SB Nation - Nikolai Kulemin

Bruins down Leafs 5-2

Stanley Cup of Chowder — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 03:07:30 -0000

More photos » by Charles Krupa - AP

Boston Bruins' David Krejci pokes the puck past Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Vesa Toskala for a goal during the second period of their NHL hockey game in Boston, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2009. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

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The Bruins were able to shutdown Phil Kessel and beat the Toronto Maple Leafs on home ice for the second time in the last 6 nights. For the second straight game against his former team, Phil Kessel was a complete non-factor. In 18:29 of ice time, Kessel recorded 2 shots on goal and 17,565 boos.

Mark Stuart's second goal of the season at 8:01 of the first period staked the Bruins to a 1-0 lead. Patrice Bergeron won the draw at the left wing circle to Marco Sturm. Sturm directed the puck back to Johnny Boychuck, who slid the puck to his defense partner Stuart out near the blue line in the (extremely) high slot. Stuart fired a slapper that beat Vesa Toskala five hole for his first goal since October 17th.

Derek Morris' power play goal with Ian White off for holding gave the B's a 2-0 lead 35 seconds into the second period. Morris' drive from the right point found it's way through several bodies in front of the net and past Toskala for the 2-goal lead.

After scoring the early goal, Mark Stuart looked like he really wanted the Gordie Howe Hat Trick tonight. He and Jamal Mayers dropped the gloves at 2:07 of the second period and were each given two minutes for roughing after a brief dust up. Not satisfied with their short scrap, both men exited the box and dropped the gloves again. This time they made it count, earning the full 5 minutes each.

David Krejci made it 3-0 with 8:50 left in the middle period when we broke in all alone on Toskala and tucked the puck in the net.

Mikhail Grabovski pulled the Leafs to within two 18 seconds into the third period when he found the puck lying in the slot and put it past Tuukka Rask for the Leafs' first goal of the night.

The Leafs struck again to make it 3-2 less than 4 minutes later when Mike Komisarek made a beautiful cross-ice pass from the right point to find Nikolai Kulemin driving to the net along the goal line on the left wing side of the ice.

Mark Recchi sealed the victory for the Bruins (and got a double fist pump from Cam Neely) on the power play with 2:37 remaining in third period. Blake Wheeler sent a pass from the right circle to Recchi at the doorstep for the 4-2 lead.

Recchi padded his stats with an empty-netter in the final minute to account for the 5-2 final score.

Final - 12.10.2009	1	2	3	Total
Toronto Maple Leafs	0	0	2	2
Boston Bruins	1	2	2	5

Complete Coverage >

Notes:

- Tuukka Rask made 32 saves

- The Bruins were completely out-played for much of the third period but were able to survive, thanks in large part to Jason Blake's high-sticking penalty at 15:59 of the period.

- Matt Hunwick skated as a forward in place of Byron Bitz ("under the weather"). Hunwick skated on the left wing tonight alongside Steve Begin and Shawn Thornton on the fourth line. He finished the game a +1 with 2 shots and 2 hits in 10:34 of ice time (all even strength).

- In just 10:58 of ice time tonight, Steve Begin recorded more hits (8) than Phil Kessel did in 70 games last season (6).

- In rare occurrence this year, the Bruins lost the face-off battle tonight 27-22.

- The B's have out-scored the Leafs 12-4 in the last two games.

- The Bruins are back in game action on Saturday night when they face the Islanders in Uniondale, NY.

On the First Day of Leafsmas, My True Love Gave to Me....

blurr1974 — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:00:22 -0000

A pretty kick-ass Leafs stocking. (available here. via images.footballfanatics.com)

It's officially "holiday season" and I am in full swing. Enjoy the links, and have some Leafs-nog (aka-beer.)

Down Goes Brown and Bloge Salming manage to make me feel better about the Leafs loss to Boston.
Vintage Leafs with a picture of two icons colliding.
I missed Archi's post for the previous FTB, but it's not like it could go out of style.
Speaking of misses, Jared's recap just happens to be the top item on the Barilkosphere's wish list this year.
Steve takes a look at Nikolai Kulemin and discovers another Poni.
MLHS notes that one of the bonuses of the Leafs improved play could be inflated trade values come the deadline. Do I hear a "Matt Stajan for Nathan Horton" in our future? (Hint, the answer is "no.")
Newest member of the Barilkosphere, the Blue (and White) Chip Defensemen starts us off with an easy post: Total Roster Analysis.
With a win at home out of the way, Leafs Fan Forever is feeling worried.
Are the Leafs world-beaters, or also-rans? Frozen Leafs was kinda hoping you'd know...
Kavel has a curious list of Leafs up for your vote on "Leaf of the Decade."
The Strangest One of All thinks Pierre Turgeon is as good as Mats Sundin. Should they both be Hall of Famers?

UPDATE!!!!!!1

Jared lets the music do the talking.

