I assume most of you have seen the Lapierre play from last night. If not the video is below. This got me to thinking of who holds the title in the NHL for dirtiest and most gutless player. So, some criteria for this include being considered someone who delivers dirty hits or someone who dives a lot. As well they should be people who generally don't fight, or don't fight people with much pugilistic skill. That doesn't necessarily mean that they avoid enforces, but if you only go after smaller players or ones who rarely, if ever, fight, then you are gutless.  If you also go after other players in vulnerable positions and let your teammates handle the retribution, you are gutless.

The candidates:

Maxim Lapierre. He has two fights on the season, one against Zach Bogosian and one against Keith Ballard. Lapierre has 15 pounds on Bogosian, and he has 3 inches and 5 pounds on Ballard. Neither are noted pugilists and both are smaller players.

Sean Avery. We all know the deal with him, however he has fought Carcillo once and Hartnell twice, so he isn't as gutless as Lapierre. Although he has fought Bruno Gervais (2 career fights), Ruslan Fedotenko (5 fights since 2000) and Mike Mottau (5 NHL fights since 2000) this year.

Jordin Tootoo. Not shy of catching people in the head and in this years seem content to let Wade Belak handle his problems. He has fought twice this season; although he has only played in 33 games. Both of those fights came in the same game against the same player, Kenddal McArdle.

Matt Cooke. Like Tootoo, not shy about head-hunting. Has fought three times this year, and listen to the quality of the fighters; Ilya Kovalchuk, Ryan Callahan and Chris Drury.

Steve Downie and Ryan Hollweg. These guys get special mention for being extremely dirty despite the fact that they do generally back up their actions. We all know what they do, but I'm not sure they people they hit remember.

The Evidence: Lapierre:

Avery:

Tootoo:

Cooke:

I would add a poll, but my internet isn't allowing me too for some reason.  So cast your votes for the dirtiest and most gutless player in the NHL in the comments section.

As you can tell by the name, I'm what you'd call an alcoholic; aka a Leafs fan.  So all we hear about is who we are trading and what we can reasonably expect to get for them in return.

But right now, I'm more interested in the Kings, since you guys are in a place that you haven't been for a while.  There are many rumours out there about Dean Lombardi going after Kovalchuk and Lecavailer (but ultimately only getting one of the two).

Now the price that is being rumoured is something that I find to be extremely high.  So I'm wondering what the fans think of getting a player like that for what you'd have to give up.

The rumours I've heard for Kovalchuk include Jack Johnson, Wayne Simmonds, Brayden Schenn + prospects and/or picks.

For Lecavailer, I've heard Johnson, Simmonds a prospect or two in and around the level of Teubert/Hickey and several picks.

Now, I'm a really big fan of the players that Dean Lombardi has assembled for this team.  And if I were a fan, I wouldn't be comfortable with Johnson or Schenn being traded.  In my books, Hickey should be available since you guys already have Johnson and Doughty.  Tuebert is a maybe, but I really like him.  Moeller can go too if it leads to the right player.  And that pretty much leaves just picks to be traded to get a top flight player.

So my question for you Kings fans is which one of Kovalchuk and Lecavailer do you prefer, and at what price?  And also if you are comfortable with a guy like Johnson or Schenn being traded to get one of those players.

[ED Note: I meant to post this on Wednesday night, but my computer decided to commit suicide.]

Dear Damien,

On behalf of Leafs Nation, I would like to apologize to you for our latest game. Some people may be wondering where this is coming from, so here's a link for you. In it, Damien says:

"No franchise in the NHL, it seems, struggles more with maintaining a level of decent consistency than the Leafs. Is it because their fans are so easily satisfied?"

Yes, you read that right. The root of the problem of the Leafs struggles can be traced back to the fact that the Leafs "fans are so easily satisfied". Because if you're not being booed relentlessly (ahem, Habs fans), then clearly as a fan base you are satisfied, and then the players don't need to work anymore. Why bother working for your own person pride or gain if the fans aren't booing you? You're collecting those cheques regardless, so as long as the fans are happy, regardless of your position in the standings, why work hard?



