Leafs fall 4-3 in OT to the Stars

After enjoying their first victory of the season against Anaheim the other night, the table was set for the star of something against Dallas, but the Stars had other ideas and the Buds would have to settle for 1 point in a 4-3 overtime loss.

The Leafs were 2nd in the NHL on the Power play coming into tonight's action, thanks mostly to a five PPG outburst against the Ducks on Monday.

Dallas would not be as obliging in regard to taking penalties, in fact, they only took 2 the whole game. For their part, the Leafs did score a power play goal on one of only 2 chances and only took 3 penalties themselves. Unfortunately, their penalty kill is as bad, as their power play is good and they allowed Dallas to score on one of their chances as well.

Nikolai Kulemin beat Dallas Goaltender Marty Turco twice for his 1st and 2nd goals of the season and showed a little grit tonight that we haven't seen yet this year. His second of the game gave the Leafs the lead more than halfway through the third but they couldn't hold on and the Stars tied it up with a little over 2 minutes left to go in regulation.


"With 5 minutes left in [regulation] and up a goal, you have to find ways to close those games out," Blake said. "It's a tough one to take, giving up a late goal, but you learn from that and move forward."

Lee Stepniak also scored tonight, and is on a mini 2 game goal streak.

My favorite Leaf Jason Blake also chipped in with 3 assist tonight to bring his point total to 6 on the season. ( I don't know why he's my favorite, he just is!)

Jonas " The Monster " Gustavsoon stopped 32 of 36 shots tonight, and was obviously upset when Dallas scored in OT to win the game. Almost halfway through the O T, with Dallas buzzing in the Leafs one, Kulemin was late in covering his man and Neal was able to put the backhand past Gustavsson for the win.

Look for the Leafs to hit the win column again on Friday as they face the Buffalo
Sabres. As always, you can hear the action live right here on Bench Brawl!

Until next time, you kids play safe!

Leafs Officially Own Record with 3-1 loss to Canucks!

These ' New Look Leafs ' now officially own the record for losses to start the season, while it is a dubious record to have, the Leafs shouldn't be worried about it, after all, the still need to lose another four games to clinch the all time NHL title!

If you watched the game last night, then you're as sure as I am, that the Boys in Blue are well on their way. That was easily the best all around game they've played all year, and save for a bunch of penalty trouble in the first period, the Leafs for the most part played an extremely solid game and took the game to the Canucks for most of the night!


The Canucks first goal of their 3-1 win, was scored off the stick of Leafs d-man Komiserik. Joey MacDonald was very good in net aside from the second Vancouver goal that he simply was too far back in the net to see properly, and Luongo, despite taking a knee to the head from Toronto's Jason Blake, was incredibly lucky all night.

While there were several bright spots for the Leafs, there are still a couple of things that they need to work on.

While they obviously need to stay out of the box, they were 5 for 7 on the penalty kill. Luke Schenn needs to spend some time in the press box to re-evaluate himself. After a pretty good year last year, he has been more of a liability to the team in the early going so far this year.

Lee Stepniak looked very good last night, although, his stick couldn't seem to find the net.

Ian White set a career high in shots and even with a bad give away in the second, played his best game so far this year.

Viktor Stalberg, is still having trouble adjusting to life on the big club, he has only one point in six games as a Leaf, and is a -4, with just 15 shots over all.

Alex Edler put his hand over the puck in the blue ice and there was no call, and there where a couple of other obvious no calls in my opinion that could of made the difference, but alas, the Leafs fall to 0-7-1 on the season and will look to Anaheim Monday night for their first win of the season.

As Always, you can hear all the action live, right here on Bench Brawl!

Until next time, you kids play safe!

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!

Keeping you in the loop!

Here is a quick preview of tomorrow nights game.

The Toronto Maple Leafs announced Thursday morning that goaltender Joey MacDonald has joined the team on an Emergency Recall from the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League. Jonas Gustavsson was placed on Injured Reserve and is expected to miss at least one week with a groin injury.

Vesa Toskala will get his third start of the season. He remained relaxed in the midst of a hail storm of criticism over the start that the team has had so far.

“We got one point in the first game and lost the next two,” said the unflappable goalie Vesa Toskala. “For me, it’s only been two games. We just need to win the next one.”

Well said!

Ron Wilson said that one of the big issue's early in the pre season is the length of their shift.


" It's impossible to go full out for 55 secs to a minute, it's hard enough to just skate around in a circle for 25 to thirty. When you're out there for longer shifts, you tend to try to conserve energy and not go full out."

Stalberg left Tuesday's game with the Senators after being hit by Anton Volchenkov in the first period. And will likely be kept out of Saturdays line up as a precaution, although, don't quote me on that, it seems as though so far this year I can't be sure who's on the ice until the puck drops!