Maple Leafs 3 v. Stars 4 (OT)

PPP — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:53:20 -0000

More photos » by Tony Gutierrez - AP

As noted by Greg Brady: That's 3 points in 3 games with Gustavsson and 1 point in 7 games with the other bum and Joey Mac. click on the picture for a gallery from the game

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Well, that didn't quite end the way in which we would have liked. The Leafs were unable to shut the door after they picked up the lead with seven minutes left in the game. Also, Gustavsson's save percentage wasn't over .900 even after making 32 saves. Considering the Stars had 2 shots after the first period I think that they might have woken up during the first intermission. I imagine hearing Marc Crawford screeching like a banshee must have lightened the mood.

The following players had excellent games in my mind:

Jason Blake - three assists and an all-action display.
Nikolai Kulemin - two goals, more hits, but unfortunately failed to cover the man on the winning goal
Jonas Gustavsson - Obviously.
Lee Stempniak - He's just so mothereffin' ninja. Get used to him because if he keeps this up he'll be re-signing.

So who impressed you folks? Who disappointed? This is your post-game instant analysis thread so offer it up!

Update: More after the jump.

Three things stood out from last night's game and Brandon Worley of Defending Big D touched on a couple of them in his recap.

Jonas Gustavsson is BIG. He has tremendous mobility for a goaltender of his size and made some nifty saves on plays down low. Still, it seems the best way to beat him (as it is with most large goaltenders) is to get the puck moving laterally. The Stars had several such chances early on but were unable to connect, yet Gustavsson also showed an uncanny knack for being able to anticipate where a shot will come from as it moves through traffic. He needs to learn the NHL rules, however.

Yes, The Monster has excellent recovery skills but you can see why Francois Allaire will be important to his development. His raw numbers thus far are not terribly impressive.

	GP	MIN	W	L	T	EGA	GA	GAA	SA	SV	SV%	SO
2009 - Jonas Gustavsson	4	219	1	2			12	3.29	111	99	.892	0

However, the impact that his presence has had on the team has been. The Leafs have played, arguably, their two best games of the year in their last two outings and I think greater team confidence in their goaltending has played a part in that improvement. The forecheck has been night and day compared with most of the first 8 games of the year and the defence, while still far from a perfect group, certainly look much more composed. A big part of that is knowing that the first save will be made. Of course, as shown by the game winner, Gustavsson's rebound control with his pads needs some work. He kicked the shot into the corner - where he should if he has to - but it went right to James Neal. Yes, Kulemin should have had him covered but I don't know that that shot required the rebound to be kicked out so forcefully. Especially with the team scrambling it would have helped to freeze it. Then again, that's why Francois Allaire is getting paid the big bucks.

I know that the Stars have the skill to play at a higher level, because they showed it after Richards' first goal. The defensemen were pushing the rush up the ice, the forecheck went from non-existent to impressive and the Stars all of a sudden began to generate scoring chances. Consider this: after managing just two shots in the first period, the Stars put 34 pucks on net between the second and third periods and overtime. They have the skill and talent on this team to absolutely pepper the goaltender, especially when the defense is getting in on the action.

And this is the second big one. The Leafs finally came out and jumped all over an opponent but they weren't able to make their control count because they had no one to finish the chances that they created.

Finally, so that I remember in the future, I want to once again formally express my disgust with Mike Ribeiro. I don't know if it's the fact that his name ends in a vowel or because his father taught him that 'gamesmanship' was acceptable in one sport so it can carry over to the good ol' Canadian game but his fake high stick schtick was sad to watch. It's bad enough when guys like Sidney Crosby, Bryan McCabe, Sean Avery, Derek Roy, and on and on dive but Ribeiro wasn't even touched. The league's crackdown on offences since the lockout has led to an increase in guys diving or clamping down on a player's stick to get a hooking call. Unfortunately, the speed of the game is too much for referees to be able to pick out every embellishment but they should be doing a better job when faced with known fakers. Not to mention that there should be a mechanism to punish these plays retroactively. Soccer still hasn't found a way to deal with it and it's the single-most frustrating thing to deal with. Basketball continues to encourage it and the games are increasingly unwatchable. Hockey's still facing a nascent problem but there will be an increase in the prevalence of these kinds of plays as power plays remain so important to creating offence.

The best part of the incident? Stanley Cup of Chowder's tweet:

@DefendingBigD Yeah, you should probably just change the name of your site to Defending Big D-Dags

Anyway, now that I got that off of my chest, another improved effort from the buds didn't get them quite the reward that they were looking for but it's hard to argue that the team is trending any way but up and that's good enough for me after a hellacious start.

How Do The Maple Leafs Allocate The Salary Cap?

PPP — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:00:25 -0000

More photos » by Frank Franklin II - AP

Luke Schenn and Matt Stajan wonder if they can leave Vesa Toskala in NYC.

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~~Yesterday~~ On October 8th (I wrote this post originally on the 9th) James had a piece looking at where the money was spent by the top five teams last year. Robot Godzilla previously took a look at how the Leafs' spending on defencemen, forwards, and goalies compared to the rest of the league. Considering that Jeff Finger is making $3.5M to sit in the press box it's no surprise to find out that the Leafs are spending the most on defence. Luckily, they are currently also getting the least in return. Wait...

