Editor's Note: Drake15 wrote a good post wondering if today's trade might be a last minute show of power to the MLSE board to keep the status quo (Fletcher plus protege Nieuwendyk) in place rather than go all in with Burke.

It is being reported that the Toronto Maple Leafs have made a trade with the St. Louis Blues to acquire forward Lee Stempniak. Stempniak is nearly a point-per-game player so far this season, having tallied 3 goals and 10 assists for a total of 13 points. He has played in 14 games so far, so those numbers are encouraging for Leafs fans. In exchange, the Blues will receive the man made of glass (d-man Carlo Colaiacovo) and our biggest underperformer (forward Alex Steen).

On the surface this appears to be a great deal by Cliff Fletcher. The Maple Leafs have a surplus of defensemen, and of all the blue-liners in their roster Colaiacovo is the most injury prone. This certainly makes him expendable, and another plus to this is that Jonas Frogren will likely be the player that replaces him in the lineup. I have made it known on more than one occassion that I believe Frogren is deserving of more ice time than the Leafs are currently giving him. His punishing hits and shot blocking abilities will be an upgrade over the fragile Colaiacovo in my opinion.

Alex Steen has shown some promising potential in the past, but this season he has been a disappointing underachiever for the Leafs. He has a meager 2 goals and 2 assists in 20 games played-which pales in comparison the the numbers Stempniak has been putting up so far. Steen's most promising season was 2005-06 where he tallied 18 goals and 27 assists for a total of 45 points. Compare that to the best season of Lee Stempniak where he put up 27 goals and 25 assists for 52 points in 2006-07. Looking at those numbers, it certainly appears the Leafs have made a big upgrade to their forward lineup. Steen may turn his game around in St. Louis, but for now Lee Stempniak is the more proven player and is the better match for the Maple Leafs future plans. He is only 25 years old which means he can be around well into the future of the Leafs and fits in with their plan of a youthful, speedy team. He will be a great addition to Fletcher's rebuilding plan.

(Lee Stempniak-the newest Leaf, is nearly a point-per-game player)

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The Toronto Maple Leafs returned to the Air Canada Centre tonight to face the Boston Bruins in their first game back from a Western Canadian road trip. They dominated the B's completely, as they outshot them, outworked them, and clearly outplayed them for most of the game. The Bruins seemed to be on their heels for the vast majority of the 2nd and 3rd periods as the Maple Leafs dictated puck possession. So, of course, it is only fitting that the Leafs wound up losing this game. 3-2 was the final score and the Leafs dropped yet another game that they deserved to win.

Starting in net once again for the Maple Leafs was Andrew "The Razor" Raycroft. Er...I mean Vesa Toskala. Please forgive my mistake - it's getting harder and harder to tell the difference. Tonight did nothing to help that, as Toskala allowed 3 goals on 22 shots overall. No matter how you slice it, that is a pretty abysmal number. The troubling part is, only one of the goals scored against him truly looked like he had no chance of stopping. The other two were questionable at best. This isn't just my opinion however as Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson was quoted as calling the first goal scored by Phil Kessel "an easy stop." Another one scored by Michael Ryder in the 2nd period looked harmless as well. If Toskala manages to stop just one of these "softies" then the game would have seen overtime and the Maple Leafs would have had a shot at winning it. Instead, he cost his team 2 points when the Leafs did everything they could to win this game.

Now, I'm not saying this loss is 100% Vesa's fault but it is time to stop making excuses. If our goaltending had been even marginally better the Toronto Maple Leafs likely would have been the victors tonight as well as on Saturday night in Vancouver and a handful of other games I won't mention. Now, one can say the defense is not helping him and the Leafs need to do a better job in their own end. This is a rather popular excuse and I have heard it many times this year. So let's take a look at how little help Toskala is receiving from the Maple Leafs defense shall we?

One statistic that immediately stands out for me is that the Leafs are currently allowing an average of 26.6 shots on goal per game. If you don't feel like looking it up that is the 3rd lowest average in the league. That means the Maple Leafs are doing a pretty good job of limiting the amount of shots the opposition has and let's face it - 26 shots isn't a whole lot for an NHL goalie to face on any given night. Lately though, the Leafs have allowed even fewer than that average in their last couple of games. They only gave up 22 shots tonight against Boston. Even more impressive though was that they held Vancouver to a meager 15 shots on Saturday. Does that sound like a defense not doing its job? Somewhere in those 15 shots however, Toskala managed to allow 4 goals. The only way that number can even be remotely acceptable is if the Leafs decided to start Stevie Wonder in net.

