SB Nation - Mikhail Grabovski

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.

Leafs Win, Isles Lose and My Dad is Taller Than Yours

blurr1974 — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:29:56 -0000

Oh, he's serious.

Well that was fun, and sticks with what appears to be the Leafs recent penchant for lose one, win two. That means tonight's game against Boston should be a...oh. Crap. Maybe we should give this guy's dad a call and put him in the line up. Seriously, he's like...well, you can read it, can't you?

There's not much else that puts me in a better mood than when the Leafs win. Mainly because the Barilkosphere buzzes to life and fantastic posts of hope and possibilities flow through the intertubes and into my laptop. I still contend that the best part about being a Leafs fan is the fans. We can disagree on a multitude of issues, including ones pertinent to the Leafs. However, when the team wins, well it's just icing on the cake...

Our very own WAC knows a thing or two about starting and ending your day right. Take two looks at each of these before you eat, and two more before you got bed. You'll feel better for it. I promise.
Shocking I know, but even eyebleaf can get down. More shocking is how Jason Blake and Vesa Toskala can cheer him up. Since he's feeling positive, you know he's only thinking one thing. No not, that you pervert. Well, ok, probably that as well, but in addition to PLAYOFFS!!!1
The general has been watching the Leafs slowly crawl their way back to respectability. In the process, he's noticed a few players stepping up and making an impact. Also, he's been conspicuously absent lately so maybe you should go over to his blog and ask what's up with that...?
Hungry Leafs Fan is having two times the funn at Leafs games. Especially since they finally won one with him in attendance.
The Battle of Ontario's Five-O puts together two statements that in previous days would have seemed incongruent.
Leafs Fan Forever likes surprises.
Newcomer to MLHS, Derek Harmsworth shines an ever widening spotlight on the better players for the Leafs last night.
TSM finds it interesting that the MSM seems to think Burke will resign all the team's pending UFAs and RFAs thanks to the recent improvement in play. It's curious because Burke didn't jump the gun when things were down. Why would he do that now?
Norman James has Nazem Kadri coming to his radio program "Da Hook" on Friday night. I thought we might want to mark that in our calendars...
Terry Sawchuk is not just a footnote in Martin Brodeur's assault on the record books, he's an icon in his own right. SBN's own Copper & Blue introduces you to "Uke."
As I've recently discovered, Pennsylvanians are a rough and tumble bunch. MYFO has the proof, on video.

UPDATES

Jared recaps the win. Click. Click. BOOM.
The Other Vatican shows how when Phil Kessel was benched by Boston in the playoffs, he responded well when finally getting the chance to play. So, how will he respond to the Bruins tonight?
How can Mikhail Grabovski have continued success at the NHL level? Vintage Leaf Memories thinks it knows the answer.
And one more for good measure. Yours truly was contacted by NESN to talk about tonight's upcoming match against the Bruins. Can you spot the diss?

*This post was published live at 1:30 AM Pacific. I can't sleep, but I'll make another attempt soonnzndfzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Maple Leafs 5 v. Thrashers 2: TODAY IS THE GREATEST DAYYYY

PPP — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 03:17:46 -0000

More photos » by CHRIS YOUNG - AP

Sorry Antro. You can't have Poni! He's mine!

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Chemmy would like you to listen to this song to understand the post title. Unfortunately, Smashing Pumpkins doesn't like having their music embedded.

The Toronto Maple Leafs bounced back from a pantsing in Boston on Saturday to beat the Atlanta Thrashers 5-2. They were paced by two goals by Alexei Ponikarovsky, a strong performance by Matt Stajan, and competent, nay, outstanding at times, goaltending by Vesa Toskala. Re-read that if you have to in order to believe it but there it is.

The Toronto Maple Leafs knew that they had to do something special. First, they knew that Puck Daddy was going to be in the building being afraid of King Clancy after a day spent visiting all of the city's sights. He also did his best Don Cherry impression: YER PATHETIC!! Could have used Jeff Marek standing beside him terrified and perplexed. Secondly, they likely (despite all protests to the contrary) read this abortion of an article by Mark Zwolinski featuring his best Working Class Howard impression:

Even though they are fully aware of it, the Leafs received another reminder yesterday of how fortunate they are to play in a city where no matter how poorly they perform, there's always a love-in waiting for them when they return home.