Anyway, here's Mirtle's intro (ps. He went to Barcelona on vacation. Must be nice):

This is something I was working on before vacation, a mini-study of how five of the NHL's best teams are allocating their cap space this year. The five I went with are all right up against the cap, and all experienced a ton of success last year: The Sharks, Red Wings, Bruins, Capitals and Penguins.

After the jump I'll look at how the Maple Leafs stack up to last year's top five teams and where they might improve their monetary allocation.

One note is that I used John Mitchell as the 12th forward in the 'bottom 11' players category because the Leafs are going to carry a 23 man roster for the foreseeable future. This is a result of the lack of waiver eligible forwards in the lower ranks other than Jay Rosehill who isn't included in these figures. First up, is the visual representation of the money split among the top 11 and bottom 11 players for last year's top five teams:

Here is the same graph for the Maple Leafs' 23 man roster:

For the purposes of this exercise here is how I categorised players:

Top Six Forwards: Phil Kessel, Jason Blake, Matt Stajan, Niklas Hagman, Alexei Ponikarovsky, Mikhail Grabovski
Top Four Defencemen: Francois Beauchemin, Mike Komisarek, Tomas Kaberle, Luke Schenn
Starting Goaltender: Vesa Toskala
Next Seven Forwards: Lee Stempniak, Nikolai Kulemin, Rickard Wallin, Wayne Primeau, Jamal Mayers, Colton Orr, Viktor Stalberg, John Mitchell
Next Three Defencemen: Jeff Finger, Garnet Exelby, Ian White
Backup Goaltender: Jonas Gustavsson

You'll notice that Mike Van Ryn isn't included in the calculations and that's because he might as well not exist.

Mirtle was never taught to put a legend with a graph so the differences aren't as visible as they should be. In order to salvage this entire exercise check out the first table below:

	Maple Leafs	% of Cap	Top Five Avg	% of Cap
Starting 6	$23,900,000	38.92%	$33,249,434	58.50%
Top Six Forwards	$19,155,000	31.19%	$26,402,768	46.50%
Top four D	$15,525,000	25.28%	$15,692,500	27.60%
Starting G	$4,000,000	6.51%	$4,258,333	7.50%
Bottom 11/12	$18,099,999	29.47%	$10,153,804	17.90%
Top F Line	$11,150,000	18.16%	$18,380,268	32.40%
Top D Pair	$8,750,000	14.25%	$10,610,833	18.70%

The Leafs are on par with the top five in terms of spending for their top four defencemen and their starting goalies. It's no surprise, given the lack of elite forwards (aside from Kessel we hope) that the Leafs have spent $7M less than the top five teams from last year. The real shame is that, as a result of some poor decisions, the extra spending hasn't gone to augmenting the top four defence or the starting goaltending but to the 'bottom 11 (or 12)'. One of Burke's big goals will have to be to get some of that money freed up so that it can be invested in the high end players.

From among the forwards Lee Stempniak ($2.5M), Alexei Ponikarovsky ($2.1M), Matt Stajan ($1.75M), Wayne Primeau ($1.4M), Rickard Wallin ($800K), and Jamal Mayers ($1.33M) are unrestricted free agents while Nikolai Kulemin ($1.5M) and John Mitchell ($500K) are unrestricted free agents. That frees up about $11.88M to be re-invested into the forwards. If we follow the breakdown above that would mean re-investing $5.52M into the top six forwards. To get the team's expenditures on their top six forwards up to the same percentage the Maple Leafs would have to invest another $4M on top of that to get close. Now if only there was a player worth that kind of coin... The rest of the bottom six will have a lot of players on the Marlies and possible juniors to pull from to fill the spots. Considering Brian Burke's stated preference with which we are all well, well aware (Top Six v. Bottom Six) and his statements about the Leafs' current make-up ('Top' Nine v. Bottom Three) it will be interesting to see what moves he makes to address those gaps through free agency versus internal promotions. The former would be expensive and cuts into the money available to fill out the top of the roster which is where the top five teams are choosing to spend their money.

The gap in high end players is most visible when you look at the Leafs' starting six compared to the top five average. The starting six (Kessel, Blake, Stajan, Komisarek, Kaberle, Toskala) make $10M less which again shows that he Leafs lack in star power. Balance is all well and good but there is a lot to be said for having a superstar or two in the ranks. If you look a bit closer you see that the majority of the difference comes from the top forward line and Matt Stajan's $1.75M salary. If he remains with the team next year his raise will cut the gap somewhat but the case then won't be how the Leafs have allocated their money in terms of the players' place on the roster but if it is going to the right players.

In terms of the overall splits the picture is similar:

	Maple Leafs	% of Cap	Top Five Avg	% of Cap
Forwards	$29,013,333	47.24%	$33,220,239	58.50%
Defence	$24,166,666	39.35%	$18,386,166	32.40%
Goalies	$6,500,000	10.58%	$4,901,000	8.60%
Buy-outs	$1,733,333	2.82%	$515,000	0.90%
Total	$61,413,332

No surprise here as the Maple Leafs again spend more than the average on defence and less on forwards. Among the defence the Leafs have Garnet Exelby ($1.4M) and Mike Van Ryn ($2.9M) as unrestricted free agents and it would beggar belief to see either one return to Toronto. Ian White ($850K) is a restricted free agent who will likely be re-signed to fill in the sixth spot leaving the seventh and call up spots to Phil Oreskovic (who is an RFA), Juraj Mikus, and Carl Gunnarsson.

