Toskala Shines as Leafs lose in OT

The Maple Leafs played in their seventh consecutive game that needed extra time. That ties them for the all time lead in that department.

Vesa Toskala and Martin Brodeur both put on clinics tonight, combining to make a total of 84 saves. Toskala was easily the busier of the two having to face 52 shots compared to only 32 that Brodeur had to face.

The 52 shoots that Toskala faced tonight, is the second highest total he's had to face, next to the 53 he faced at the hands of the Bruins when he was still with San Jose.

Healthy scratches for the Leafs included, Doninic Moore, and Nik Antropov. Who are both widely believed to be the subject of on going trade negotiations, heading into tomorrows trade deadline.

John Mitchell scored twice for the Leafs, while Clarkson and Elias scored for the Devils. Johnny Oduya added the overime marker for the Devils at 4:48 of the extra frame. Jason Blake got an assist tonight to bring his point total on the season to fifty.



Toronto's next action comes Thursday night as they travel to Washington to face Ovechkin and the Capitals. As always, you can hear the game live, right here on Bench Brawl!

Stapleton's first NHL Point was a good one !

Tim Stapleton played his fist NHL game tonight, and it will be one that he remembers for the rest of his life. The only way that it could have been better for him, would have been to have scored the goal on a penalty shot in regulation, instead of in the shoot-out.

“I didn’t even know I scored until I curled after the shot and saw my teammates jump off the bench,” Stapleton said. “I’m just fortunate it went in.”

The Leafs were 5-4 winners tonight in Long Island despite giving up a 2 goal lead in the second and surrendering 3 more in the third to give the Islanders life.

The Islanders drew first blood in the shoot-out with a goal by Jeff Tambellini.

Jason Blake, who also had 2 assists tonight, scored to tie things up.

Kyle Okposo missed for the Islanders, so, it was up to the 26 year old from LaGrange. He beat Joey MacDonald short side to seal the deal for Toronto.



Toskala turned in another pretty good performance. Despite allowing 4 goals, he did make 40 saves against the Islanders for his 21st win of the season. If he continues to play the way he is, he could very well post his second consecutive, 30+ win season.

The Leafs next action come Saturday when they face the Senators in Ottawa. As always, you can hear all of the action live, right here on Bench Brawl!

Leafs beat Rangers in Shoot out

Vesa Toskala turned in another very solid performance, turning away 31 shots and turning away all 3 Rangers snipers in the shootout to give the Leafs their second win in a row.

The Maple Leafs have posted a 3-0-1 record against the Rangers this season despite not scoring in either the first or second period of any of the those contests.

This 2-1 victoryis the second victory in a row that they needed extra time to get. An area in which the Leafs have struggled mightily in recent memory.

Nikolai Kulemin scored in the shoot out for the Leafs.


The Leafs next action comes tonight as they face the New york Islanders.

In case you missed the Sundin tribute video from Saturday night here it is for your viewing pleasure!

Toskala Makes 39 Saves to lift Leafs Over Rangers

Vesa Toskala is finally showing some consistency between the pipe for the Leafs making several key saves en-route to a 3-2 overtime win against the Rangers.

“It was a tough loss,” Rangers captain Chris Drury said. “Toskala was playing well. We couldn’t get anything by him. A couple of mistakes, and we lost in OT.”


All in all, the game itself for the most part was fairly face paced, the Rangers frequently had Toronto hemmed in as the Buds seemed to forget how to take the body on occasion, but on this day it didn't much matter.

The Leafs next action comes Wednesday night against this very same Ranger team and as always, you hear all the action live right hear, on Bench Brawl!

Sundin scores Shootout winner bury Leafs

I have to tell you, I really think Sundin misses being in Toronto. When Introduced last night, he received a standing ovation from the crowd at the ACC and even drew applause after scoring the wining goal in the shoot out that helped push the Canucks passed the Leafs 3-2



This entire game was a fast paced exciting affair that saw chance after chance at both ends of the ice Toronto out shot the Canucks 38-37 and both Toskala and Luongo made several brilliant, and lucky saves.

Blake scored the opening goal, and almost scored again on a play where Dominic Moore had a partial breakaway with a broken stick and passed the puck to Blake with his stick. If Blake had managed to score, the goal would have been on highlight reels everywhere for a long time.

