SB Nation User Blog: Chemmy

Wild 5 Leafs 2: Sigh

Chemmy — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:23:08 -0000

More photos » by Jimmy Jeong - AP

Some jerk stops puck

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This is your post-game thread I guess.

Wild at Maple Leafs

Chemmy — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:55:08 -0000

More photos » by Ryan Remiorz - AP

Komisarek's ready to go.

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Puck Drop: 7:00PM ET, Sportsnet Ontario

Goaltenders: Backstrom v Gustavsson

Fret not, after leaving Saturday's decisive win over Detroit with an injur, Mike Komisarek practiced this morning and will be in the lineup tonight against the Minnesota Wild. The Wild are 15th in the Western Conference and 28th in the league, setting up our second battle of bottom 3 teams this week.

Being in 29th place hardly gives the Leafs any right to call anyone an easy opponent, but let's hope Toronto's two week stretch of excellent play continues and the Leafs can pick up a win against a team without much offensive punch. The Wild are transitioning from a defensive trapping team to a more offensive style and so far it's been a rough road for them.

Brent Burns, who may have played his way off the Canadian Olympic roster this season, has been downright terrible posting a team worst -13. Martin Havlat, brought in to help people forget Gaborik, has one goal and is -12. Mikko Koivu is -11.

Before we take the Wild lightly though I think it's worth looking at their recent play. In their last four games Minnesota has played the Rangers, Penguins, Canucks and Stars and beaten everyone but Vancouver. Minnesota's a team looking to turn the corner and get back into high gear just like Toronto so tonight could be a real nail biter.

Go Leafs go, remember your SPG picks, check back here at 6:30 for the first period gameday thread. The guys over at SBN's Wild site Hockey Wilderness are pretty legit so maybe there'll be a field trip tonight.

You keep hearing for four years ‘you guys suck, you guys don’t have a good team’ and stuff like that...

Chemmy — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:10:46 -0000

You keep hearing for four years ‘you guys suck, you guys don’t have a good team’ and stuff like that, it puts even more motivation over the summer, thinking ‘enough is enough'.

Tomas Kaberle via Eat. Sleep. Leafs.

George Malik Is A Whiner

Chemmy — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:44:32 -0000

Editor's Note: To get a sense of the quality of person that Malik is take a look at how he dared to denigrate the memory of Teeder Kennedy when he passed away earlier this year. Despite everyone, including Gordie Howe himself, clearing Kennedy of any blame on the play that led to his brain injury Malik (who notes Howe's feelings in his post!) states that Kennedy hit Howe from behind. No wonder The Pensblog hates the tool.

Friend of the site Godd Till linked me to a great post written by George Malik: "Wings lose while following familiar script". In this post George Malik cries like a Hurricanes fan that Toronto won and that we're happy with Gustavsson. It's somewhat understandable, the last time Detroit beat the Leafs it was with Andrew Raycroft in net. In 2006. Ouch.

Comeback is thwarted by firing more shots wide and into opposing team's players (21 wide and 17 blocked for a total of 38 shots on Saturday, with 36 shots actually hitting the net) than opposing goaltender.

Toronto's defense blocks a lot of shots. Toronto's defense was excellent in their own end last night. Personally, I wouldn't call scoring a goal to make it 3-1 in the third a "comeback".

because the Maple Leafs will probably be golfing in April, the Wings also managed to help Jonas "The Monster" Gustavsson win what was probably his most meaningful game of the regular season

George Malik knows so much about which teams won't make the playoffs based on poor play in October because he's a Red Wings fan and watched them only qualify for the playoffs twice between 1967 and 1983. When the Leafs are that bad feel free to come back and make fun of us Malik.

The Toronto Sun's Lance Hornby had a hand in playing up the legend of "The Monster" from Borje Salming, and, of all people, Nicklas Lidstrom

Maybe if every sports writer in Toronto, a town full of sportswriters who seem to hate: the Leafs, Leafs fans, and Leafs success in that order, all say that Gustavsson looks great, Borje Salming says he looks great and then Lidstrom says Gustavsson looks great that means something. If every time Gustavsson plays he make the Red Wings look like a beer league team, well then just maybe Gustavsson's a decent goalie.