The other figure where the Leafs far outspend the top five is in buy-outs. Every dollar spent on a buy-out is dead space that hinders a team's ability to sign their own RFAs and UFAs and pursue others. As players like Viktor Stalberg, Christian Hanson, Luke Schenn, and Tyler Bozak come up to be re-signed the Darcy Tucker buy-out will be a niggling problem but it's vital not to add to it by going through some of the proposed buy-outs I've seen suggested.

I'm going to try to expand this analysis a bit further this week but let's hear what everyone thinks about the numbers so far.

Maple Leafs 2 v. Rangers 7: Confidence In Short Supply

PPP — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:07:26 -0000

More photos » by Frank Franklin II - AP

I had no other option but to use that picture for this post since it's necessary to document that at least once this season when the team needed more than a routine save they got it from Toskala.

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Greg Millen catches a lot of flak around these parts for his dogged determination to show that there has never been a goal scored that has been the fault of the goaltender. However, before Ron Wilson's presser last night he brought up a great point which the coach then re-iterated. Millen noted that the Rangers are able to have a strong forecheck and four defencemen under the age of twenty-five because they know that they can take chances with Henrik Lundqvist tending goal. He pointed out that the team can send two men in on the rush because every shot on goal doesn't have a great chance of going in. Ron Wilson was then asked about what he thought about the Rangers and his answer extolled the virtues of a John Tortorella-coached team - hard-working, aggressive forecheck, hard hitting - which sounded suspiciously like what he wishes his team would be someday.

Last night was a great example of how a confident goaltender can spread confidence throughout the team. Both teams made some pretty bad giveaways but only one saw the majority of them end up in the back of the net. We can quibble at how many goals were directly, completely, and solely Toskala's fault but what won't change is that the Maple Leafs won't play anywhere near their potential with the finished Finn in net.

	GP	MIN	W	L	T	EGA	GA	GAA	SA	SV	SV%	SO
2009 - Vesa Toskala	4	205	0	2			19	5.56	101	82	.812	0

	GP	MIN	W	L	T	EGA	GA	GAA	SA	SV	SV%	SO
2009 - Henrik Lundqvist	5	298	4	1			12	2.42	149	137	.919	0

As a quick note, if we had swapped goalies the Leafs would only have allowed 8 goals in 5 games. Take that in while you think of how you can help make sure Toskala never plays for the Leafs again.

Ron Wilson certainly appeared to be at the end of his rope during his post-game presser which lasted all of four questions. If Joey MacDonald doesn't get the start tonight against Colorado then I'd have to start thinking that maybe Ron Wilson has been replaced by a Montreal-developed spy machine bent on destroying the Old Rivals.

Here's a look at the seven goals that the Leafs coughed up:

The first one's on an unfortunate 5-on-3 and Luke scehnn scores it so it hardly seems fair to count it against the Leafs but there it is. A wonderful start once more.
Everything is under control with everyone covered and the puck behind the net when Wade "Sniff Sniff" Redden slides down past his winger and snaps a shot short side past Toskala. Right about now I cracked my second drink.
The Leafs had cut the lead down to one last in the second when Dan Girardi was able to float a long-long wrister past Toskala. This goal was then given the Zapruder treatment by Greg Millen in a vain attempt to absolve him of any blame. Four goals later Millen will look a lot like Ron Wilson did during his presser.
Hey! Look at this. The Leafs again got a late goal to cut the lead to one and they cough up an early one to kill any chance of a comeback after the team's best period of the year. Schenn loses it, Grabovski has a chance to clear it, and the Toskala lets a fluttering backhand go past his blocker. It's not all of his fault but let's file this under "It would be nice to get a save once in a while".
Jeff Finger, trying to be the only one in blue and while to play goalie, makes a glove save but the deflected puck lies in the crease for a few seconds before a falling Marian Gaborik reacts first and slots home .
After a Tomas Kaberle giveaway Toskala makes the first save but then lets in a long Dan Girardi slapper. One more for the "hey buddy, you get $4M a year to make those kinds of saves" file.
Millen pointed out that the Leafs' PK could benefit from the occasional save that is of the more than routine variety and this goal highlighted that need. Yes, Toskala made the first save. And then he made sure to kick it right out to Sean Avery who then slid it five-hole.

I honestly can't write enough about Vesa Toskala and the detrimental knock-on effect that his horrible play has on the rest of the club. The stories are of course trumpeting the fact that the Leafs have never had such a bad start in the 80 year history of the Maple Leafs name or that newcomers Francois Beauchemin and Mike Komisarek have struggled mightily. The numbers will be crunched and it will certainly scream that it is time to look into contacting Mike Danton.