Scoring the shootout winner with the entire Air Canada Centre crowd on its feet was one thing. But the most special moment of an entertaining evening came when Sundin was selected the first star and returned to the ice by himself.

He took a bow, blew kisses in the air and waved to the people who came to adore him over 13 memorable seasons with the Maple Leafs. There were even a few tears in his eyes as he skated off the ice in Toronto for what could be the final time as an NHL player.

“There’s been a buildup for this game,” Sundin said moments after giving the Vancouver Canucks a 3-2 victory Saturday night. “All the battles and everything we’ve gone through over the last 13 years with the Leafs, so many ups and downs and disappointments and happiness. A lot of feelings came to mind on the ice.

“The ovation from the fans was very special. I’ll remember that the rest of my life.”

“It’s just one of those nights where you give (Sundin) a chance like that, you know he’s going to be able to score," added former Leaf and current Canuck Kyle Welwood.

While some fans chose to boo Sundin in his first game at the arena as a visiting player, he was mostly well-received. The longtime Leafs captain got choked up in the first period when he received a long standing ovation after a video tribute was played on the scoreboard.

“There were tears coming,” Sundin said. “That was very special.”

The ovation actually kept the game from starting up again.

Like everyone else in the building, the players on the ice simply watched Sundin rather than line up for the faceoff. Center Matt Stajan was out for the Maple Leafs and was in no hurry to take the draw.

“It was his moment—obviously, I was going to sit back and let him enjoy it,” Stajan said. “I wasn’t going into the faceoff circle before he did.

All in all, it was one of the best Leafs games that I've seen in while. They played fairly well defensively and had lots of jump offensively.

The Buds next action comes tonight when the travel to New York to take on the Rangers for an 8pm start. As always, you can hear the action live right here on Bench Brawl!

Leafs Lose 4-3 in Shoot Out

Pogge put on a solid performance making 31 out of 34 saves in regulation and overtime, only to see his efforts slip away as Rick Nash scored in the shootout to lift the road weary Blue Jackets past his team by a final of 4-3.

Jason Blake continued to add to his point total, as did Moore and Antropov who hit the 20 goal mark last night for the second consecutive season.

Matt Stajan got an assist last light to give him a new career high in points at 40

Ken Hitchcock also hit a career milestone last night as coach of the BlueJackets earning his 500th win as an NHL Coach.

The Leafs had several good chances in the third to put it away, but couldn't get anything past Mason. Overtime solved nothing so the game went to a shoot out.

Blake scored in the shoot out for the Leafs while Williams and Nash scored for Columbus. Jason Williams claimed to purposely fan on a shot that ended up sliding past Pogge to give Columbus an early shoot out lead. Jason Blake tied it, but Nash buried a no-doubter to put the pressure on Lee Stempniak, who fired wide to end it.

“It was a great trick shot,” Nash said. “I wonder how he practices that one, but we’ll take it.”

Leafs coach Ron Wilson wasn’t so sure the move was what Williams planned.

“Maybe he did. I don’t know,” Wilson said. “We should study that move, it’s a great move.”

Sabres Beat Leafs....Again

The Buffalo Sabres managed to pull off yet another win over the on again, off again Maple Leafs. This one by a score of 4-1

The barage that that Maple Leafs sent Ryan Millers way in the first period, served only to apparently wake the Sabres up. Miller made several very good save to start the game when it looked alot like the Leafs where going to end up winning this game going away, just on adrenaline alone.

But, alas, t'was not to be. The Sabres scored 3 goals on rookie Justin Pogge in the first and added another in the third, sandwiched between the third goal in the first and the fourth goal in the third was the lone Leafs marker by Pavel Kubina.

The resident wonder kid Jason Blake managed to get yet another point by way of an assist on the Kubina goal.



The Leafs next action comes Thursday against the Columbus Blue Jackets, and as always, you can hear all the action, right here on Bench Brawl!

Maple Leafs 2009 Skills Competition!

The Toronto Maple Leafs held their annual Skills Competition yesterday, and had a lot of fun doing it!

The 17th annual event saw Pavel Kubina of Team Blue take both the Hardest Shot , and the Accuracy competitions. The accuracy competition saw a shot out between Kubina and Antropov to determine a winner.

Team Blue won the overall competition by a final of 12-11. The complete breakdown can be found here.

