Cujo gets first win of the Seaon!!

A Tobias Enstrom interference penalty with 8.1 seconds left set the stage for Kubina 33 seconds into OT, on a slapshot past Johan Hedberg that was Toronto's 47th shot of the night.
It also ended Joseph's personal win drought dating back to April 5, when he beat Vancouver while with Calgary.
The long wait for Curtis Joseph's first victory of the season, and 450th of his career, is over.
Finally getting the milestone win was all about finding the right focus. That has been difficult this season for the 41-year-old netminder, who is locked in on the play, reading it well and feeling confident when things are going right.
He took a positive step in correcting his problems Tuesday night, making 29 saves to help his Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Atlanta Thrashers 4-3 in overtime. Nik Antropov handed him the game puck after Pavel Kubina scored the winner, a memento for reaching a nice milestone number and putting his second tour with the Leafs back on track.
''Wins are the most important measure for goalies, I think. Certainly it's a great accomplishment,'' Joseph said of 450. ''I think I really read the plays well and really focused in. That's been my problem. Sometimes you're only human and you learn.''
Nikolai Kulemin, Lee Stempniak and Jason Blake also scored for the Maple Leafs (15-16-6), who stopped a three-game losing streak with starter Vesa Toskala on the bench. They had to fight back from an early 2-0 deficit and then gave up a 3-2, third-period lead when Colby Armstrong knotted things u''Cujo made three or four huge saves for us, for him, as much as anything to gather some confidence after a shaky start,'' said Leafs coach Ron Wilson. ''And we got our offence going, we had a ton of shots, a ton of scoring chances.''p on a power play at 13:17.

The Leafs next action comes Thursday at home against Buffalo, and as always you can hear all the action, right here on Bench Brawl

Leafs Defence drops the ball for their 3rd straight loss.

As surely as I'm stting here, at 5:30 in the bloody morning, the Toronto Maple Leafs shoult have won that game. Instead, a couple of defensive blunders and perhaps a soft goal by Vesa Toskala, lead to a 4-1 beating at the hands of the Capitals.

I think that it is idiotic, for Toronto Maple Leaf fans to be upset with this team. Granted, it's no fu to watch your team lose. ( By the way, 3 in a row aint' that bad ) We should , maybe not expect them to lose all the time, but, sure as hell not expect them to win either. They aren't built for it. Most nights, they are a heck of a lot more fun to watch than they have been for awhile.
Roll with it! Oh, and Tomas Kaberle perhaps should just worry about watching tape a honing his craft rather than start talking about the needs of the team.

Rick Di Pietro returned to the goal just over two months after meniscus surgery and stopped 28 shots. Guerin became the 79th NHL player, and the eighth U.S.-born player, to score 400 goals. He also is the third player to accomplish the feat in an Islanders uniform.
"It means a lot," Guerin said. "It means I've been able to stick around this league for quite some time, and had some success at doing it. (Tonight's) goals came at a good time. Everyone kept a good attitude and a good work ethic (during the losing streak)."
Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson praised Guerin.

"That's a tremendous milestone," Wilson said. "I know Billy, and he's a great guy and very deserving.

"New York was 0-9-1 since its last victory Nov. 29.Lee Stepniak scored for Toronto, and Toskala stopped 27 shots. The Maple Leafs have lost two straight after winning five of six.
DiPietro got involved early in the contest. He stopped the first two shots he saw, and then threw a pass up the right wall for Okposo, who skated into the Toronto zone and fired a sharp angle shot that hit Toskala and deflected in at 3:47 "It hit the inside edge of my blocker," Toskala said. "Some nights, it happens."

Toronto forward Matt Stajan was not happy about any aspect of the game.
"I don't think we played good in tonight's game," Stajan said. "We were sloppy and turned the puck over. We didn't come out the way we wanted. It hurts us as a team that we know we let this one get away."

