Leafs Lose Fourth of the Season

The Leafs have not started a season with this bad of a record since, I believe 91/92 when on November 10th of that year they were a dismal 2 and 16. Let's not have repeat of that shall we?

The Achilles heal for the Maple Leafs again so far this season is over all team defense. You can say what you want about goaltending, and Ron Wilson said something about that this morning but I'll get to that later.

But over all, the Leafs have been brutal in their own zone. It's almost like they are smearing Vaseline on their sticks before the game! Turnovers and give aways in their own zone and in the neutral zone are absolutely killing them!

They gave up 3 powerplay goals tonight against a team who, although that are the defending Stanley Cup Champions, found themselves 27th in the league on the powerplay?!? How do you give up 3 powerplay goals to a team with that kind of record?

Toskala, although he looked good at times tonight, is still playing too deep in his net, he is not a large goalie and makes himself even smaller when he plays that style.

Ron Wilson said this morning that Toskala is working hard with their new Goal tending consultant, but that you can't expect ten years of bad habits and a certain style to disappear over night. It will likely take a couple of weeks to start seeing the results.

I understand this rational , but, if the Leafs are going to make the playoffs as both Wilson and Burke eluded to before the season, the team can ill afford play like that from their number one goalie.

The Leafs lost 5 to 2 to the Penguins who last season didn't win a game against the Leafs at the ACC and dropped 3 of 4 to Toronto over all.

They'll need to be better in all areas of the game Monday, when they seek to break their goose egg in New York versus the Rangers.

The heat in particular will be on Vesa Toskala, who made 28 saves and looked uncomfortable in goal for much of the night, and received plenty of mock cheers from a disgruntled crowd of 19,374. Another focal point must be their discipline, as a few key momentum changes were given back by ill-timed penalties.


Jay Rosehill who had 9 penalty minutes in tonight's game, opened the scoring for the Leafs who had three fighting majors tonight including Colton Orr in a decidedly one sided win in the first period.

Hagman scored the only other goal for Toronto, his second of the season.



The Leafs next action come Monday night as they face the new look New York Rangers, and as always, you can hear all the action live, right here on Bench Brawl!

Until next time, you kids play safe!

Kadri !, Kadri !, Kadri !!

The Leafs make it 4 in a row with another come from behind pre-season win. This one on the back of rookie Nazem Kadri, who not only scored the tying goal late in the third, also scored the winner in a shoot out to make the final 3-2

Kadri's goal in the shoot out made the ">highlight reels everywhere. After the game, Kadri made no secret about his desire to stay with the big club. `Hopefully, I'm making the decision hard,'' said Kadri. ``I appreciate (coach) Ron (Wilson) giving me the opportunity to go out there in some big situations. I think it's really building my confidence.''

While Coach Wilson still remains reluctant to heap to much praise on any one player, he did say this about Kadri's performance. ``All it takes special players is one moment and they can change the outcome (of a game),'' said Wilson. ``He did. Just being in the right spot at the right time, he picked up the puck and buried it big time.''

The Leafs rang the iron twice in overtime and once in the third period, Pittsburgh goaltender John Curry must have brought his horse-shoe, or this game may have had a much different outcome.

After looking a little ordinary in the first, Leafs net-minder Vesa Toskala, settled in well and gave his team a chance to come back, while making a couple of big stops in the over time before thwarting Staal and Conner in the shoot out.

Jamal Mayers got his bell rung pretty good and went down in a heap after getting the wrong end of a clean check from Pittsburghs Wallace, all indications are he'll be fine, but there is still plenty of time for Burke and Wilson to make any adjustments that may be needed.

The Leafs are back in action tonight against the Buffalo Sabres at 7:00pm est. As always, you can hear all of the action right here on Bench Brawl, just click on Listen Live

Until next time, you kids play safe!

Leafs down Sens for Fourth in a row

Curtis Joseph now has wins in 19 consecutive calender years, and the Leafs have their fourth win in a row, and sixth straight with at least a point.