However, I don't think it's a stretch to say that getting NHL calibre goaltending (it's not even about getting average goaltending!) would make a difference. Anything good that the team does gets lost because of the end result. Jeff Finger had his best game of the year and threw a couple of massive hits. Think that'll get mentioned? Nikolai Kulemin continued his hit-filler strong play. What are the odds anyone else notices? The team finally played more than a period of the kind of hitting forecheck that Wilson wants to see but what will get the focus? The L and the goaltending.

Ron Wilson has complained that things are really depressing and it's not too hard to understand why. If I was busting my ass only to see a terrible goal it would sap a lot of the will out of me. Especially if I killed myself during training camp to get the opportunity to make the team or improve my standing while the black hole in net was gifted his position and gets nothing but support from the coach. But that's just me. I've never had to play on a team with at least two superior options in net that didn't see the ice because of reasons beyond comprehension to every outside observer.

Tonight it's time to see Joey MacDonald begin warming the seat for Jonas Gustavsson. Damien Cox is half right. The Leafs need to cut ties with Vesa toskala. Let him know that he'll get every paycheque due to him but he'll never disgrace the Maple Leaf again. Also, he should invest in a comfortable pillow for those bus rides. At this point, even his mom has to admit that he is steering the Leafs down the garden path to heartbreak.

Maple Leafs Wins: Easy as One, Two, Three?

blurr1974 — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 09:15:09 -0000

Matt Stajan continues to carry the Leafs / drive his contract price up / increase his trade value (pick your favorite) while the rest of the team pretty much does the opposite. For a guy once considered captain material, he sure ain't inspiring the troops much, is he?

After watching some Colbert, I got to thinking: Who should be on notice? The Leafs have their fair share, and the easy targets are varied, but today, I'm going to focus on our offensive side. So, for the following week...

Grabovski, Kulemin, and Mitchell (L - R) you're on notice! (via i.cdn.turner.com)

Dr. Steve has not diagnosed what's ailing the Leafs, but he's zeroing in on the symptoms.
LD is celebrating an anniversary, and the Leafs threw a sexy party for her. Well, maybe not so much sexy...
The Vintage Leafs have loaded up with another assortment of fantastic shots.
Truculeafs is reminiscing, or on something. I can't really tell.
Leafs247 is weighing in on the tampering issues against the Leafs.
Puck Daddy wraps up tamper-gate with a pretty bow. Case closed.
HockeyCentric is not feeling the love for the Kessel trade at the moment.
Puckurgently has a behind-the-scenes interview with a major player in the tampering complaint.
Allan Bester was a great goalie that the Leafs gave up on far too early. I knew it!
Brian Burke is just talking here!

Ladies and Gentlemen, Your Toronto Maple Leafs!

blurr1974 — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 09:00:41 -0000

Hockey. It starts tonight...(via torontoist.com)

We're finally here. Opening night. When the season ended a scant 6 months or so ago, we'd seen a glimpse of Christian Hanson and been recently introduced to Tyler Bozak. However, since that time we've met Happy Trails, the Monster, Komikazi, C and Nasty (my Nazdaq is rising) Nazem. Suffice to say, it's been an exciting six months.

Tonight, it all begins again. Games matter. Not only in November, but now. Tonight we get to see the team as Brian Burke sees them: a team with "proper levels of pugnacity, testosterone, belligerence and truculence."

Tonight, we see the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Truthulence speaks.
At Heroes in Rehab, jrwendelman has a few words of wisdom for opening night.
Steve gives us a break down of the Jiri Tlusty, Nikolai Kulemin andTyler Bozak demotions. Then, he looks at the Leafs October schedule and gives us some predictions.
Zambonic Youth spreads some love out west and inadvertently (or maybe advertently...) introduces you to the greatest NHLer you never knew.
Down Goes Brown keeps rolling through the divisions, with a stop in the Northwest.
Norman James has his predictions up, and the reasons for PLAYOFFS!!!1 in Toronto.
TSM has their prediction counterpoint up, and notes that the Leafs could make the playoffs not only on their own merits, but the lack thereof from the competition. Also, giving the power back to the people they ask: Who is the next Leafs captain?
The Muppet is wondering if false-positives apply to hockey players, as Bob McKenzie's words about Stalberg has his heart all-a-flutter.
MLHS kicks off the season with recollections of favorite Leaf goals from years past.
Leaf & Lion breaks down the blue line and net positional players, with silver linings and clouds for all.
Is three non-consecutive periods of pre-season hockey enough to gauge the capabilities of a goalie? Hockeycentric seems to thinks so.
Even more than the predicted final score, I'm a big fan of Hockey Independent's predicted finishing move by the Leafs.
I enjoy articles like this one because, as someone else put it here recently, I get the feeling of being wrapped in a warm blanket, all safe and cozy. It's hard for fans of other NHL teams to fathom the joy we get from having a GM with a plan...
In addition to having a plan, the added bonus of depth on the Leafs has suddenly made the Marlies newsworthy again.
Does the pre-season matter? We'll soon find out!
Saying goodbye to one of their own, Four Habs Fans bid adieu to "Little Tits"

THE ALL SUNDIN EDITION

Lots of love going out to the former Leafs captain. Join with these folks as they pour some out for their homey, Mats Sundin.