Here is a challenge for all you Brawlers out there. Josh Baily recorded an assist on Billy Guerins first goal last night. He's an Ontario boy. I, would like to know, how dangerous Ontario born players have been to the Buds over the years. In the past two games alone Home grown talent has scored over 6 points alone.

Good news and bad!

Happy Holidays everyone, and thanks for making BenchBrawl so popular!!

I have to apologize, The switched my shift at work over the holidays and I have been a little less than diligent in my posting, as my good friend Brian pointed out today.

Ok, here goes. On Monday, the Leafs followed up a major rout of the Penguins, with a second consecutive win over the Atlanta Thrashers. This 6-2 victory, highlight the NHL debut of Leaf net minder Justin Pogge. Pogge was drafted 4 years ago by the buds 90th over all and made 19 of 21 saves to help his team to a second win in a row.

"It was nice to see Justin play as well as he did," Toronto coach Ron Wilson said. "When he is in a butterfly, all he has to do is move two or three inches. We played really in well in front of him, but he made three or four saves that would have given (Atlanta) lots of momentum."


The following night with the Dallas Stars in town however, it was a different Toronto squad that showed up to play Mike Modano and his squad. The Leafs were embarrassed 8-2 at home.

''We didn't have our legs, we didn't have our mind to be able to play a shutdown game,'' said coach Ron Wilson. ''Unfortunately, it got ugly.''

Ugly hardly describes the effort that the Leafs seemed to be lacking for 58 of 60 minutes this night. Already painfully aware that Toskala was nursing a sore groin, perhaps the Leafs bench boss made a error in judgement by letting him start rather than resting him un til after Christmas. Pogge was in town fresh off his first NHL appearance and more to the point, had to stay in town until the 27th when the holiday roster freeze is over. Perhaps the Leafs would have lost no matter who was in goal, that does not however excuse a very poor decision, in my humble opinion, on the part of Ron Wilson.

Leafs bounce back with rout of Penguins

I what could easily have been another embarrassing loss, the Leafs and Vesa Toskala put together one of their best efforts of the season. This was obviously a surprised Pittsburgh Penguin team that simply didn't count on a Leaf squad who, at times during the season, have shown that they can skate and score with just about any team in the league.


The 7-3 win, was the largest margin of victory, and most goals scored by the Leafs this season. The team hasn't scored this many gaols since an 8-2 pounding of the Boston Bruins, back on March the 6th. Conversely, the Penguins haven't allowed this many goals since an 8-2 beating at the hands of the Flyers last December.

Petr Sykora scored twice, and Evgeni Malkin added a highlight reel goal, but in the end, the Leafs were simply too much for the two NHL scoring leaders on this night.
Lead by the goal tending of Toskala who just two nights ago had arguably his worst game as a Leaf, there were 5 Leafs with two or more points last night, and and 11 in all with at least one.

Sundin makes up his mind!

Say it ain't so Joe, or Mats. You know, I never really thought that we'd see him back in a Leafs Jersey, but I must say that I was more than a little surprised when he signed with Vancouver earlier today. I'd like to do a big song and dance about the whole affair, but, it will have to wait until tomorrow. Here are the sorted details from my good friend at ' Puck Daddy '

Well, when they blow it.......

When the blow a win streak, they do it big time. Perhaps the finality of the Sundin signing made them all dizzy. Any how, they did in fact lose, to the best team in the east, the Boston Bruins. My buddy Tim will never let me live this one down! The final score was 8-5. Pavel Kubina, Alexei Ponikarovsky, Nik Antropov, Mikhail Grabovski and Jason Blake scored for the Leafs, who had won three in a row.

Vesa Toskala gave up two goals on five shots in the first 4:34 and was pulled for Curtis Joseph. Though Cujo didn't do much better, allowing four goals on 10 shots in the second period. Toskala came back in for the third, when Boston took a 7-5 lead on Ryder’s goal with 9:18 to play.