And that was the first sentence/paragraph/whatever journalists write since they stopped writing in proper English! Now, I know ad hominem attacks aren't the way to make your point but...come on, is Zwolinski an idiot? The love-in? Is this by the fans that spent so much time booing the team that JFJ actually got fired, that McCabe got run out of town, that Tucker and Raycroft were bought out, that reporters have commented on what a poisoned atmosphere the ACC has become? Really? Where are Amy Pohler and Seth Myers when I need them!

And because I can't let a mention of 'idiot' and Working Class Howard go without a proper mention here were the two records that the teams sported before tonight: Leafs at home: 2-7-3 Thrashers on the road: 9-2-1. What would those figures have told you before the game? That the Thrashers were likely to win the game. Well, that's not what Mensa Berger had in mind. His view was that 'something's got to give'. Sure Howie. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he could have been saying that the Leafs aren't this bad and the Thrashers aren't that good but knowing WCH who thinks that that was his point?

The first period was a whole lot of frustrating as the Leafs directed 30 pucks in the direction of the Thrashers' net only to see 20 get blocked or miss the net completely. Most notably, on a long 5-on-3 the Leafs managed to look completely toothless. Luckily for them, Toskala kept out all nine of Atlanta's shots. Every time I write that I have to check the scoresheet to make sure it's real.

The second period can best be described with a short anecdote. Godd Till, of Zambonic Youth fame, and I frequently chat about soccer, our old high school, whose hometown is worse (Cobourg came out strong but was trumped by Peterborough's NSFW late effort), and simulate British football commentary when we rip on right-wing extremists on Twitter. For the unitiated, that means writing hilarious overwrought and ridiculous things but our all-time favourite word is the only one that could describe the second period: Rampant. The Toronto Maple Leafs, for one of the few times this year, were well and truly rampant. One might have referred to 'champagne hockey' and 'the gulf in class' being tangible. Leading the stampede was Alexei Ponikarovsky although he had plenty of help from Matt Stajan (on pace for 26 goals), Lee Stempniak (on pace for 21 goals), and Mikhail Grabovski (on pace for 17 murdered pineapples).

That left the ACC crowd in ecstasy (sorry, still in Brit commenter-mode) as the home side ran up a 5-0 lead. Of course, that led to the mention by everyone that Vesa Toskala could pick up a shutout. People were angry, irate, and...crazy. Jinxes are superstitions. We can't control it. If people want to flout accepted societal norms and mention shutouts all willy nilly well...that kind of thinking is what gave us the current sexually equal generation of women so who's to say it's wrong? In the end, people just had to remember that a. the Leafs get ridiculously pleased with a good two period effort and b. Vesa Toskala was in net.

So for those keeping track at home, while the mittenstringers have been calling for Ron Wilson's head and people have been saying things like "The Leafs would have to win 6 out of every 10 games AND get an OT loss in there 6 times to make the playoffs!" the Maple Leafs have been picking up 6 wins and an OT/SO loss in their last 9 (6-2-1). Hmmm. Look at that. The Maple Leafs are not entirely out of the playoff picture. Weird. Because Damien Cox told us to abandon all hope and all we've been getting is an endless litany of Taylor Hall jokes. Sure, things look better if you take Ron Wilson's advice and read the standings upside down (PRESIDENT'S TROPHY!!1) but there's a lot of time to make them look, if not good, then at least acceptable.

Lots of great videos from last night's game here

Game 28 Preview: The Rarely-Seen Buds Make the Trek to Ohio

Mike MacLean — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:32:58 -0000

More photos » by Charles Rex Arbogast - AP

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They're getting better! The most recent game against the Blackhawks looked more like Jackets hockey than any other game this season, had they played the way they did during the losing streak, the score would have been ugly-very ugly in favor of the 'Hawks.

For the first time in a few years Toronto comes to town. The Leafs are still in the midst of a "re-tooling" (because if I would have said "rebullding" Ole Ironsides Burke would find a way to get me booted off of the internet) and are without either of their top goaltenders. Vesa Toskala is out with an injury, and Gustavsson will be going under the knife for another heart operation. Speaking of Gustavsson, when will the meda give him a new nickname? The Monster? Come on. Worst nickname for a player in all of sport, especially for a rookie. Joey MacDonald, a fellow Bluenoser, will get the start tonight. Mase is in for the Jackets.

