, Petr Cajanek and Toni Dahlman (he sucked as well but he was better then Mike Knoepfli).

As you can see this revelation is a bit more disturbing then the last one. We missed out on players like Patrick Sharp, Colby Armstrong, Marek Zidlicky and Jussi Jokinen for players we don’t even have on our team anymore. Quite a disappointing draft year for the Maple Leafs considering the amount of picks we had.

It certainly would have been much more interesting if we had that many picks in this year’s draft with the proper scouting team. It’s sad that we wasted so many draft opportunities on pathetic picks if you want to put it nicely. There are some nice forwards that we missed out on that might still have been on our team right now and helped us in the past few years.