Clawson @ Be Clever or I Sever
Bloge Salming (with video footage of Mats retirement speech.)
The Cheap Seats
Hungry Leafs Fan
Norman James
Third String Goalie
EYEBLEAF!!!1
JaredFromLondon @ Die Hard Blue and White
Barilkosphere newcomer: Leafs Fan Forever

Poll

The season begins tonight! Are you feeling:

Hopeful

37 votes

Excited

98 votes

Nervous

7 votes

Gassy

18 votes

160 votes | Poll has closed

Maple Leafs 6 v. Sabres 7: At Least Our Offence Looks Good

PPP — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 07:45:15 -0000

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're all fickle for 'suddenly' turning on Vesa Toskala. A lot of good from this game will be overlooked because of Toskalol's performance and a lot of bad won't be highlighted by anyone other than Ron Wilson. The Leafs' defence did not have it's best game and the exit of Mike Komisarek did not help things. Luke Schenn's poor handling of a two-on-one didn't help on the Sabres' first goal and the Leafs' defensive backside coverage allowed two cross-crease passes to get through for goals.

But there's no sugar coating Toskala's poor performance. He played entirely too deep in his net which allowed Vanek's deflection a lot more net than it should have had. The Jochen Hecht goal where he spun around was symptomatic of one of two things:

He isn't comfortable pushing off with his rebuilt groin and hip.
He isn't thinking

It's not the first time this pre-season that Toskala has been that lost on a goal. The first against the Flyers was a similar goal. The seventh goal was again a result of his terrible play moving laterally.

The Leafs definitely started out disjointed. Wilson placed the blame at the feet of it being the Leafs' 9th pre-season game in 12 days but the majority didn't play in all of them. In fact, one of the best players on the ice was Viktor Stalberg who was playing in his eighth game. Eventually the Leafs grew into the game and finished the first period strong and with a two goal lead on a couple of nice deflections.

Overall, it felt like the forwards were continuing to develop some good chemistry and understanding. The increased knowledge of where each other would be was evident in the excellent puck pursuit that they showed. This was especially true of the Grabovski line. The pressure led directly to a couple of goals as Jason Blake's came after Nikolai Kulemin created a turnover at the blueline and the sixth by Grabovski came after the Leafs' recovered a loose puck.

A couple of the forwards showed a bit more of what was expected from them. Rickard Wallin looked much more comfortable on the puck and with his linemates. He was much more active in the offensive zone and made a great pass from behind the goal line to Lee Stempniak for his second goal. The other was Nikolai Kulemin. Wilson said in the post-game presser that he wanted to get him off of Grabovski's line (and Poni's) so that he wouldn't have his two Russian buddies to lean on. It paid dividends as he kept up the good forecheck and added a goal and an assist.

D.O. from Die By The Blade noticed that the forwards were dangerous throughout the game as well:

As you can imagine, the Sabres did plenty of good things in this game. All the news wasn't good however, there were planty of defensive breakdowns that led to the Leafs six goals. In addition, the Leafs hit three or four goal posts that could have easily made this game a Toronto rout.

It was also another chance for me to walk around the additions made to the Air Canada Centre. They are certainly impressive. The new LeafsTV studio is right by Burkie's Dog House (get the bacon wrapped dog), the massive screen outside of gate five will provide an amazing view of the games during the playoffs, and the concessions area around where the Ice Box used to be is a really nice expansion. Peddie wasn't lying when he said that the upgrades would make the experience of walking around the ACC better. Now, let's see if things will improve on the ice because that's all that matters.

Maple Leafs 3 v. Penguins 2 (SO): Kadri Descends From Heaven and Wins The Game

PPP — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 05:29:15 -0000

The Toronto Maple Leafs picked up a fourth consecutive win as they topped the "Pittsburgh Penguins" for the second time in a week. Once again they came back from a two goal deficit but instead of capitalising on a five-minute major they punished the Penguins for repeated icings. After Viktor Stalberg helped Mikhail Grabovski win a scrambled draw Francois Beauchmin fired a shot on goal. The deflection bounced to Nazem Kadri who roofed it with just over a minute left.

After a frantic overtime - seriously, this is almost always the best hockey in a game - that almost saw Beauchemin give away the game with a brutal icing the game headed to a shootout. That set the stage for Nazem Kadri to punctuate his performance with a game-winner just as Luke Schenn did against the St. Louis Blues about a year ago. He made his signature backhand to forehand move and left Curry grasping at shadows. Vesa Toskala stopped two Penguins before Lee Stempniak slid the Leafs' final shot through the tender's legs.

Wilson's press conference was filled with gems and Archi was kind enough to pass along some of the best remarks.

He made a great play to tie the game. I don’t think this was one of his better games. Just being in the right spot at the right time. That's why he's a 1st round pick. If he goes back to junior, I'd be shocked if he didn’t get 100 points. He's very confident in a positive way, that's why I threw him out there for the shootout.