“Fernandez came in and made the difference in the game,” Leafs coach Ron Wilson said. “Obviously we didn’t start the way we wanted to. It was obviously a good effort to get back into the game, but when you get down that many goals, it’s tough.”

“Sometimes a change like that kind of calms everybody down,” Fernandez said. “When there’s a lot of goals scored, you just hold your stick a little tighter, try to do too much. Sometimes coaches use that (a goalie change) as a motivator for the team, and I think that’s what happened.

The Maple Leafs next action comes Saturday when they are once again on the road to face the Pittsburgh Penguins, and as always, you can hear the call right here on Bench Brawl!

Hey, Look what I can do!!!!!

The Leafs won their third in a row, and second against New Jersey this year in a shoot out. Blake scored in the shootout, after Antripov and Williams scored as well to help the Leafs to a 3-2 win in a shoot out.

Williams who scored in his third straight game, and has apparently, provided some spark, scored the go ahead goal for the Leafs in the second period. The opportunistic winger, also scored in the shoot out to put the Leafs ahead and setting the stage for Jason Blakes shoot out winner.

With less than ten seconds to go in overtime Toskala stopped Travis Zajac on a breakaway to send it to a shoot out. Toskala for the leafs and Clemmenson for the Devils, each face a total of 27 shots. The Leafs improve to 12-12-6 and remain in 11th in the east just three points out of a playoff spot.

Toronto's next action comes Thursday night in Bean Town at 7:00 pm, and as always, you can listen to the game live, right hear on Bench Brawl!

Leafs make it 2 in a row!

Vesa Toskala made 24 saves to keep the Leafs in it until Ian white ( and the Stash ), scored past the half way point in the third to help the team to their second straight victory. Which incidentally, keeps them in 11th in the east, only 3 points out of a playoff spot.You can find the box score here.

I know, I know, we don't want them to make the playoffs. But let me tell ya, it sure is exciting to watch most of the time. Except for the game against San Jose earlier in the month, I'm fairly certain that I have yet to see a team just completely dominate this young Toronto team.

There are several problems with this team, though, none that can't be addressed. Let's start with Kabby. Almost everyone is calling for his head, ( including yours truly ). I may have been a bit pre-mature. As my wife like to point out. The thing is, there are several schools of thought when it comes to him. I said last week that I thought perhaps he wasn't as good a defense man as everyone had first thought, and maybe without McCabe and Gill around to make him look good, maybe, just maybe, we were seeing his true talent level. Another thought is, he's disoriented. Entirely possible, given the fact that prior to this year, he had spent the past ten years or so, pretty well playing with the same group of guys, and the same coaches. Now, everything is different. Not to mention the fact that because everyone else is gone, he may be worried about the same thing happening to him. If Burke does trade him, what will he get in return. There are a couple of defence man in the system, the could turn into good puck movers, but who knows really. So, do you make the trade straight up for a defense man of a similar quality, just to shake things up, or do you trade for prospects and hope someone in the system, develops into the role?

Today is a rare Saturday of for the buds who don't see action again until Tuesday when the Devils come to town. As always, you can hear the game live, right here on Bench Brawl!

OH Yeah!!!!

I almost forgot, if you, or anyone you know is interested. I have 2 center ice golds to an upcoming Leafs game against the Nashville Predators on Jan 14th. Click the ' ticket raffle ' link for details.

Down, down we go....

Tomas Kaberle was benched for the entire first period to begin last nights game, it didn't motivate him any. On his first shift of the second period the Coyotes scored their 3rd goal to re-take a one goal lead. Don't get me wrong, I've been picking on poor Kabby for the last couple of days, but I don't dislike the guy. I do think however that the Leafs would be better served by trading him simply because the are re-building and the would get something tangible in return.

Despite have some extra rest after losing to the best team in the league, on Tuesday, the Leafs seemed to come out a little flat last night. I personally would have thought that between, the rest and seeing one of the 'senior' players on the team being benched the Leafs would have played a lot more motivated game. I have been known to be wrong on occasion, as was demonstrated with their 6-3 loss to the Coyotes.