The CBJ will be icing the same lineup as the past few games, although Raffi may miss it because his wife is in the hospital prepping for the delivery of the couple's first child. The Leafs have a tough defensive unit, so it will be interesting how the Jackets forwards can cope with that. I also wonder if Kris Russell can continue his red-hot stretch of play tonight. Here's hoping. Look for a good physical battle tonight folks.

Fearless Prediction: CBJ score at least four goals.

Game Time: 7:00pm ET

Opponent's Blog: Pension Plan Puppets

Game Page: Maple Leafs vs Blue Jackets Coverage

TSN Preview: Maple Leafs vs Blue Jackets Preview

TV: FSN Ohio

Radio: WBNS-AM (1460); WWCD-FM (101.1)

More after the jump...

From the Columbus Dispatch:

Toronto has played in Columbus only three times, most recently Nov. 20, 2006, a 4-2 Leafs win. The Blue Jackets would be wise to ignore the standings. After a horrible start, the Maple Leafs are 4-1-2 in their past seven games, including a 3-0 rout of Montreal on Tuesday. It could be a big special- teams game. Although the Blue Jackets excel on the power play, both teams struggle in killing penalties.

Jackets Links:

Columbus Blue Jackets / Columbus Blue Jackets Schedule

Columbus Blue Jackets Roster / Columbus Blue Jackets Stats

Here are the lineups for tonight's tilt:

Columbus Blue Jackets

Kristian Huselius	Antoine Vermette	Rick Nash
R.J. Umberger	Derick Brassard	Jakub Voracek
Jason Chimera	Samuel Pahlsson	Michael Blunden
Raffi Torres	Derek MacKenzie	Jared Boll

Fedor Tyutin	Anton Stralman
Mike Commodore	Jan Hejda
Kris Russell	Mathieu Roy

Steve Mason

Mathieu Garon

EXTRA: Alexandre Picard

INJURED: Fredrik Modin, Andrew Murray, Derek Dorsett, Rostislav Klesla, Marc Methot

Toronto Maple Leafs

Alexei Ponikarovsky	Matt Stajan	Phil Kessel
Niklas Hagman	Mikhail Grabovski	Christian Hanson
Wayne Primeau	Nikolai Kulemin	Lee Stempniak
Jason Blake	Jamal Mayers	Colton Orr

Mike Komisarek	Tomas Kaberle
Luke Schenn	Ian White
Francois Beauchemin	Jeff Finger

Joey MacDonald

Jonas Gustavsson

Your Toronto Maple Leafs: How Did We Get Here?

mf37 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:32:36 -0000

An anonymous comment over at my blog Bitter Leaf Fan raised the question of how exactly the Leafs arrived in their current mess.

There’s not a single cause or easy explantion.

This franchise has gone through three, maybe even four, different phases since 2000, however; with the exception of one small window, all of these phases have focused on the short-term, sacrificing picks and prospects for a supposed fix.

After the jump, a look at the Leafs' propensity to deal away the future and the pile of pocket lint, loose change and used gum wrappers they got in return.

Pre-Lockout

The Pat Quinn teams of the early 2000s were powerful clubs. Each made the playoffs and several flirted with 100 point seasons. They combined a nice mix of talent and flair (Sundin, Mogilny) with grit (Roberts, Tucker) and solid goaltending (Cujo, Belfour).

These teams were often legitimate threats to go deep in the post season and on more than one occasion it was widely thought they could challenge for a cup. As a result, these teams made a number of trades where the future was sacrificed for the present. There was a small window of success and the Leafs went for it, selling off the future in the hopes of a big pay-day.

In 2003, the Leafs trade Brad Boyes (2000 1st round pick), Alyn McCauley and a 1st round pick for Owen Nolan

In 2004, the Leafs trade two prospects, a 1st and 2nd round pick for Brian Leetch.

