Schenn-Sational Night for 'Killer' and the Leafs

On a night that Doug Gilmore will remember for a long time, it was easy to lose sight of the fact that there was a game being played. Watching the ceremonial raising of Gilmores banner, brought to life a lot of great Leaf memories.

The inspiration wasn't lost on the team either as they went on to defeat the very one (or should I say two) dimensional Pittsburgh Penguins by a final score of 5-4.



The combination of Crosby and Malkin is lethal to say the least, but, beyond the two of them, the Penguins just don't have that much to offer. Having said that, it would be kind of cool to see the two of them end up #1 and #2 in scoring and the end of the season. A feat that hasn't been seen ironically enough since 1996 when Mario Lemiuex and Jaromir Jagr did it for these very same Penguins.

It was an excellent game to watch. Fast paced, lots of skill. It still amazes me sometimes to watch some of these guys and the things that they can do with the puck.

Luke Schenn was again a pleasure to watch. He has the poise and confidence of a player 10 years his senior most of the time, and will be a very big part of the leafs roster in the future. In the absense of Kaberle, Schenn logged over 23 minutes of ice time tonight was always on the ice with the dynamic duo.

Vesa Toskala however may not. There were three goal scored on him tonight, that probably shouldn't have been. Two of them were simply because of poor positional play. One however, was as a result of a blown call in my opinion. Toskala was literally pushed halfway across his goal crease by the Pittsburgh player which the afforded 'Sid the Kid' a virtually empty net.

Now, I don't typically harp on the officiating too much. However, it seems to me that there should at least be a happy medium somewhere.

Nik Antropov, after going 17 games without scoring a goal had his second in as many games, and Jason Blake added another goal and an assist to his points total tonight. In the last twenty games he has easily been the Leafs best player and has been on a point a game pace.

The Leafs next action comes Tuesday at home against the Panthers and as always, you can hear all the action live, right here on Bench Brawl!

Leafs remind Raycroft why they let him go!

It would have made for a nice headline, " Raycroft stops fifty shots and Tucker has first six point night of his career in Romp of the Maple Leafs, but alas, it just wasn't to be.

No, on this night it would be " Antropov scores to en 17 game goal less skid " , or ,
" Blake scores again ", or maybe even " Dominic Moore scores career high in goals ".

Yep, you could have taken lot away from this game that saw Toronto lay a rare whoopin' on a team that, granted is missing arguabley their two best offensive players, in Joe Sakic and Paul Stasney, would normily have little trouble with the Buds.

In this 7-4 win it may have actually been a difficult task to pick a N0 1 star of game. Though Jason Blake got the honours, and deservedly so, it could have been any number of other Leafs tonight.

Doninic Moore also had two goals and an assist, Ponikarovsky, Hagman and White also had multipoint nights. Even Toskala, who allowed four goals on just twenty shots, actually made a couple or really good save to help keep the Leafs in it.



This game could have easily slipped away from the Leafs, if it had not been for a timely blown call that went against the Avs. In the third period, Ryan Smyth who unfortunately for him, has a reputation for crashing into opposing goalies,quite probably cost his team the win. On a play to the net, Ryan did in fact interfere with Toskala. I know alot of people will call me, well, names. But if you pay close attention in the highlight videos, you will see that Ryan had actually turned into the front of the net area and was prevented from actually running over Toskala by Shen.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it! The Leafs next action comes Saturday at home against Pittsburgh! As always, you can hear all the action live, right here on Bench Brawl!

Pogge gets blown out on the road

You have to kind of feel for a kid who is put between the pipes , the first game back after the all star break. Traditionally, and I really wish I had an exact number for you, the Buds have never done well the first game back from the All Star break.

There is really no sense in breaking with tradition.

The troubles with the Leafs in this 6-1 loss did not rest solely on the shoulders of the young goaltender though. The Leafs as a team are simply over thinking the game in my opinion and trying to take it on themselves to make the team break out. In watching lately, it seems as though there is simply no support anywhere on the ice. They aren't supporting their goalie and they aren't supporting each other.

The Leafs and Justin Pogge had their collective hats handed to the by the Minnesota Wild last night. Pogge allowed six goals on just 21 shots.