Both teams went 0 for 4 on the power play last night, one area of the Leafs game that has shown vast improvement. The Leafs have jumped 2 spots in the last week on the penalty kill and are now 26th in the league in that department. After last night though, their power play slipped from 8th to 10th.

The long and the short of it is, it would be easy to sit around and pick apart the Leafs all day long, and I'm sure that there are alot of people doing it. Sitting their, making way more money than I do, analyzing, digging up meaningless stats about everything imaginable. The fact of the mater is, this team is NO supposed to win. Don't get me wrong, I love the Leafs, and I love to see them win. I am very excited, for the first time since I can remember though to watch a game. They are a fun team to watch, and there is a plan for the future, for a cup. So kids, let's just have fun, and enjoy some hockey. If they still aren't contending by say 2011, then we can all start bitching again ok?

Leafs vs Sharks in the Stanley Cup Final!

Geez, I hope not!!! Well ,in what can only be described as a rout, the best team in the league, showed you last night why they are now tied with the 1943-44 Montreal Canadians for the most points in 25 games to start a season. The Sharks remain the only team in the NHL without a regulation loss on home ice this season. Helped by a 4 point night from Joe Thornton, the Sharks were simply too much for the Leafs. Handing the buds their first loss in 3 games by a score of 5-2

There were a couple of underlying stories in this game. Firstly, Last night marked the return of two former Sharks to the Shark Tank. Ron Wilson made his debut from the opposing bench. Although the Sharks and their fans, still hold Wilson in high regard, giving him a standing ovation before the game, there was no love for his new team last night. Wilson is the winningest coach in San Jose Sharks history, but was fired last may after exiting from the playoffs in the second round for the third time in 4 years. About the game last night Wilson said, “From what I’ve seen, this is easily the best team in the league, If we somehow could have survived maybe the first 10 minutes of the game, we would have found an equilibrium, but it was over by then. That was one where you throw the white towel in the corner, like in a boxing match.”

The Leafs have given up short handed goals in back to back games, on both occasions, Tomas Kaberle was on the ice. I think Karberle could do with a little shot of confidence. He is one of the leagues better defenders, but so far this year, hasn't shown it. There is always the train of thought that he isn't really that good. Whoa! Please don't kill me! Think of it this way. When McCabe and Gill were here, Kabby looked like a superstar, right? He probably looked that way because Mcabe and Gill were, well, not. Now that they aren't here to make him look good..............................


Alright, enough about that. The Leafs will look to get back on track against the bottom feeding Coyotes on Thursday. The Leafs, in the past had made short work of teams that were ranked lower overall, but for the last few seasons, that has been a dissapearing trend. You will be able to hear the action live right here on Bench Brawl!

The Leafs Make it 2 In a Row Against LA

Ya know, I don't really want to open today by praising the play of Vesa Toskala, but I will tell you this. Wow did he make some not only huge but timely saves against LA last night! I work afternoons so it is a rare treat for me to see my favorite team any day but Saturday. I don't mind telling you, the Leafs didn't disappoint. There were times in the game that I held my breath and cursed silently, but all in all, it was what we should expect from a team that is not only developing, but still trying to find an identity.

Mat Stajan, and Mikeal Grabovski, who have both been in a bit of a funk lately, scored in the early part of the third period to give the Leafs a one goal lead. Both goals were scored on the power play. Stajan's goal, his seventh, and the 18,000 goal scored in franchise history, was scored in the 3rd minute of the third period. There hadn't been a goal since the first minute of the first period when LA's Alexander Frolov opened th scoring 57 seconds in. For all the details, go here.

The Brian Burke era has started with a bang! It is unlikely that Burke will do any thing regarding roster moves at least until after the Christmas freeze as he will need some time to assess the current roster. Although he is the President and GM, it rumored that will seek permission to speak with other candidates to fill the GM role in the future.