In addition to dealing away those three first round picks, the Leafs also had some bad luck when their 1999 first round selection (and WJC 1st team all-star) Luca Cereda had to hang up his skates due to health complications with his heart.

From 1999 to 2004, the Leafs emerged with just two first round draft picks: Carlo Colaiacovo and Alexander Steen. Both would later be traded to St. Louis for Lee Stempniak.

The Missing Years

John Ferguson Junior’s tenure was like a ship lost at sea…or maybe it was a ship that kept running into ice bergs…or a lost ship, on fire, that kept hitting ice bergs. Choose your own nautical disaster metaphor and, in keeping with JFJ’s reign of error, the more apocalyptic and dire your selection the more accurate it will be.

Ferguson was GM from the 2004 to 2007 drafts.

Out of those five drafts, he managed to hold on to his first round pick in just once – giving the franchise Jiri Tlusty and a whole lotta NSFW jokes.

Unable to shake-off the "win now!" edict from the MLSE board, in just two years Ferguson sacrificed two first, a second and a fourth round pick in an effort to shore-up the team’s goaltending. Some four years later, goaltending remains a position of weakness that hasn’t been adequately addressed.

JFJ's draft day magic:

The 2005 first round pick (Tukka Rask) dealt for Andrew Raycroft.
The 2006 first round pick was Jiri Tlusty.
The 2007 first round and second round picks (along with a 2009 4th) to San Jose for Vesa Toskala.
The 2008 second round pick to Phoenix for Yannic Perreault.

Draft Schmaft Redux?

In 2008, Cliff Fletcher was brought in to try to move out the NTCs/NMCs on the club and start the, ahem, rebuilding process.

Given the need to get more talent into the system, he made some, shall we say, curious moves:

A swap of first round picks, 2008 3rd round pick, 2009 2nd round pick for Luke Schenn
2008 3rd round pick for Jamal Mayers
2008 4th round pick to get rid of Bryan McCabe
2008 5th round pick for Ryan Hollwegg
2010 2nd round pick for Mikhail Grabovski

In fairness to Fletcher, he also acquired a small parcel of picks:

2008 2nd round pick and a 2009 5th round pick for Hal Gill
2008 3rd round pick for Chad Kilger
2008 5th round pick for Wade Belak

An Eye for Talent? Um. Not really...

If you’re going to trade away picks and prospects, the returning players better pan out.

Clearly that has not been the case for the Leafs.

By my math, the Leafs traded five first round and three second round picks for the following return:

69 games from Owen Nolan.
28 games of Brian Leetch.
91 games (and 268 goals against) of Andrew Raycroft (plus a multi-year buyout)
17 games of Yanic Perreault
127 games (and counting) from Vesa Toskala

Stop and marvel at that return.

Five first and three third round picks for 332 games played (plus Toskala's starts until the end of the season).

I'll spare the Leaf defenders from doing the math - Brad Boyes, one of the former first rounders traded away, has played 347 NHL games, 15 more than this motley collection managed for the Leafs.

What's worse is that every single one of these players left the Leafs without a single asset coming back in return.

I'll wait while you drink it all in.

I don’t know about you, but I don't think there’s an adjective that can adequately summarize this. One could argue that only Bernie Madoff has done a worse job of asset management - and even that might be a stretch.

Making Mistakes Beyond the Draft

Even more painfully, that poor return only reflects the draft side of the equation.

The Leafs have not excelled in the free agency department (Blake, Finger), have made poor decisions in awarding NMCs and NTCs, and have made a series of poor decisions on talent retention – signing McCabe, Tucker and others to long-term deals rather than trading them at peak value. But I’ll save that rant/analysis for another day…

For now, in a nutshell, this is a good first step toward building a franchise that’s on target for a 50 point season and has limited options at hand.

Habs vs Former Habs at the Quarter Point

Robert L — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:00:24 -0000

I haven't taken a look at this since the 10 game mark (October 27), but it seems that the former Habs players are now gaining a slight edge on their current counterparts.

At the quarter season point, it is still too soon to draw much of a conclusion, especially considering how unstable the Canadiens' lineup is these days

Most of the players on both sides have kept up their early season pace going, with exceptions being Tanguay, Lang and Koivu, who have picked it up for the former Habs and Marc-Andre Bergeron, who now leads all Canadiens' D in scoring. Tailing off somewhat, are the Bruins' Michael Ryder and Steve Begin.