All of the video highlights can be found below! Don't forget, the Buds next action is Tuesday night when they face the Sabres and you can listen to the game live, right here on Bench Brawl!

Puck Control


Fastest Skater


Hardest Shot


Judged Shoot Out


Shooting Accuracy


Power Play Challenge


And finally, my favorite! Survivor Shoot out

Leafs Crush Pens 6-2 at Home

After Toskala shook off the cow webs in the first period, he was letter perfect from then on in. Stopping the next 25 shots he faced on route to a 6-2 victory at home against the Pittsburgh Penguins.The Maple Leafs entered the game as one of the NHL’s worst teams on home ice and were returning from a miserable road trip. On top of that, Pittsburgh scored two goals on its first three shots and had the home fans booing goalie Vesa Toskala.

Jason Blake, and Nik Antropov both continued their respective scoring paces, with Blake scoring 2 and Antropov netting a goal and dding 2 helpers. Stajan, Mitchell, and Ponikarovski also scoredfor the Leafs.



After being down 2-0 going into the second frame, despite out playing and out shooting the Penguins, it looked like we were going to see much of the same from a Leafs squad that we have come to expect to lose.

The winner was Blake’s 21st of the season and will be shown on a few highlight reels. He spun and brought the puck from his backhand to his forehand before sliding it behind Marc-Andre Fleury.

“I thought we did a great job in the second period,” Blake said. “We got pucks deep, we had our skating legs, we forechecked well, we had a lot of shots on net. Overall, I thought it was a great team effort and Vesa played great.

On this night however, the Buds never once let up, Toskala made some key save at key time, Dominic Moore was easily one of the best players on the ice for both teams and all 4 lines were defending well and keeping the Penquins hemmed in in their own zone for much of the contest.

Tampa makes Leafs Pay for Penalties

Well, I haven't been able to say this too often lately, but Jason Blake was held pointless tonight! What is that, the second game in the last 30 or something? Although he did have a hell of a chance on breakaway and just couldn't convert.

Martin St Louis however didn't seem to have any trouble with the puck tonight with a goal and 3 helpers as Tampa beat Toronto 6-4 tonight to hand the Buds their second consecutive loss.




The good news is Joseph only allowed 2 goals on 19 shots, the bad is, Toskala allowed 4 goals on only 12 shots. If the Leafs are hoping to deal him before the deadline they won't have many takers if he continues to perform like that. Like i said befor though, i think that he is just a victim of bad timing with the wrong club.

Hagman scored another highlight reel goal to put the Leafs close but at the end of the day, St Louis, Lecavalier, and rookie goalie McKenna proved to be too much.

The Leafs penalty killing and poor positional play by the whole team was once again their weakness tonight and something that coach Wilson will have to address.

The Maple Leafs next action comes Saturday night at home to the Penguins and as always, you can hear all of the action, right here 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!

McCabe and Panthers burn Leafs in OT

All good things must come to an end. Although, depending on your thinking as to whether the Leafs should play to lose or play to win, this may be just what the Doctor ordered. I only mention this because, I talk to people all the time about how the Leafs are doing, where I think they're going to end up, and what I think they should do ( or not do ). I often find myself repeating the same old tired conversation about how, the Leafs should or shouldn't be playing for a draft pick. I, am of a minority when I state that my position is and always will be, the Leafs should always play to win. If I thought for a second that they were playing to lose, I'd never watch them again. To those who would disagree with me, I say this. Shut up, you're an idiot!

Now, on to the business at hand. The Buds did in fact play tonight and lost 4-3 to the Panthers, thanks to a Bryan McCabe overtime goal at 3:30 of overtime. Toronto seemed to have the game well in hand, leading 3-1 after two periods but couldn't hold the lead.


Stephan Weiss scored early in the third to make it close, and then Stillman scored at 19:07 on the powerplay to send the game to overtime.

Hagman opened the scoring with a highlight reel goal, Antropov scored for the third straight game and I don't think you'll see Luke Schenn try that fancy little spin-o-rama move at the blue line again any time soon, judging by the look on coach Wilsons' face as he left the bench.

The Leafs won't have time to sit around thinking about it though as they shuffle off to Buffalo for a Wednesday night tilt with the Sabres. 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!