It's pretty clear that Kadri can do a lot of things right in the offensive end. He's shown some great vision with his passing during camp and his two goals have displayed a real goal scorer's touch. However, he's fighting an uphill battle to make the team and it's largely in part to his lack of size:

I suspected he'd be dynamic. You saw an example against a better team the other night, he got crushed repeatedly. This is a very violent and very big league. The purpose of this is to teach him that the weight room is an important part of the development process.

Kadri is determined to make the decision as difficult as possible for the coach:

Just trying to make the decision hard, I appreciate Ron putting me out in big situations, it's just building my confidence. I love to step up to the game in any situation. I'd love to get the 9 regular season games, just to experience the pace. Either way, I support their decision.

I mentioned it when I was at the draft but Kadri's attitude about training camp has been exemplary. He has consistently stated that he wants to give his absolute best effort to make the decision about his future as difficult as possible. The astonishing maturity comes through when you see that he realises why sticking around longer would be so beneficial:

All I can take from this is experience. Great opportunity. I play with passion, and all these guys brighten it up a little bit. Professional hockey players, really know how to carry themselves on and off the ice.

When it comes to the performance of the kids there are a couple schools of thought. The first is obviously that they'll be better served being thrown into the deep end and learning on the job. However, I think that the following basically sums up the issue for Wilson. He seems to be a proponent of bringing the kids along slowly:

I had a lot of young guys out there, that’s what this is for, to see how they react. I think Kadri and Bozak especially can eventually be magical players for us. I think they all looked a little tired tonight, they aren't as fast as they were last week. But that's all part of it. Most of the kids will be playing tomorrow, so we'll see how they respond. That's the test they're under. I expect Buffalo to ice a very good team tomorrow, I hope our kids play great. I think we're better off than last year. You saw a lot of blind plays there tonight, blind pass outs from behind the net, all this stuff is good in Junior and in college, but it doesn’t work in the NHL. Maybe a few of these guys would make the team last year, but we're better off now.

To me that says that Kadri is going back to London to learn and the Marlies are going to be quite the attraction this winter. Actually, when it comes to one player it certainly doesn't seem like a question what is going to happen:

Probably starting out the year in the Minors. You don’t see the times he doesn’t back check or doesn't get it out along the boards. You'll see the nice goal and you see him skating past people. Its not all about scoring goals. A lot of young players didn’t have to do that in college and the minors, but everybody has to do that stuff up here.

Stalberg himself realises that he has to improve every day and Wilson is absolutely giving him every opportunity to do so:

Every time you get a chance to play, it could be your last game of the preseason. Play every shift like its your last. I couldn't picture it going any better out of camp. I'm just trying to make the most of it. When you come in seeing guys like Kaberle and Stajan, it gets nerve wracking, those are guys that I was idolizing a few years ago. It fets a little easier as camp keeps progressing. I feel a little better every day.

Wilson was also extremely pleased with the actions of the Leafs' two big defensive signings. Both Francois Beauchemin and Mike Komisarek took on Penguins in addition to their regular duties:

You have a guy like Beachemin fighting in a game like this, same with Mike. Your two best and biggest defenders fighting, I don't really want to see it because of injury, but I appreciate the efforts to show youngs guys how to play in this league.

A lot of the comments in the game day thread centred on a couple of the young guys from last year. After a season destroying AHL competition most of us expected more from Jiri Tlusty. And it goes without saying that Nikolai Kulemin is expected to improve on his performance from last year. So far we haven't really had our skirts blown up but Wilson is keeping the faith:

On Tlusty:

I want to see more. I'm going to keep playing him and giving him opportunities to do it. Would have been next up in the shootout.

On Kulemin:

Had some great shifts tonight. Missed the net a few times, probably playing a little tight. Needs to relax. He plays better with Poni on the ice.

The start to the game that saw the Leafs overrun and Toskala not look his best was mitigated as the game progressed and the Leafs got in the swing of things. The shootout was really a nice difference compared to last year and Wilson attributes a lot of that to the Leafs' new goaltending coach:

Important for him to stop two in the shootout. That's the positive effect from Francois. Wasn't moving all over the place. Really settled down after the 1st. Francois is a little hard on the goalies, but how many Cup rings does Allaire have? It's all about winning.

The Leafs once again got into a couple of scraps. One of the funnier moments of the night came when Mike Komisarek picked Jordan Staal up from the ice just so that he could beat on him. I know it was maybe a bit of an overreaction but when you hit a guy and his teammate jumps in you have to expect the worst. While it might have been more than was needed it was a vital part of waking the Leafs up:

We're setting a tone for the season. Physical play and toughness. Took their lineup for granted a bit. We responded and got better.

Der Komissar also mentioned that the fight amongst the kids during camp has had a big effect on the veterans:

Kadri, Hanson, Stalberg, Bozak, all are playing like they have nothing to lose. Open minds, ready to learn. That youthful enthusiasum has spread.

