Welcome to the New Season!

Hello everyone out there in Leafs land! Here we are after a much too long off season, and I am PUUUUUUUUUMPED! I hope everyone had as great a summer as I did! Time to get down to business.

While the boys in blue had quite a busy off season, I have to tell ya, I'm really not sure what to make of this " new look team ". I'm excited, to say the least. We gained a little toughness, and a little more veteran leadership, but I really don't see that the forward contingent has drastically improved.

The Leafs, last season allowed the most goals per game in the league, so, the obvious absence of a defense, coupled with the on again off again romance of Vesa Toskala has hopefully been sorted out with the addition of Swedish sensation Jonas Guvstason, and Joey MacDonald. Although, the whole MacDonald signing has me a little puzzled. Perhaps a replacement for Justin Pogge who was traded not so long ago.

The defensive corps, has also been bolstered with the additions of Garet Exelby,Francois Beauchemin,Michael Komisarek, and Phil Oreskovic.

On the other hand, Brian Burke and the Leafs appear to be just fine with pretty much what they had in the way of forwards. With the exception of veteran Wayne Primeau, (who has always been a bit of a defensive liability), Burke hasn't been able to do much to bolster a forward group that was tenth in the league last year in goal production. Tenth?!, wait a minute tenth isn't that bad you say? Well, you're right of course, the trouble is that the Leafs were 30th in goals allowed! While there scoring was actually pretty good, their defense/goaltending was, well to say the least, bad.

Having said all of that, I really am excited about this coming season! Look for Jason Blake, Mikeal Grabovski, Tomas Kaberle, Alexie Ponikarovski and Vesa Toskala to have very good years!

Yes, I said it,Vesa Toskala, and good year in the same sentence. I think that a year more mature, and removed from the circus that hass been the Maple Leafs organization for the last couple of years, Toskala has the chance to be a premier goaltender in this league. Add to that the confidance that comes with having a more stable defense in front of him, and you just never know do you?

I will have a little more in depth analysis of all of the new players once the final roster has been set. I will return to break down the games for you all, starting Wednesday, September 16th, when the Buds play their first pre-season game at home against the Bruins!

Until then....PLAY SAFE you kids!

Oh, I almost forgot, look for a couple of exciting new additions the site this season!