Look I'm all for dissenting opinions here but when you're the lone voice saying Gustavsson isn't good and he stops the Red Wings 35 times on 36 attempts (7 on the penalty kill, 3 by Datsyuk, 7 by Zetterberg) you look like a fucking clown.

The Toronto Star's recap provides a game narrative while talking about the Leafs' other version of Hockey Jesus (number 3, with #2 being "The Monster" and #1 being Sidney Crosby), a.k.a. Phil Kessel...

On behalf of Toronto fans we apologize for being excited to watch our best player. We'll work harder to ensure that no one is excited about Phil Kessel so that no one cheers so that the Red Wings can pretend they're at home playing in front of a half empty stadium.

Kevin McGran spoke to Kessel about his Herculean feats...

Phil Kessel definitely thought his goal was amazing, here's the quote Mailk is referencing by Kessel in an attempt to belittle Kessel.

"It was just an instinct," said Kessel. "You never know if a guy is behind you. Maybe if I don't touch it, some guy hits it out of there. You've got to bury it. I'd want anyone else to bury it, too."

Seems like the kid has a big head about that goal alright. His excessive goal celebration of "slowly turning around and skating to the bench without even raising his arms" really showed how impressed Kessel was with his "herculean effort".

As the National Post's Michael Triakos played up the Leafs' status as Stanley Cup contenders (sarcasm alert)...

OH MAN THAT WAS SARCASM?

Gustavsson himself made a telling comment about the Wings' contentment with playing perimeter hockey:

This is classic annoying fan of a team with recent success syndrome. Malik is implying that the Red Wings lost because they played poorly and that Toronto is a bad team.

Toronto's not a bad team. The Leafs will probably finish behind Detroit in the points race when the dust settles on this season, but the Leafs will finish this season 1-0-0 against the Red Wings. They finished last year 1-0-0 against the Red Wings and they finished the year before that 1-0-0 against the Red Wings. I'm ok with that.

Good for 11th in the league.

Chemmy — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:20:23 -0000

Good for 11th in the league.

Red Wings at Leafs

Chemmy — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:14:09 -0000

More photos » by Karl B DeBlaker - AP

Dat's a lotta points

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Red Wings at Leafs: 7:00 ET CBC-HD, NHLN-HD (US)

It's Saturday morning and I had the most beautiful ~~drunken hallucination~~ dream. I dreamed that the Leafs came out flat but then came back and dominated the Hurricanes en route to a 3-2 win on the back of Jonas Gustavsson and strong play from Jason Blake and Phil Kessel.

Last night Jason Blake came with a strong forecheck and relentlessly pestered the Hurricanes. I genuinely believe that he hates Paul Maurice more than we'll ever know. Phil Kessel also came flying back into his defensive end twice to break up odd man rushes. He used his laser feet to come back and break up a play.

I'm going to refer to when the Patriots signed Randy Moss. Here's what Oakland's Tom Walsh said about him:

"Randy Moss is a player whose skills are diminishing, and he's in denial of those eroding skills...Randy was a great receiver, but he lacked the work ethic and the desire to cultivate any skills that would compensate for what he was losing physically later in his career."

Two years later and Randy Moss is probably a first ballot Hall of Famer, a guy who captains New England's offensive team at practice and stays after workouts to help rookies learn the playbook, it other words what everyone said about him was dead fucking wrong.

I've only seen two games out of Kessel and it's pretty obvious his shot isn't 100% but his legs are almost there and Ron Wilson has him backchecking like missing an assignment would cause the Mayan Apocalypse. So much for a lazy floater.

On the Detroit front, take your Os-bad jokes and save them for later this season. Since getting yanked in Vancouver on October 27th Osgood has played three games and allowed two goals on 84 shots (0.976). Two of those games were against San Jose and Boston. Gulp. Better hope our offense stops praying for lucky bounces or we're in for a long night when Datsyuk and Zetterberg get rolling.

No news on starting goalies this early in the morning. We'll be running the usual skeleton crew on a Saturday afternoon around the blog so post lineup news in the comments and get people to rec them up.

Update: Lines courtesy of Jonas Siegel

Forwards
Blake Mitchell Kessel
Ponikarovsky Grabovski Kulemin
Hagman Stajan Stempniak
Primeau Wallin Orr

Defense
Kaberle Komisarek
Beauchemin White
Schenn Finger

Goalie
Gustavsson

Don't forget your SPG picks but most importantly: go Leafs go! Keep the point streak alive!