It is also unlikely, according to Burke that Sundin will make a return to the organization. The two spoke on Saturday and Burke left with the feeling that Sundin would still likely seek a return to playing, with a contender. When asked about the un-certainty surrounding Sundin's returning at all, Burke said “There has been a lot of criticism of Mats Sundin for not making up his mind,” Burke said. “Having been through this situation before, I do not agree with it. I’d rather have a guy who wants to make sure in his own mind of what he is doing, as opposed to a guy who plays (halfway) just to collect a pay check.”

A big test for the current roster will come tonight when the Leafs face the best team in the league in the San Jose Sharks. You can listen to the game live right here on Bench Brawl!

Toskala Gets First Star

Vesa Toskala stopped 28 shots on route to a 4-2 win over the high powered Philadelphia Flyers tonight. For the second game in a row the Leafs were out shot by their opponent. This after posting a string of games where they out shot the opposition 17 consecutive times. Another positive note was their ability to hold on to the lead, which has been a problem the entire season, if it wasn't for their un-canny ability to come from behind to win most of their earlier games, they would in fact be the worst team in the league...by far. The box score from tonight's win can be found here.

Both Stajan and Grabovski were held off of the score sheet though both contributed on both sides of the puck. Leafs fans held their collective breath for a few moments after Grabovski was checked from behind in the open ice by the Flyers Josh Gratton. He would later prove to be alright and continued to play after a brief rest on the bench.

Although The Leafs did score on the power play against the Flyers, a trend that should be more than a little disturbing to the coaching staff is the fact that the Leafs can't seem to score with a 2 man power play advantage. Tonight's 5 on 3 was in fact the 14th consecutive 5 on 3 with which the Leafs were unable to convert. Wilson did however try a different approach tonight, employing five forwards for most of the 1:08 two man advantage. Although they still didn't convert the new look certainly had it's chances.

With the exception of a couple of mental mistakes by Tomas Kaberle, the Leafs once again played a better defensive game overall.

I would of course be remiss if I didn't mention the Leafs announcement, that they had in fact made public what was probably, in my opinion the worst kept secret in the history of major league sports. They signed Brian Burke. There , I mentioned it.

Toskala, once again shone in goal making a number of big saves to help preserve the lead. Including a pretty flashy glove save on Savard from in close late in the second.

Another area that the leafs are showing steady improvement is in the face off circle, winning 33 of 24 against the Flyers tonight. Once again due largely to the efficiency of Matt Stajan in that department.

Have you heard?...........

Ok, first of all, a friend of mine asked me last night if I knew where the hell Mark Bell got to. I hate to admit it, but I had no idea. So, I checked. It seems as though Mr Bell is in fact still in the Maple Leafs organization. He is playing with the Marlies and has 9 points in 18 games. He is a -6 and has 20 pim so far this year. There ya go Brian!

I heard a rumor on the post game show after Tuesdays game vs Atlanta. It was a regular caller into the radio show that I listen to, and he said there was a strong possibility that the Maple Leafs and Mats Sundin were going to hook up during the teams stop in Vancouver and try to hammer out a deal. Now, I love the man as much as anyone else, and I said right from the start that if we saw him in the NHL this year, it would in fact be in a leafs jersey. However, with him gone, we have seen some steady improvement from a couple of the other players that everyone had basically written of as being too one dimensional without Sundin around to help them. I am speaking of Matt Stajan and Alex Ponikarovski . Both of whom are well on their way to having career years. I am not saying for a second that I don't think Sundin could help this team, he is still an incredible player with lots to offer. I suppose what I'm asking is should the Leafs want his help?

Toskala was Sensational!! Auld wasn't too bad either!

The Senators snipers simply proved too much one on one for Toskala, who arguably played his best game in a Leafs jersey to date!!