So again Damien, on behalf of all of Leafs Nation, I would like to issue our sincerest apologies for our poor showing against Minnesota. For our next game against Chicago, we will do our very best not to go 0-for on the powerplay or have our PK at only 75%* or take penalties while we're already on the PK. And hopefully we'll be able to score some goals early in the game and not have to rely on a 3rd period comeback attempt. And maybe we'll even pitch in with some all-around good defence throughout the game.



I realize that the money that MLSE pays us to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs dictates that we put forth better performances than we did against Minnesota, and I can guarantee you that every Leafs fan will be playing their hardest to get the win against Chicago on Friday and then against Calgary on Saturday. As Leaf fans, we know we owe it to the fans^* to play our hearts out each and every game no matter if we're making Phil Kessel money, or Jay Rosehill money, the fans expect and deserve nothing less than our complete and total effort every game.*^



So in conclusion, I as a representative of Leafs Nation sincerely apologize to you, Damien Cox, for our lackluster performance against the Wild on Tuesday night. We hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive us, and pray that one day, you shall bestow upon us your never-ending knowledge of the inner-workings of the NHL, both in the front office and on the ice.



Sincerely,



Leafs Nation


ED Note:

* Yes, I know it was 1-for-4, but over the course of a season, that's not good enough - for one game, sure; but not for longer stretches

^* That doesn't make sense. Oh right, this is Damien Cox's head I'm living in right now, aka bizzaro-world. Can anybody rescue me? It's cold and dark, thanks.

*^ Well, except in November, then we really have to play; because as Howard Berger has noted, these games matter most.

I just finished reading Adam Proteau's new article on players speaking out against head shots.  It's a usual article for someone of his ilk; but I saw a quote from Keith Primeau, one that many people have said time and time again, and it got me thinking, is it really true that players today have less respect for each other than they did in previous generations?

Continue reading this post »

Obviously I'm referring to Damien Cox. Yes, the unoriginal blowhard is back at it with another addition of his Thursday mail-bag. Come to think of it, this too might be a weekly occurrence, since there's bound to be a few moronic things said that need to be straightened out.

First off, I'm not trying to avoid Damien by not posting on his site, far from it. I'm just not confident that he fully believes in freedom of speech when it comes to making critical reviews of his work, especially when he has control of the content (i.e. on his web-page). I'll try to post on his site, but I doubt it'll get through - hint: he doesn't like people that disagree with him.

You can find his entire article here for your reference. I implore everyone who reads this to flood his blog and e-mail with your retorts. But keep it at least semi-clean, because Damien doesn't like fighting, so I imagine that bad words keep him up at night too.

So, first point of debate:

There was a question about the Leafs pre-season involving the young guns (guys like Kadri, Bozak and Hanson) and their success - and subsequent failure in the regular season with those players noticeably absent from the line-up.

Damien's response? Well, I bet you can guess what player he mentioned - "If you’re referring to Nazem Kadri, it was clearly the smart move to send him back to the OHL. All you have to do is look at the struggles Luke Schenn is having this season to understand being rushed as an 18-year-old often causes a lot more problems than seem evident at first."

Was Luke Schenn mentioned in the question? Nope. Did the guy ask Damien what he thought about the defence? Nope. But anyways it's a good old fashioned Damien "I hate that Luke Schenn made the NHL at 18, and will probably hold that against him and the Leafs for the rest of my life" Cox comment.

I would like to point out that I agree with Damien that the Leafs made the right move to send Kadri back to London, because if you're a player that's projected to be a top-6 forward, top-4 defenceman, or a franchise goalie; you should only stick with the team after the draft if you will play that role to begin with (as Schenn did last year as a top-4 defenceman, giving him plentiful and meaningful minutes in the NHL against much better compitetion than anywhere else he could have gone).