Phil Kessel, who is still out until around mid November, can't wait to get on the ice to help his new team, and John Mitchell, who in my opinion was the best Leaf in the pre-season but is struggling so far in the first three games of the regular season, remains up-beat.

“We want to give people something to write,” said Mitchell. “We want people to read about us winning two or three games in a row or having a chance for a shutout go off someone’s skate and everyone talks about that. We want to come to practice feeling good.”

The Leafs play the Stanley Cup champion Penguins on Saturday at Air Canada Centre, who are so far 3-1 this season, but have given up as many as they've score.

“They will be a very good test, no question” said Mitchell. “We have to work hard and we have to work smart.”

My son ( six years old ) is a Penguins fan, it will break his poor little heart when my beloved Leafs get their first win of the season against his team, he'll get over it!

Don't forget to check out my live blog tomorrow night, I go live at 7pm est, stop by and say hi!

Until next time, you kids play safe!

Relax Kids, it's just One Game!

Holy cow, the boo birds are out, ' Tank Nation ' is rearing it's ugly head and the rest of the Leaf's fans are calling for Toskala's head and for the rest of the team to be sent down to the Marlies! And don't even get me started about the media!

Ok, so the Leafs lost the first game of the season 4-3 in overtime to a Montreal Canadian team who, for all intents and purposes, could really go either way this year, greatly depending on the play of their obviously bi-polar goaltender, Carey Price.


First, let's deal with Toskala. If you've been reading me for awhile, you know by know that I neither like, nor dis-like the man. I refuse to throw him under a bus because he let in one bad goal. Un-timely though it may have been, it was one bad goal. For the most part, what I've seen of him since the beginning of this camp to now, the first game of the year. He has looked better than he did last year. His lateral movement is better and faster, he challenges shooters more rather than standing on his goal line and hoping the puck hits him somewhere. As un timely as the bad goal was, it wasn't the end of the world.



I am not however a big fan of Rickard Wallin as of yet. He did nothing in the pre-season of note, and he was little more than a ghost tonight. I know I'm sort of beating a dead horse here, and I understand, and agree with the wisdom in sending Kadri back down, but if it was a choice between the two? Wallin is still, at 29 years of age, a relatively un-proven player in the NHL. Looking at his numbers though, he does have some up-side. But, alas, after ten years as a pro, he has yet to reach the 20 games played in the NHL plateau. Curious.

Anyway, enough of all that, there were some positives to take away from tonight's game. They out shot the Habs by a 46-27 margin, and were six for eight on the penalty kill. The flip side of those two positive though, is Price stood on his head, and the Leafs have got to be better on the PK, if they are going to continue to exert themselves on their opponents. It's ok to take eight penalties a night if you can kill at least seven of them.

``I think we were the better team tonight, and fell short,'' said Komisarek. ``We didn't get two points. Next time, we find a way to win and get the two points.

``Good start, could have been better, but we'll take the point and take the positive out of it.''

The Leafs are looking good, and I can't wait to see them in action Saturday night in Washington, as always, you can hear all of the action, live, right here on Bench Brawl!

Until next time, you kids play safe!

The "Monster" Shines Again!

Oh, I can just hear all the hockey experts this morning....." Toskala finished as #1 Goalie in Toronto", "Gustavsson gets standing Ovation", "Plan the parade route...."

Blah Blah Blah.


While Gustavsson did look goo in his second appearance, and did make a great save on a 2 on 0, he has only played sixty minutes of pre-season hockey, and faced a total of 22 shots.

I was watching some sports shows this morning just to try to gauge peoples reactions and the media is just nuts. People were pulling numbers out of thin air. My personal favorite though had to be from Rogers Sportsnet where they show a pic of Gustavsson and beside his pic, they had his stats. Now, it wasn't presented like it was his all time stats, it was literally presented as though he was the greatest goal tender of ALL TIME. Aaaaaand had a goals against average of ZERO, and .1000 save percentage!

Geeez people!

Don't get me wrong, I'm as excited as the next guy to have potentially the greatest goalie in NHL history playing for the Leafs, but please, let's not canonize him quite yet, ok?

Ok, there was a game somewhere right? That's right, The Leafs did in fact play their eighth game of the pre-season last night, and the ' Monster ' did in fact help them on there way to a 2-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings to improve their record to 6-2 in the pre season!


``It was awesome,'' said Gustavsson, the game's first star. ``It was so fun to play today.''




Viktor Stalberg hit the scoresheet again and potted his team leading 5th goal of the pre-season.

``I think I've shown over the last couple weeks here that I'm ready to play,'' said Stalberg. ``Hopefully, I get a chance here coming Thursday.''

There was a scary moment in the second period for Ponikarovsy. As he was skating up ice, he took a high stick from Detroit's Jason Williams. The gash left a pool of blood on the ice and required several stitches, but did not keep him from returning to play in the third period.