Despite some gritty perfomances by several players, including but certainly not limited to Alex Ponikarovsky, Matt Stajan and of course Grabovski. The later of which is quite easily the best player on the Leafs roster so far this season.The Leafs couldn't find a way to beat the solid play of Ottawa's Alex Auld more than once.

The Leafs on this night, played a much more defensively responsible game. This is the kind of game we should have expected from a Ron Wilson coached team right out of the gate. With the talent that the Leafs have now, the emmergance of Matts Stajan in the absence of Matts Sundin, and the potential of youngsters such as Luke Shenn and Mikeal Grabovski, Leafs fans certainly have something to look forward to down the road!

Thursday nights game was overshadowed by the Maple Leafs reaching a deal with former Anaheim GM Brian Burke.

Cris Kelly and Mike Fisher also had huge games for the Senators, Fisher having just returned from a two game absence due to injury. When asked about the shoot out against Toskala, Jason Spezza replied “He plays a little deeper than most guys so that was kind of my reasoning behind shooting,” Spezza said. “I thought maybe to deke if he came out far, but … I think he was relying on playing deep and not letting us beat him on a deke.”

“Toskala stood on his head but Auldie’s just been rock solid for us,” Spezza said. “He hasn’t allowed too many goals, his numbers are great, he’s playing with a lot of confidence and he seems to be a guy who’s really seeing the puck well and playing really well for us right now.” Toskala's performance right out of the gate on this night, was cause for concern. After the first five minutes however he was clearly in a zone that I don't believe we have seen yet this season. You can find the Box Score here.

Toskala stopped 34 shots to help the Maple Leafs earn a standings point despite extending their losing streak to five (0-3-2). “He was awesome for us,” says rookie defenseman Luke Shenn , who also had a pretty good night .

Off the ice, Burke and the Maple Leafs agreed to a six-year deal for the former Ducks general manager to take over as president and GM, The Associated Press learned Thursday night. Burke spent the past three-plus seasons with the Ducks, leading them to a Stanley Cup title in 2007. He’ll replace Cliff Fletcher, hired as interim general manager following the firing of John Ferguson in January.

Ottawa out shot Toronto 35-26 overall, including a 5-0 margin in overtime as Toskala came up with a pair of big stops on Fisher in the final seconds of the extra period.

“It wasn’t for lack of chances,” Fisher said. “We had some good, quality shots and chances and he played really well.”

The Maple Leafs ended a team-record 17-game stretch without being out shot.

And The hits just keep on coming!

The Atlanta Thrashers handed the slumping Toronto Maple Leafs a somewhat lopsided loss on Tuesday night at home. If Brian Burke takes over as general manager as expected in the coming days, he won't sit still for long and watch this kind of crap. I didn't get to see the game but from all indications, I should be thankful.

Toronto has surrendered an NHL-worst 78 goals, a fact that surprises new Toronto coach Ron Wilson. He owns the reputation of being a defensive coach, but he is still struggling to get through to this group.

On the bright side, Jeff Finger scored his first as a Leaf. Antropov and Hagman also scored for the Leafs who now boast a record of 7-9-5. llya Kovalchuk scored the game winner ( his 7th ) for the Thrashers in the second period. For the whole box score, go here.

In other news. ' Trader Cliff ' wasn't about to sit waiting to see what Brian Burke was going to do, and pulled of what seems to be a pretty good deal for the Leafs...... just kidding. The trade with the St Louis Blues saw Alex Steen and often injured d-man Carlo Colaiacovo going to the Blues, with Lee Stempniak coming to the Blue & White.

Stempniak is having a great year so far with 13 points in 14 games so far. 3 of his 14 points are goals. The 25 year old is a native of Buffalo and was St. Louis' 7th pick overall in the 2003 NHL Entry draft

The Leafs head into Ottawa on Thursday noght for a tilt with the Sens. That will probably be just what the doctor ordered to help get the Buds back on track!