So what's wrong with that opinion? Well, first off Damien thinks that Schenn needed to go back to the juniors to dominate for a year and then come up. Ok, possibly a valid point. But let's think about it. One of Damien's points that he frequently makes is that Schenn lacks offence, and that going back to junior would have made him into a much better offensive contributor. According to Hockey's Futures (a source that I personally trust for developing players, but can't confirm its accuracy) Schenn "has the potential to become a shut down defender at the NHL level." And they also say (in reference to his last year of junior) "Schenn certainly has not allowed his international duties slow down his play for the Kelowna Rockets, improving upon his points per game average while chipping in a surprising seven goals, although he will never be known as a scoring machine." Now let's say for the sake of argument that keeping Schenn in the NHL last year will hurt his future offensive contributions, but he does become a shutdown guy - wouldn't you want Robyn Regehr on your team? I'd take Robyn Regehr any day of the week. And his career high for goals is 6 (which is actually inflated because it was the first year out of the lockout, and everybody and their grandma was scoring 10+ goals). That doesn't seem like a bad trade-off if it means Schenn will become a better defender with more years of experience playing against NHL players.

I'd also like to point out that Schenn did dominate at the Junior level. He wasn't exactly a player drafted because he could be great with more work, he was nearly there, as evidenced by his physical dominance of the WHL, and the fact that on most nights, he was an NHL defenceman playing in the WHL (much like Doughty was in the OHL). 2 years ago in the World Juniors, he was paired with Thomas Hickey as the #1 shut-down pair. And facing the best U-20 players in the world, he managed to post a +5 en route to winning gold. Not too shabby, eh?

Second point of contention:

This first part is just too funny to not post: "Love the blog and perhaps the only independent view on the Leafs in the city." Haha, independent? Really? I didn't know that 4 or 5 guys writing the same articles for different publishers was known as independent. Moving on.

This is from the same guy as above: "Could they send [Schenn] to the Marlies now and if they keep him their all year, save a year of service time? If so, I have to think that would be the best thing for everyone. The kid is game, but physically and mentally a step slow in the NHL and that is not a knock on him, considering he's 19 and not supposed to be ready. To put him with his peers where he can develop under less pressure this year and get tons of special teams minutes seems like the way to go regardless of whether the Leafs think they can make the playoffs this year. Surely Exelby and/or Frogren can do no worse than what Schenn has shown so far at the NHL level."

Is it just me, or did anybody else feel like they lost about 30 Hockey IQ points after reading that? So, to recap, this person has absolutely no idea about NHL contracts, and he wants a player with plenty of room to improve (who he says is at least as good as 2 veterans, 1 of which he took playing time from last year) to be sent to a league with very few people as talented as NHL top-6 forwards. And that's his master plan. Good luck.

Damien's response? Typical: "Yes, they can send him to the Marlies. But it would still count as a year on his existing contract. See, that’s another problem with elevating 18-year-olds so quickly. They become free agents by age 25."

Is it just me, or does he sound like Harold Ballard if he were a journalist? This is why Damien isn't a GM (but he could sure be an owner with that mind-set), his main concern is money; regardless of what actually turns out to be the best way to cultivate talent. Who gives a rats ass if they become UFA's at age 25? In most cases (for 1st rounder’s that is), they sign long term contracts that take them to about the age of 30 (see Crosby, Ovechkin, Malkin, Richards, Di Pietro, Vanek, Staal, etc...). So what's the difference in starting a guy at 18, 19 or 20 (contract wise), if you're still gonna sing them to long term deals that take them past their first year or two of unrestricted free-agency?

Next point on the same subject by Damien: "So while Colorado, for example, can understandably be excited that Matt Duchene and Ryan O’Reilly have made the grade so early, both will be free agents at 25. How does that help a team trying to build its way back to contention? Moreover, what does it gain? The Leafs weren’t going to win the Cup last year with Schenn and the Avs aren’t going to win it this year with Duchene and O’Reilly. Colorado, at least, has attendance concerns, and so it can argue it needed these young faces to start winning over fans again. But the Leafs have no such concerns. They just did it to try and prove they’d picked well in the June draft by sacrificing picks to move up and grab Schenn. It’s not exactly blowing up in their faces - Schenn is still a very good prospect - but the down side of the decision is now becoming clear. And he’ll be a free agent at 25. "

On Duchene - did he have anything to prove at the Junior level? Not really. Can he play at the NHL level? Clearly. So why on Earth would you keep him down? Is Damien Cox the only person on this planet that doesn't know that the NHL is a young man’s game now? Look at all the best players and how young they are, whether it be the great players like Ovechkin and Crosby, or the really good players like Toews and Kane. There are few players now who are 35+ and still dominant (Lidstrom comes to mind). Now, careers are ending earlier because of the changes to the style of play, and most older players can't keep up. Look how many great players retired within the first year after the NHL lockout.