Most notable among these statistics may just be the save percentages - added to this list for the first time here. I chose to include them for obvious reasons, that being the Canadiens duos numbers as compared to the former netminders now tending goal for stronger clubs.

The Habs much maligned duo of Halak and Price take a beating a little too often, but as it appears here, they could just as well be the team's saving grace.

*Players below are ranking by points and not in comparison.

Jaroslav Halak 8-5-3-0 2.62-9.04 / Jose Theodore 13-5-3-4 3.24-8.83 (Capitals)

Carey Price 13-5-8-0 2.99-9.06 / Cristobal Huet 15-9-4-1 2.25-9.02 (Blackhawks)

Marc-Andre Bergeron 14-3-4-7 / 21-4-7-11 Mark Streit (Islanders)

Roman Hamrlik 20-4-2-6 / 19-0-8-8 Craig Rivet (Sabres)

Jaroslav Spacek 21-1-5-6 / 19-2-5-7 Francois Beauchemin (Maple Leafs)

Paul Mara 21-0-6-6 / 15-2-4-6 Ron Hainsey (Thrashers)

Josh Gorges 11-1-1-2 / 6-0-2-2 Sheldon Souray (Oilers)

Hal Gill 14-1-0-1 / 16-0-0-0 Mike Komisarek (Maple Leafs)

Totals - Defense　

Habs: Total GP: 101 / Goals: 10 /Assists: 18 / Points: 28

Former Habs: Total GP: 96 / Goals: 8 / Assists: 26 / Points: 34

Tomas Plekanec 21-4-15-19 / 20-6-10-16 Mike Ribeiro (Stars)

Mike Cammalleri 21-8-8-16 / 19-3-9-12 Mikhail Grabovski (Maple Leafs)

Brian Gionta 19-8-5-13 / 18-4-8-12 Alex Tanguay (Lightning)

Scott Gomez 21-2-9-11 / 20-5-6-11 Robert Lang (Coyotes)

Glen Metropolit 15-4-6-10 / 18-4-6-10 Alex Kovalev (Senators)

Travis Moen 21-4-3-7 / 20-2-7-9 Steve Begin (Bruins)

Andrei Kostitsyn 21-2-4-6 / 15-2-6-8 Saku Koivu (Ducks)

Maxim Lapierre 21-1-4-5 / 20-4-3-7 Michael Ryder (Bruins)

Max Pacioretty 21-2-2-4 / 20-2-5-7 Sergei Samsonov (Hurricanes)

Guillaume Latendresse 21-2-1-3 / 14-3-2-5 Arron Asham (Flyers)

Georges Laraque 8-0-1-1 / 20-2-3-5 Christopher Higgins (Rangers)

Matt D'Agostini 11-1-0-1 / 20-1-0-1 Tom Kostopoulos (Hurricanes)

Totals - Forwards　

Habs: Total GP: 221 / Goals: 38 /Assists: 58 / Points: 96

Former Habs: Total GP: 224 / Goals: 38 / Assists: 64 / Points: 102

Totals - Team

Habs: Total GP: 322 / Goals: 48 /Assists: 76 / Points: 124

Former Habs: Total GP: 320 / Goals: 46 / Assists: 90 / Points: 136

Incidentally, I'm not much of a video gamer when it comes to such things as NHL 2010 or EA Sports and stuff. (I used to joke that X-Box sounded like a former girlfriend!) A reader of this site has been looking into aligning the teams above against one another for a series of games. That sounded like an interesting offer, and I took him up on it. Once the results come forth, you'll read about it here.

The Worst Hangover Ever...

blurr1974 — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:00:30 -0000

That's how this season is starting to feel like for me. The funny thing about hangovers though. No matter how bad they are, you invariably find yourself in the same position again at some point.