As Komisarek noted, the Leafs certainly started off sluggishly. The shots were 9-1 against before Pierre McGuire interviewed Ron Wilson on the bench and gave him a pulpit to express his anger. Jay Rosehill and Komisarek's scraps definitely seemed to energise the team. From the third period on the forwards especially had more jump and created a lot more opportunites. On the back end the defence looked more organised and cut down on the mistakes that led to the two Penguins goals.

So the Leafs improve to 4-1 this pre-season. It may not count for much - the 2008 Detroit Lions went 4-0 during the pre-season before setting a record for going winless - but the individual performances have to give Leaf fans heart that their team is not destined to finish 29th.

Toronto Maple Leafs 4 Philadelphia Flyers 0: It's Only The Pre-Season But...

PPP — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 13:30:21 -0000

More photos » by Dave Chidley - AP

Lesson One for the NHL: Don't Mess With Schenn.

Browse more photos »

Well, my name is known all over the world
By all the foxy ladies and the pretty girls.
I'm goin' down in history
As the baddest 7th overall pick in history.

If you didn't get excited by Nazem Kadri's first goal in a more real Leafs' uniform than during the rookie tournament then you don't have a pulse. The speed with which he broke through the neutral zone, his movement to the wing, the uncanny understanding of where he needed to go, and the wicked wrister of his back skate will hopefully be looked back upon in the near future as signs of what was to come. Is that too much? Definitely. But this is why the pre-season is so much fun. You get to see players put into different situations and the possibilities are endless.

A line of NCAA players? Sure, why not? The Delta House Line (Frat Pack?) of Tyler Bozak, Viktor Stalberg, and Christian Hanson have all notched goals and look at the very least to be on the verge of making the leap to the pro ranks. Hanson helped ice the game as he finished off a chance at the lip of the crease - where he has said he hopes to make his living - after he got two whacks at a Jay Rosehill rebound.

Speaking of Jay Rosehill, he led the intimidation brigade with two fights, some good jump, and good hockey sense. The Leafs, faced with a Flyers' lineup filled with gutless enforcers, trotted out two career AHLers and Our Luke and Saviour and didn't bat an eye. What little aggression the Flyers could muster was more than ably met by the Leafs with a closed fist and a crooked grin that dared them to do their worst. Sure, I could toss off a 500 word tirade about Arron Asham and what Ron Wilson and anyone with eyes termed a cheapshot or complain about the linesmen and referee shepherding the gutless puke out of the game sans blood being shed but I won't. Why not? Because the Leafs didn't back down from the Flyers' swinging sticks or their attempts to channel the old Broad Street Bullies.

Also, I know that Saturday night Colton Orr will be in the line-up and I'll be there to see him cut a swath of destruction.

Now, obviously, it wasn't ideal to have Schenn fighting but the reality is that he picks his spots and he's not likely to go through an entire year without having to drop the mitts. Teams are going to challenge the Leafs' to see if 'truculence' is just Burke's bluster or if the Bay Street Bullies are back to wreak havoc in the Eastern Conference.

It was alternately terrifying and heartening to see Mikhail Grabovski skating around at his whirling dervish best but get that head up! aside from the Asham hit he took a couple of other doozies. Good thing he's made of adamantium or he might have been injured.

The two players that needed to get going were Alexei Ponikarovsky and Nikolai Kulemin. It took them until almost the end of the second period but they started asserting themselves. Hopefully the push from the Kollege Kids (?) is the extra motivation that they need to improve on last season.

Among the forwards there was another player that stood out. Like the Animal House line he is an American and he's been known to sport do the little things right despite a pedigree that suggests he should be able to do the big things as well. You might have heard of him: Lee Stempniak. No? Well, I don't know what promises Burke might have made...ok, let's be realistic, they were threats...but in his first taste of pre-season action he added a goal scored on a rebound and a really nice solo rush to his usual dogged puck pursuit and strong forecheck. You can add his name to the list of players that have at least 89 games left to show that they have a future in the blue and white.

On the back end, Carl Gunnarson might as well wear Anton Stralman's old jerseys. He was an almost carbon copy of the cast-off Swede during his first training camp. He's also played for the Swedish national team so I hope that he puts things together with a strong year on the Marlies. The other long, long, long shot to make the roster that played was Jesse Blacker. He saw some powerplay time which was decent and he displayed some good composure after a slow start especially when the two times that his stick broke on the play.

As for the trio that are pencilled into the top four, I was impressed by Tomas Kaberle. Chemmy's agitation for a trade has always hinged on the fact that last season's Kaberle was a shadow of his past self. Last night that shadow filled in a bit more. He was confident with the puck, did his usual cool head fakes on rushes, and picked up an assist when he patiently held on to the puck to create a lane before getting a shot off on net. And finally, Mike Komisarek laid a decent check. He also brought some sandpaper to the defensive zone and sported an 'A'. I still don't like him but between his interview where he said the Leafs would win the Cup before Montreal and played a much more physical game and his perfectly timed open ice hit I might come around some day.

So that's two for two in games that saw the Leafs play an uptempo forecheck for as long as they could muster it. One team pushed back and scrapped a win while the other had their stars forwards seemingly afraid to cross the blue line while the Leafs ran up the score. What can we take away from this? Not too much...for now.