Damien asks how putting guys like Duchene and Schenn in the league so early helps teams rebuild. Really? Aren't rebuilding teams supposed to be young? Weren't the Kings a rebuilding team the last few years? Weren't Dustin Brown, Anze Kopitar, Jack Johnson and Drew Doughty young players? I guess that putting all of those young players into the NHL early completely screwed them for the next decade or so. The Kings would be lucky to ever start a season 6-4-0 and have guys like Kopitar scoring 8 goals in the first 10 games.

Then he concedes that the Schenn experiment isn't "blowing up in" the Leafs face. Which is odd, because everything I've read from him suggest that it is in fact the worst decision that any human has ever made. Ever.

Third point that needs to be addressed:

This next comment is in response to a letter about the atmosphere at Leafs games where the guys says that it's too quiet and boring (unless the leafs are dominating, or it's a serious back and forth game). Damien's response is "It’s another expression of MLSE’s contempt for the customer, but as long as the customer continues to buy, why would MLSE possibly change?"

Apparently, we have all been tricked somewhere along the line into believing that playoff revenue exists, when in fact all the money goes towards the NHL, and in turn gives it to Nashville, Phoenix and maybe Florida.

I've already done a rant on this before, but I feel the need to do it again.

First point:

If the Leafs make it to the Stanley Cup Finals (win or lose, but they make more for winning), they will earn a ridiculous amount of extra cash, on top of the ridiculous amount of cash they get anyways. I saw an interview with Richard Peddie on The Score with Gerry Dee, and one point Peddie made was that the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan earns money from the Leafs, but money isn't their main objective. Since holding the Leafs is an investment, growth is what they're really after. If they make 10 million dollars (for arguments sake) for 10 straight years, it's not the same for them as making 5 mil one year, 6 the next, then 7 and 8 and 9 and 11 and 12 and 13 and 14 and finally 15 million dollars (I left out 10 mil for a reason, do the math, it adds up). In both cases, they have made 100 million over 10 years, but the growth of the franchise improves its value, and if the right deal comes along, the OTPP will be more than willing to deal. The OTPP owns about 2/3 of the shares in MLSE, making them the people with the most to gain from a successful team. The next business that I see to be unequivocally happy to maintain a 0% growth rate will be the first. Especially when it's a pension plan as big as the OTPP with as many people to serve as they do. The more money the better.

Second point:

Leafs TV. If the team sucks, fewer and fewer people will be willing to pay for that service, and will be content to watch the game only when it's on CBC, SportsNet or TSN. They may head out to a bar to watch a game on Leafs TV, but they won't pay for it. So clearly it's in the Leafs best interest to ice a competitive team, like the ones during Pat Quinn's time. For comparisons sake, let's take the YES Network (the Yankees own TV network). According to an ESPN article from August 2007, the YES Network "could be worth $3 billion or more". I'll let you take a second to read that over again. All good? You read that correctly, $3 BILLION!!!!! Are you telling me that MLSE and the OTPP wouldn't want 1 penny of that revenue? The Yankees have missed the playoffs once since the early 90's. So clearly success gets you more money (makes too much sense doesn't it Damien?). You still want to try and convince me that making the playoffs doesn't matter to the OTPP?

Third point:

This is taken from Down Goes Brown, but I feel it needs to be said again. MLSE forecasts that by 2011, ticket sales will account for around 30% of total revenue. Leaving 70% to be made elsewhere (Leafs TV, jersey sales, corporate sponsorships, etc...). So if the Leafs are forecasting that tickets won't be more than a 3rd of revenues, then in order to not fall flat on their face and have a negative growth rate (which the OTPP doesn't want, for those non-business people out there), they should probably ice a competitive team. Otherwise people won't subscribe to Leafs TV (and therefore won't ever be worth the $3 Billion that YES Network is worth), will consume fewer jerseys and memorabilia, and possibly even vacate the arena (there's only so much some people can take, I myself won't abandon them and then show up when they're good like some Pittsburgh band-wagoner).