Bloge Salming's new video says...well, I really have no idea what it says.
Ever the glass-half-full kind of guy, eyebleaf still holds out hope that the Leafs can turn it around. Failing that, the head of Ron Wilson.
Jared gives you two game recaps in one link. What a guy!
Dr. Steve takes a quick look at some of the impressive draft day work of JFJ, and breaks down the Flames game as well.
Hungry Leafs Fan had a close encounter with the XLBeast and the Monster.
TSM is curious about what Brian Burke's next move should be. There is also the news that this week brings at least two must wins and with three games on the docket, the Leafs to the quarter mark of the season.
Vintage Leafs posts more sweet shots from years gone by, including another one of Rick Vaive. Giggity.
Taking the long view, Kavel goes back a whole 7 days to recap the week that was.
MLHS recaps the Leafs and Flames game. Result, another moral victory.
Norman James is not having fun this season. Moral victories or not.
TML Fan Fury wonders if there's really anything at all to lose by trying Mikhail Grabovski and Phil Kessel on a line together.
Toronto Mike is begging the Leafs to leave the 80s be.
TML Central is a little worried that all these losses might impede the Leafs playoff hopes.
Leaf and Lion has a theory about curses
Kohma takes apart the Leafs, player by player.

It Will Be Trick Or Treat Against The Leafs On Halloween

Robert L — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:42:47 -0000

Get ready for this!

I've often in the past made reference to happenings of another wordly dimension when it comes to Habs / Leafs tilts. It's just something about when these two teams meet on Saturday night national telecasts that makes these games get weird.

It doesn't just happen to the Canadiens, it happens equally for the Leafs.

It's as though there are forces that be at work, tasked with making things strange, whether it be ghostly officiating calls, phantom bounces and breaks, paranormal forces inhibiting player behavior or freakish player injuries.

No Habs' fan loves the Leafs, and deep rooted dislike is more than mutual.

I've never shied away from notion that the Leafs scare the living hell out of me, for both the reasons mentioned above and the intensity of their rivalry with Montreal.

With the natural elements these games bring out, it ought to something freakish with The Twilight Zone meeting Halloween head on. It's even downright chilling to note that the Canadiens will dress for the occasion, wearing the highly despised barber pole pyjama retro duds from 1912-13 they wore against Boston last February.

Who'll forget that Twilight Zone game, right?

The Bruins chewed up the Habs en route to a season of dominance, and the Canadiens lost leading scorer Robert Lang and Guillaume Latendresse to injury.

It's not a brilliant idea to don these CACA stripes against Toronto and I am sincerly hoping that Bob Gainey once again steps in and ixnays the idea.

I looked up my 1912-13 post for clues as to why those old sweaters might cause so much doom and a couple of things stood out.

Back then, teams played 20 game seasons, and the Canadiens record was 9-11. Hello, like 911?

In the club's only official team photo that season, they employ a dog as mascot.

The leading scorer that year was Newsy Lalonde, who just happens to have been born today, back 1887.

While the Halloween Boo's tonight will be reserved for Mike Komisarek and Mikhail Grabovski, I get the freaky feeling we'll all be left wondering why the bleu, blanc, rouge goblins have invited the Leafs to play on this date, AND dressed for the occassion!

It could be a treat, but it all feels like a trick.

Maple Leafs vs Canadiens coverage

Pension Plan Puppets

24 Cups looks at the Leafs

Habs vs Former Habs - October 27

Robert L — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 05:15:37 -0000

The Canadiens players made some interesting gains on their former counterparts this past week. A pair of 5 goal games didn't hurt matters.

A pair of quick clarification notes for starters.

I've flipped Markov for Bergeron and Bouillon for Hainsey for no other reason than it is more interesting to follow players who are actually pointing. By mid-season or later, depending on Markov's return date, I might just list 7 defensemen per side.

Additionally, the players ranked side by side aren't neccessarily being compared to one another. There's been some confusion or misunderstanding about this. Players on both sides of the columns are ranked simply by points. If that happens to align one against another, you can draw your own conclusions on that note.

Now onto the interesting bits:

The biggest jumps on the Canadiens' players side were made by Cammalleri, the NHL's second star of the week, and Glen Metropolit, who returned from his rib injury and has posted consistently in three games played. Gionta, Gomez and Plekanec have had some multi-point games to shore up their totals as well. Among the depth players, there's a few added digits alongside the names of Moen, Lapierre, Pacioretty and D 'Agostini.