Hits of the week! Courtesy of NHL.com

Bruins nip Buds 4-3 in shoot out

Well, going into the third period things were looking pretty good for the Leafs. Boston hadn't won a game all year when trailing going int o the final period. However, when you take four consecutive penalties to open a period that you should be able to pretty much walk through, you're just flirting with disaster. Especially when you do it against one of this years best teams in the Boston Bruins. Who by the way are now tied with San Jose for the best record in the NHL, at the halfway point of the season.

The Leafs seemed to have the game well in hand until that point, with goals from Jason Blake, Lee Stempniak, and Brad May who scored his first as a Leaf. Stepniak and Blake each had an assist and a shootout goal to round out three point nights for each of them. This 4-3 shootout loss make 3 in row for the Buds who have now dropped 8 of their last 10.



The Leafs acquired forward Ryan Hamilton from the Wild today while forward Robbie Earl went the other way. While it appears by the numbers that Toronto came out on top, one wonders if this was simply a move for the sake of making one.

The Leafs next see action against that same Wild team next Tuesday the 27th, and as always you can hear the game live, right here on Bench Brawl!

Maurice evens up with 2-0 win over Leafs

Cam Ward made 35 saves and the Carolina Hurricanes snapped a five-game losing streak with a 2-0 victory over the Maple Leafs on Monday night, giving coach Paul Maurice a victory in his return to Toronto.

Joe Corvo and Chad LaRose scored to back Ward’s second shutout of the season for Carolina.

The Maple Leafs were blanked for the second consecutive home game.

Maurice spent the past two seasons coaching the Maple Leafs and acknowledged recently that games against his former team mean a little more.

Toronto won 6-4 at Carolina on Thursday, but the Hurricanes returned the favor in the rematch by winning 2-0, earning key points as they look to get back in the Eastern Conference playoff picture.

Corvo broke a scoreless tie just more than a minute after Tomas Kaberle was penalized for clearing the puck over the glass from his own end. The Hurricanes defenseman one-timed a shot past a screened Vesa Toskala at 16:26 of the second period.


LaRose scored with just 4.9 seconds left in the period. Maple Leafs forward Alexei Ponikarovsky had a great chance to clear the puck from his team’s end, but put it on the stick of Matt Cullen instead. Cullen quickly found LaRose all alone in front and it was 2-0 after 40 minutes.

Toronto came out with more desperation in the third period but Ward was equal to the challenge—getting his pad on Niklas Hagman’s shot from in close before turning away Ian White’s slap shot a few moments later. Ward later stopped Ponikarovsky’s chance from the top of the crease to preserve the shutout.

The Maple Leafs have had no trouble scoring away from home of late, but it’s been 127 minutes, 51 seconds since they’ve found the back of the net at Air Canada Centre.

That was only part of the bad news for the team Monday.

Toronto coach Ron Wilson said after the morning skate that he expected to have defenseman Mike Van Ryn back in the lineup for the first time since Dec. 18. However, Van Ryn failed to pass a test to clear the way for his return from a concussion and remained sidelined.

Toronto has just three wins in its last 13 games and heard a few boos from the home crowd once again. The team faces Boston at home on Wednesday before getting a couple of days off during this weekend’s All-Star break.

Leafs Beat Canes 6-2

Well, the Cardiac Kids strike again. In what appeared to have the makings of a blowout with the Leafs leading 4-1 going into the third. Carolina scored three un-answered goals in the third to tie it up. Thanks to a couple of of timely saves and the "Jason Blake show", the Buds managed to hold on and win by a final of 6-4


With 11 seconds to go, Jason Blake cemented his bit for a hat-trick with an empty netter. White, Hagman and Kaberle also had goals, that while timely, where eclipsed by the five point night of Blake who also got the first star of the game. “We got lazy and we took some penalties,” Blake said. “They’ve got a lot of offensive skill over there and they took advantage of it. We just obviously wanted … to put the foot on the pedal and keep doing what we were doing.”



I don’t know if there is any bittersweetness for us,” coach Ron Wilson said, “but yeah, we found a way to win. We never should have put ourselves in that position, but we did.”

As a bit of a side note, it was Coach Paul Maurices first game behind the bench against his former team. When asked what he told his team between the second and third period that led to the comeback, Maurice responded, “Nothing that you can print.”


The Leafs are in Atlanta tonight and as always, you can hear the game live, right hear on Bench Brawl