Leafs at Hurricanes

Chemmy — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:16:26 -0000

Puck Drop: 7PM Eastern TV: Leafs TV

Tonight the Leafs travel to the land of Jeff Dunham's core demographic to take on the suddenly punchless Hurricanes in what has the potential to be the worst hockey game any of us will ever watch. Some may point to the fact that Carolina has gone 0-7-3 in their last ten and are without their entire first line of Eric Staal, ~~Ray Whitney and Tuomo Ruutu~~, to say that this is a game Toronto will win. Update: Ray Whitney and Tuomo Ruutu now expected to play tonight.

I won't say that because Toronto has been a worse team than Carolina so far this season. I will say that if Toronto loses this game for any reason, including but not limited to:

Leafs play "really well" but settle for an OTL
Leafs play crummy but Gustavsson bails them out.
Refs spot Carolina a four goal lead before the first.
Meteor hits Toronto locker room giving everyone the space flu

Then I'm getting ready for next season. It's not hubris, by no means do I think the Leafs have any game in the bag, it's just that if after a stretch of strong play from the Leafs that's seen them lose plenty of games they "deserved to win" I won't have a lot of hope if they can't come out breathing fire tonight. This is the chance for Toronto to put a win on the board and at this point: any game where that's the case becomes a must win. In November.

Professional dipshit Paul Maurice is still inexplicably the coach of the Hurricanes and despite their equally as blowful as Toronto start he had this to say:

"I know you're going to mock me for this but I'm going to give it to you anyway," he said Thursday. "Our feeling is that our goal is to make the playoffs and compete for a Stanley Cup."

Good to see that Paul Maurice has learned from his mistakes. Let's hope he goes to some of his other bad habits like putting out the wrong line late in the game and conceding lots of late period goals. Almost more than I want a win I want to see Paul Maurice on Leafs TV making clever quips about how bad his team is, except unlike the two years we watched of that I want to see it from the winning team's side.

@jonas640: Looks like Gustavsson will start. Unconfirmed as of yet.

Update 2: Ron Wilson has confirmed Gustavsson's start.

Reminder: Gameday thread starts at 6:30, and don't forget your SPG picks. I'll edit this post with starting goaltenders and lines when I know them.

Jeff Finger?

Chemmy — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:11:05 -0000

To paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld: what's the deal with Jeff Finger? He's been a healthy scratch six games in a row and in those six games the Leafs defense has started to gel. There's a lot of Garnet Exelby hate around these parts but lately our defense has been rock solid.

Compared to Finger, Exelby's salary is a lot lower. I think Finger's a good defender and he put up points last year, but do you pull Exelby out of the lineup and mess with a winning formula to make it more expensive?

Is Finger injured? That made sense earlier in his scratch streak but LTIR means a player would only have to miss 10 games or 24 days; Finger hasn't played since 10/24, so he's 50% of the way there on days missed and he hasn't played in six games which could jump to eight by Sunday. Players can be placed on LTIR retroactively which means there's a chance that Toronto will do that to free up some cap space as a matter of principle.

Is one of the Leafs' D corps being showcased for a trade? I'd have to imagine Komisarek, Beauchemin and Schenn aren't going anywhere, and if we take Burke at his word he's keeping Kaberle. That leaves Ian White and Garnet Exelby, both of whom are UFAs at the end of the season.

So what do you think is going on with Finger? Are the Leafs planning to sit $3.5M in the press box all year or is something going to happen?

Poll

Why is Finger scratched constantly?

Vote for Kadri: Keep Voting

Chemmy — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:33:40 -0000

Vote for Kadri: Keep Voting

blurr posted it yesterday, Kavel Pubina wrote about it here, but keep voting for Nazem Kadri to be Team OHL's captain. We're stuffing the ballot box like it's the Montreal All Star Game.

Kadri's Gordie Howe Hat Trick

Chemmy — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:43:14 -0000

Kadri's Gordie Howe Hat Trick

"The criticism of Nazem Kadri has always been that he tries too much to do it all.

Last night, he did."