Among the former Habs, most have had a quiet week with just a point or two through three games. Perhaps the biggest surprise continues to be Steve Begin, who potted a couple of goals this past week, to add to his 4 assists. The same goes for Arron Asham, who's an anomaly on this list, as the sole player not cast off during the Gainey regime.

The six Canadiens defensemen have 7-11-18 totals through 11 games. The former Habs D comes in at 3-9-12 in roughly 9 games played on average.

Mara, Spacek and Bergeron have 3-9-12 on their own, while defensemen the Canadiens let go last season, Komisarek, Bouillon, Schneider and Dandenault are pointless.

On the surface, Canadiens forwards have 22-36-58 totals, while the former Hab forwards come in at 22-29-51. The former guys have played a few games less each, so it is still pretty much an even draw in that category.

Here's where it gets a bit more revealing:

Gomez - Gionta - Cammalleri: 11-14-25

Koivu - Tanguay - Kovalev: 4-5-9

A second tier of reel ins versus castoffs would look like this:

Moen and Metropolit: 4-7-11

Kostopoulos and Begin: 3-4-7

The removal of Lang (1-3-4) from the Canadiens center position seems to have helped Plekanec (2-8-10) return to a form shown two years ago.

Here's the rundown on all players:

Jaroslav Halak 5-4-1-0 2.28 / Jose Theodore 7-2-2-2 2.55 (Capitals)

Carey Price 6-2-4-0 3.36 / Cristobal Huet 8-4-2-1 2.49 (Blackhawks)

Paul Mara 11-0-5-5 / 10-1-3-4 Mark Streit (Islanders)

Roman Hamrlik 10-3-1-4 / 9-1-2-3 Francois Beauchemin (Maple Leafs)

Jaroslav Spacek 11-1-3-4 / 8-0-3-3 Craig Rivet (Sabres)

Marc-Andre Bergeron 4-2-1-3 / 8-1-1-2 Ron Hainsey (Thrashers)

Josh Gorges 11-1-1-2 / 3-0-0-0 Sheldon Souray (Oilers)

Hal Gill 11-0-0-0 / 9-0-0-0 Mike Komisarek (Maple Leafs)

Mike Cammalleri 11-5-7-12 / 11-3-6-9 Mike Ribeiro (Stars)

Tomas Plekanec 11-2-8-10 / 10-3-3-6 Michael Ryder (Bruins)

Scott Gomez 11-2-5-7 / 10-2-4-6 Steve Begin (Bruins)

Brian Gionta 11-4-2-6 / 9-2-3-5 Mikhail Grabovski (Maple Leafs)

Glen Metropolit 5-1-5-6 / 9-3-1-4 Alexei Kovalev (Senators)

Travis Moen 11-3-2-5 / 10-1-3-4 Robert Lang (Coyotes)

Andrei Kostitsyn 11-1-3-4 / 10-1-3-4 Sergei Samsonov (Hurricanes)

Maxim Lapierre 11-1-2-3 / 6-3-0-3 Arron Asham* (Flyers)

Max Pacioretty 11-1-1-2 / 10-1-2-3 Saku Koivu (Ducks)

Guillaume Latendresse 11-1-0-1 / 12-0-2-2 Christopher Higgins (Rangers)***

Georges Laraque 8-0-1-1 / 9-0-2-2 Alex Tanguay (Lightning)

Matt D'Agostini 9-1-0-1 / 10-1-0-1 Tom Kostopoulos (Hurricanes)

Habs Total GP: 179 / Goals: 29 /Assists: 47 / Points: 76

Former Habs Total GP: 160 / Goals: 25 / Assists: 38 / Points: 63

Week Three / After 7 games: F 112-15-26-41 / 117-15-31-46

Week Two / After 5 games: F 80-12-20-32 / 67-8-22-30

Week One / After 2 games: F 33-6-11-17 / 23-4-13-17

On the former Habs front, a player I always appreciated was Chris Higgins. A reader asked about him on Saturday, suggesting a parallel between him returning to Montreal and the similar storyline of Kovalev's return a week earlier. Sadly, Higgins storyline never quite materialized. He took an untimely penalty and found himself in John Tortorella's dog pound for the third period. Rangers' fans are seriously worried about him.

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.