Well, I'm exhausted. Any questions?

Leafs v Rangers round 2. The first game between these two was.........let's just not even go there. 7-2 Rangers, and that's about as much detail as I want to go into for that. It looks like tonight will feature Joey MacDonald and quite possibly Steven Valiquette. I can only hope that Valiquette does indeed get the start over Lundqvist, given the fact that Henrik robbed us of at least 2 goals in the last game.

If Valiquette does get the start, then I'm confident in saying that the Leafs will get off the schnied, and finally post a Win and get this season straightened out before we lose too many points, and our usual March push comes up short.

If Lundqvist gets the start though, look for more of the same from the last game. I don't think the Rangers will put up 7 goals again, but with Henrik in net, I doubt they'll let in more than 2, and they have enough offence to score 4 goals, especially if the defensive zone coverage hasn't improved since this little break.

Since there is a possibility of either goalie starting for the Rangers (according to Yahoo!), this post will be a double prediction - since with a different goalie, there will likely be a different result.

If Valiquette starts:

Look for the Leafs to absolutely pepper him with pucks. Ron Wilson told his guys during yesterday's practice that shooting the puck more is a requirement for us to win, and the more we shoot the puck, the less the other team has the puck in our zone - big plus given the way we've played so far. If the Leafs are really going to improve offensively though, the forecheck needs to be sustained after the initial shot. The Leafs are not going to win if we only get one shot per offensive possession. The forwards need to get in deep, keep the puck away from the defenders, move it around the offensive zone, get Valiquette moving and crash the net after every shot.

If the Leafs can manage that, I think a 4-3 win is within reason.

If Lundqvist starts:

Well, let's just say this one won't go as well. We all know what happened earlier this week, and I'd expect much of the same.

Best case scenario 3-2 win, most likely scenario 4-2 loss.

Outside factor that might improve the Leafs performance:

Brian Burke will be in attendance as usual, but so will Belligerent Burkie, and rest assured to Burkie's are better than 1. So with 2 angry Irishmen watching them, the Leafs will pick their season up by the neck and get a W.

Side-note, I'm not actually Irish, but I will be at the game.

GO Leafs GO

• According to TSN, Mike Van Ryn's career is in jeopardy. His doctor has recommended that he undergo an osteotomy, which is where the bone around the knee is cut, and the knee is then re-aligned. You can find the full story here.
• I realize that this is all revisionist, but it seems like the Leafs could have gotten a better deal for McCabe than this. Van Ryn has played a grand total of 27 games for the Leafs (and may not play another game, see above), while McCabe is 3 Assists away from having more Assists for Florida, than MVR played games for Toronto (he already has more points). Only worsening the deal is the fact that we had to part with a 4th rounder to get MVR, and while I realize that usually you do that in a salary dump, couldn't we have at least got somebody more durable than a wet cardboard box?  I feel for the guy, because he doesn't want to be in the IR all the time, but it seems like we could have done better.
• Vesa Toskala is not the terrible goalie that we all think he is. Read that again, please - and no, I'm not drunk / crazy.
• More about this after the jump

Continue reading this post »

This one is definitely less bold than the Pittsburgh one. With the Leafs starting 0-3-1 so far, and the Rangers off to a 4-1 start, this doesn't look like the remedy to cure what ails the Leafs. The Rangers have 4 straight wins, while the Leafs are winless in 4. The Rangers have beaten teams expected to be in the Playoffs this year in Washington, Anaheim and New Jersey, with a win over Ottawa as well. The only thing these teams have in common so far is losing to the Penguins. The Leafs held Ottawa to 2 goals and lost, the Rangers held them to 2 goals and won. Therein lies the problem for the Leafs. They can't put it all together for 60 minutes yet. Whether they play well offensively (against Washington) or defensively (against Ottawa), they can't get the rest of the game going.

As much as I'd like to say the Leafs will win tonight, I'm more confident in saying that they will get their first win either tomorrow night against Colorado, or Saturday at home to the Rangers after the Rangers come back from Los Angeles.