Jason Blake is suddenly on pace for a 50-60 point season, which is great considering everyone, including myself had written him of as a complete bust. While he may not ever return, to the form of a couple of years ago, when he scored 40 goals with the Islanders and had 69 points, if he manages to stay around the level he is at now for the next 3-4 years, he will have made himself a worth while investment in my opinion.

Poor Nik Antrapov may never score another goal again. He had a couple of great opportunities tonight and the puck just didn't want to go in for him, extending his goal less streak to 14 games.

The Leafs next action come Thursday night in Colorado, it's a 9:30 start and as always, you can hear all of the action right here on Bench Brawl

And the Bell Center goes Wiiiiiiiiiiiild!

If there was to be a more perfect day for the Montreal Canadiens this season, I just can't imagine it. Aside from winning the cup on home ice this year, this would easily be the highlight of the season for fans of Alexi Kovalev and and the Montreal Canadiens.

The sellout crowd even chanted Kovalev's name after he assisted on a first-period goal, and went nuts when he later scored on a couple nice breakaway moves. Kovalev nearly had the hat trick, but had two different shots hit the post.

In keeping with the theme of Les Canaadiens, Mike Komisarek also made his presense felt as he was the recipient of the first penalty called in an All Star game since 2000.

Scorers for the East included, Alex Ovechkin, who had one in regulation and another in the shootout. Also Martin St. Louis had two while Eric Staal, Andrei Markov, Zach Parise, Evgeni Malkin, Danny Heatly and Jay Bouwmeester also each had one.

Scorers for the West included Keith Tkachuk, Patrick Marleau, Dan Boyle, Rick Nash, Milan Hedjuk, Jerome Iginla, Shane Doan, Johnathan Teows, and Patrick Kane. Former Habs defenceman Sheldon Souray added two goals.

Habs Captain(interim) Alexi Kovalev, delivered on his pre-game guarantee to be the games MVP.

The game featured all kinds of skill and helped make a case for leaving things as they are. There may have been no hitting or physical play, but that gave the players a platform to show off some smooth hands and flashy moves.

"At the end of the game and overtime, it was worth every penny," said Komisarek. "It was exciting to be a part of, just sitting there on the bench and being on the ice watching the top players in the world compete at such a high level."

The nicest goal of the evening came off the stick of Malkin, who pulled the puck back between his legs before beating Niklas Backstrom at 7:45 of the second period. The Pittsburgh Penguins forward leads the league in scoring but isn't as well known as other star players because he speaks limited English.

There was of course the usual criticism that surrounds every AllStar weekend.'maybe we should change this, maybe we should change that'. From what I saw, it was all pretty entertaining and I think the NHL and the Montreal Canadiens did a great job, there is always room for improvement in anything, but, as far as this particular weekend was from a fans point of view. I think it was pretty damned good.

If you missed any of this weekends action including the Super Skills, you can see all of the highlights right here, on Bench Brawl!

First Period Highlights


Second Period Highlights


Third Period Highlights


The Shootout



And a little Bonus for you courtesy of NHL.com. The Super Skills Competition 'Mic'd up'

2009 NHL All Star Skills Day Highlights

Ok, so Blake Wheeler probably wasn't sure about how the 2009 All Star weekend was going to turn out for him being his first trip and all. However, when his sticks were misplaced by Air Canada, he waited patiently for them to call. They never did so he assumed that he would simply have to borrow one from another player.

"Air Canada said they'd call when they found them, but they never called - then they magically arrived," said Wheeler. Lucky for him. He managed to score four goals as the NHL Rookies defeated the NHL Sophomore team 9-5 in the " Young Stars " Game



The Skills competition this year was a whole new story. There were some significant rule changes allowing for alot more creativity on the part of the players. All in all a very entertaining competition this year. Here are video highlights of each separate competition. Enjoy! And thanks to the NHL Network and TSN for the video!

Fastest Skater



Breakaway Challenge


Accuracy Competition



Hardest Shot



And my personal favorite, The Elimination Shoot Out!


Please stay tuned tomorrow for highlights from today's festivities!