On the heels of the Leafs fourth win over the Sens this season, this one a 4-3 overtime victory. Brian Burke will have some tough choices to make in the next four days. Especially if the Leafs manage another win Tuesday night.

As of this moment, the Leafs are only 7 points out of a playoff birth. They are also well out of the hunt for the first round draft pick in the up coming draft. So, does Burke trade for the future as he has stated? As is the mandate of the organization. Or, does he take a chance and try to beef up the existing line up to make a push for a play off spot?

Toronto was 1 for 3 on the power play, while Ottawa was 0 for one.

Curtis Joseph made his 6th start of the season and made 29 save to record his second win. He also achieved a career milestone by posting wins in 19 consecutive calender years.



Tim Stapleton turned in another good effort getting his first official NHL goal, and looks to do a good job in the absence of Hagman who is out with a concussion and could be out for the remainder of the season. Stapleton's first goal however, came of the stick of Jason Spezza, who in a failed attempt to clear the puck away, managed to back hand it in to his own net.

Look for Spezza to be a healthy scratch the next game.

The Leafs next action comes on the eve of the trade deadline as they face the red hot New Jersey Devils at home in the Hanger. As always you can hear the game live, right hear on Bench Brawl!

Panthers take another Bite out of the Leafs

After being ' called out ' by GM Brian Burke, Nik Antropov responded by scoring his 17th goal of the season in his 500th NHL appearance. At the pace he is on now, it is looking like he will at least match his point totals from last year. Which should make a few teams look long and hard at him come the trade deadline on March the 4th.

Toronto's GM went so far as to say, there was no intention of pursuing a new contract with him.(Antropov)

Tonight's game seemed to be well in hand for the Leafs however as they held a 4-1 lead at just about the mid-way point in the 3rd period. Then the wheels on the bus just fell off.

Florida managed to tie things up with just over 5 minutes left and then Zednik, after scoring the tying goal, scored the game winner just over a minute into overtime to give the Panthers the 5-4 win, and defeat the leafs for the second consecutive time.



Toskala turned in another pretty solid performance making 33 stops, while Florida net-minder Tomas Vokoun made 35.

The Leafs next action is Thursday night as they face the Tampa Bay Lightning and as always, you can hear the game live, right here on Bench Brawl!

Leafs pound Habs 5-2 in Montreal

Luke Schenn scored his first goal in as an NHL player tonight, Jason Blake picked up right where he left off after not recording a point in Buffalo, with 2 goals and Vesa Toskala may start making me a believer again if he starts to put up more performances like that every once in awhile!

My friend Patrick owes me five bucks! I love that!

It was obvious right from the first puck drop, that this was going to be a fast paced aggressively played game. The Canadiens once again spent more time chasing Mikeal Grabovski around the ice than they did playing hockey. But, in the end it was Grabovski who got the last laugh, and though he didn't figure in the scoring, the obvious distraction that he was to Montreal certainly didn't hurt!

Vesa Toskala made several big saves in this 5-2 win over the Habs and appeared to be playing with more confidence than I've seen in several games.



The physical display by both teams was bound to take it's toll eventually. Mike Van Ryn was escorted to the dressing room after being checked into the boards, early in the second period. This is the second game in a row, agianst The Habs in which Van Ryn has been injured. The last being Nov 8 when he was checked from behind onto the boards and missed 11 games after that due to injury.

Both teams struggled mightily on the power play with Toronto going 0-5 and Montreal going 1-8. Despite having the worst penalty kill in the league, Toronto dominated tonight thanks in large part to the hard work of both Ian White and Luke Schenn who both logged more than 25 minutes of ice time tonight. (White with 26:38, the most of any player on the ice).

The Leafs next action comes Tuesday once again against Bryan McCabe and the Florida Panthers! As always, you can hear the all the game action live right here 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!

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!