The Leafs are in a sad state right now; the defensive coverage is porous (like last season), the offense struggles to do the basics for most of the night against the good defensive teams (the 4 goals against Washington don't count, not when guys like Milan Jurcina are logging serious minutes) and Toskala has no confidence in himself or the team, and the team has no confidence in him.

If the Leafs have any hope of winning tonight, there are a few things they need to do:

1. Stop Marian Gaborik

2. Punch Avery in the mouth (not necessary to win, but it would be nice to see this if they do lose, at least take something away from the game).

3. Shoot high on Henrik Lundqvist. 4. Actually try to contain the opposition in your own end.

5. Establish something that resembles a decent fore-check.

Stopping Marian Gaborik can happen 1 of 2 ways:

First -

Or we have to hope his groin gives out early this year.

Shooting high on Henrik Lundqvist is really the only way to score on him. From the waist down, he's just unbeatable. But go glove side, and you'll be rewarded -

That should have never gone in. The other two are pretty basic, they just need to execute and stay focused after scoring goals - unlike against Pittsburgh (penalty and allowed a goal after scoring the only 2 of the night).

Barring some sort of major turnaround from this recent trend, I think it's safe to say the Rangers will win this game 4-2, and hopefully Wilson doesn't have an angry press conference. If you're gonna rip the players constantly, keep in the dressing room once in a while. Here's hoping the Leafs pull out a W tonight, but I also learned my lesson last time - last season doesn't mean a whole lot, especially with this much personnel turnover.

Hey everyone, my name is James and I run a new Leafs blog called "Belligerent Burkie". This is a post that was taken from my blog, it's a new feature I'm hoping to have run before every Leafs game this year. Visit my blog to see more.

Thanks.

So, the 3-1-0 Pens are coming to town tonight to visit the 0-2-1 Leafs. There are many things working in the Pens favour tonight, such as:

and,

and,

And unfortunately for the Leafs, we don't have this for a while:

So things are looking pretty bleak, no?

Well, that is until you look beyond Crosby, Malkin, Fleury, and probably their most important player, Vesa Toskala all being involved in this game. Dating back to last season, the Leafs have won 3 straight against the Pens. And while the Penguins are improved from the last time we faced them, the Leafs have improved equally as much. Now, on to the prediction. The Leafs will come out with a lot of jump to start the game, mainly because they don't want to have anybody killed by Ron Wilson during the intermission if they come out flat again. The Penguins will come ready to play, but they won't be ready for things like this (even though they've happened before):

 and let's not forget:

So in all likelihood, the Leafs will end the first period with a 2-0 lead. During the intermission though, Dan Bylsma will be giving his Pens the newly made Schenn-Flu vaccine, and the Pens come out of the intermission with a ton of jump and are all over the Leafs to start the period. Toskala actually plays well throughout the first portion of the period, surrendering only 1 goal. As per team rule though, Toskala was not given any defensive help, so it will have been a relatively easy 4-on-0 goal. The Leafs play better after that though, but some sloppy play leads to a powerplay, which the Pens capitalize on, tying the game at 2-2 going into the 3rd period.

The start of the third period is much like that of the second, with the Pens dominating the flow of play early on and scoring another goal. This time it's different though, it's the very rare 6-on-0 breakaway (they pulled Fleury for some reason), with an abundance of chances (mainly because Toskala can't squeeze a puck to save his life), and the Pens take an early 3-2 lead in the 3rd. However, their Schenn-Flu vaccine starts to wear off, and Schenn catches a Penguins forward with a monster hit that spurs the team. In the last 5 minutes, the Leafs get a ton of pressure on Fleury and using their solid forecheck, are able to get the game tied and sent to overtime.

During OT, there are a few chances exchanged, but nothing really happens. So the game goes to a shoot-out. While this reminds Toskala of most of the goals he's surrendered this year, he is happy that he doesn't have to worry about a pass. Crosby scores, Malkin misses and whoever else shoots for them misses. The Leafs shoot second and go miss, score and score to win the game. Leafs finally get their first win of the season, and do so in a shoot out. Don't believe it can happen? Well, we beat 'em in the shootout in the pre-season, so anything's possible.