Another measure of how well a defense is playing is how many pucks they throw their bodies in front of. Blocking shots has been a gospel that Ron Wilson has preached to the Maple Leafs since he first arrived in Toronto. His reasoning with this is simple: if your team is blocking shots, the goalie is forced to make fewer saves thus making his job easier. How have the Leafs fared in this department? They currently sit 3rd in the NHL with 153 blocked shots. Clearly Wilson's message has gotten through and this team has been fearlessly blocking shots since the beginning of the season. Here's the depressing part though: through all this Vesa Toskala still manages a dismal 3.23 GAA and an .878 save percentage. I'm sorry but you can't pin that one on the defense. The numbers don't lie, and Kubina, Finger, Schenn and company have all done their jobs as well as Wilson expected them too.

Clearly, the Toronto Maple Leafs have a problem. Or rather, Vesa Toskala has one. It is time to stop making excuses and start holding the guilty party accountable. Jason Blake and Matt Stajan have been benched for poor play and its high time Toskala was held to the same standard. I think watching a few games from the press box would help to wake him up. The Leafs may not have many options in goal but they have to do something. I have advocated calling up Pogge in a previous post but even the senior citizen Curtis Joseph would be an upgrade over Vesa's horrible play right now. Actually, just about anybody would be better at the moment. Perhaps Ian White could continue shuffling positions and try his hand at goalie? I'm willing to bet he could deflect pucks with that God awful mustache of his and post a better save percentage than Toskala. The Toronto Maple Leafs need to find some way to shake him up.

It seems lately that many Toronto Maple Leafs fans have been down on Swedish defenseman Jonas Frogren. I have seen more than one post on the Leafs fan boards calling Frogren a "bust signing." This needs to be discussed, as I disagree greatly with the negative opinions on Frogren. I can't help but wonder if these fans have actually paid attention to what he brings to the Maple Leafs.

First of all, Frogren was brought to the Leafs to fill a particular role-as a physical, defensive-minded player. He was not brought here to score points, so there will be plenty of nights when his name isn't called much, or where he just doesn't stand out. For a purely defensive player, this is not always a bad thing. In my opinion he has filled his role nicely. As far as being a physical presence, consider this: Jonas Frogren is second on the Leafs in hits, and he has only appeared in 9 games. Luke Schenn is the only player who has more hits than he does, and Schenn has played in almost twice as many games. His hits aren't small either. Frogren is capable of laying bodies out on the ice, and he has shown that he can rough up opposing players in his own zone. If the Maple Leafs are going to tighten up their defense and lower their goals-against ranking, they are going to have to utilize this element of Frogren's game much more often. That means no more scratching him from the lineup every other game, and limiting him to the 3rd pairing when he does play. With Mike Van Ryn injured, the Leafs might benefit from giving him much more ice time.

Personally, I would like to see the Maple Leafs place Jonas Frogren on the second pairing with Luke Schenn, and try that out for a couple games. That could prove to be a very effective shutdown pair, and one that the Leafs could use to wear down opposing forwards later in the game when fatigue starts to set in. Both players like to hit, and hit hard. Not to mention that pairing would be very effective at blocking shots. Jonas Frogren is absolutely fearless when it comes to putting his body on the line for his team. Whether he is brave, or just plain crazy, Frogren is not afraid to throw himself into the shooting lane and stop the puck at all costs. The Leafs would be foolish to not take full advantage of this craziness, especially at a time when they need to figure out a way to stop letting the puck in their net.

One argument I have heard against Frogren's play is that his plus/minus rating is bad. While this is true, its important to remember that this can often be a misleading stat. It is a measure of the entire line that is currently on the ice, and not always reflective of an individual's level of play. For the record, both Luke Schenn and Pavel Kubina are minus players. Most of the time, those guys are solid in their own end. Schenn leads the team in hits and Kubina leads the team in blocked shots, so their defensive play is not reflected accurately in their minus ratings. I believe Frogren's play is not accurately reflected in this stat as well.

The Toronto Maple Leafs as a team have simply loosened up in their own end. They need to find the tight defense they had earlier in the season, and one way to do that might be to switch up the defensive pairings and experiment a little. With Mike Van Ryn out, the Maple Leafs can certainly afford to give a defensive minded player like Frogren much more ice time. Since weve been allowing 4 or 5 goals a game recently, we really dont have anything to lose. So I say give the Viking his chance. Make him a regular on the Leafs second pairing, and the bodies will start to fall. Hopefully, so too will the Leafs goals against.