The Leafs final pre season game go's tonight against the Buffalo Sabre's, and as always, you can hear all the action live, right here on BenchBrawl!

Until next time, you kids play safe!

Going, going, gone!

Well, happy Easter, or, for those of you who do not par-take in the holiday, happy Sunday!

Our beloved Toronto Maple Leafs are hitting the links early for the fourth consecutive year, but go out on a high note beating the daylights out of the Senators
5-2.

Martin Gerber also made his first start against his former club. Turning in a 37 save performance snuffing out Danny Heatleys bid for a fourth consecutive 40+ goal season.

“It was probably more exciting than everybody thought it was going to be,” Gerber said. “It was well fought to the end. We’re happy to come out on the good end.”

Boyd Devereaux and Niklaus Hagman provided the only scoring that the Leafs needed. Devereaux, scoring his second career hat trick and Hagman scoring twice for his 21st and 22nd of an injury shortened season.

“It was probably more exciting than everybody thought it was going to be,” Gerber said. “It was well fought to the end. We’re happy to come out on the good end.”

The 30-year-old Devereaux was the Leafs’ final cut out of training camp and he spent the first couple of months in the AHL. He was eventually called up in February and he managed to stay with Toronto the rest of the way. Devereaux can become an unrestricted free agent in July.



The Leafs next action comes, sometime in October, and as always you can hear all of the action, live, right here on Bench Brawl!!!

I would like to take a quick minute to say thank you to all of you who helped to make this a successful first season for us here at Bench Brawl. We've learned a lot, had a couple of technical difficulties, and a few spelling mistakes, but it's been a lot of fun!

Look for bigger and better things next season!, and don't forget to check back each Monday night for some news n' note from the Leafs and the rest of the league!

Cujo ties Worsely for most Losses!

Yes Curtis Joseph is now tied with the great Gump Worsely ! They share the record for most career losses. It did not seem to bother him though.

“There’s too many good things in my life for me to even think about losses,” said Joseph, fourth on the career victory list with 454.

The Leafs lost to the Buffalo Sabres 3-1 on the strength of 32 saves by Ryan Miller and a third period rally by Buffalo. Christian Hanson got his second point in as many nights and Jason Blake got an assist to add to his club leading 62nd point.



The Leafs final game of the season comes Saturday night against Ottawa and as always, you can hear all of the action live right here on Bench Brawl!

Cujo Gets yet another Record

Hanson gets first NHL Goal as Leafs dump Devils

First of all, would all you media meat heads drop the whole ' son of a Hanson Brother '
crap already!

Cristian Hanson did indeed score his first NHL goal tonight in a 4-1 win over Martin Brodeur and the New Jersey Devils.

“We stuck to our system,” Hanson said. “We knew we had to play a certain way against New Jersey and we stuck to it and Martin Gerber was the difference maker. He stood on his head. He was phenomenal.”

Hanson got it against his favorite player, Martin Brodeur, and the Toronto Maple Leafs rookie didn’t seem to care it didn’t come on a slap shot.

“To be honest I would have taken it any way it would have gone in. Off my head, off my butt, off my skate, and luckily it went off my stick,” said Hanson, whose backhander capped a three-goal first period that led Toronto to a 4-1 win over the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night.

Martin Gerber also shone for the Leafs making 47 stops for his fifth win as a Leaf.

“We did a much better job of pushing them away from the net,” Gerber said. “It gives you a split second more time and you have a better chance to read the game. That’s a big difference from the last two games.”

Hamilton, Mitchell and Grabovski also scored for Toronto. For Grabovski, it was his 20th of the season.



The Leafs next action comes tomorrow night against the Sabres. As always, you can hear all of the action live right here on Bench Brawl!

Kovalev Shines in 6-2 Beating of Toronto

Yes Patrick, I know, I owe you 5 bucks!

On a night that I fully expected the Leafs to come out in a foul mood after being beaten handily the night before, they, well, didn't. Right now, kids like Christian Hanson are probably sitting on the bench thinking to themselves, ' what the hell did I do?'

I suppose that it could be a little difficult to 'get it up' for the remainder of the season when you know it's essentially pointless, but still.

The Leafs second loss in a row came at the hands of the suddenly good looking and tactical, Montreal Canadiens. Les Canadiens opened up a 4-0 lead before the Leafs finally responded early in the the third to make things still not even close.

“We’re trying to grab as many points as we can and move up the standings,” forward Chris Higgins. “The confidence in the room is back—that’s pretty obvious to tell. I think we’ve got four games left here and if we continue to play the way we’ve been playing the last couple games, then we’ll have the right mind-set for the playoffs.”

Montreal scored twice more and Boyd Devereaux added a short handed marker for the Leafs, in the end, the Leafs lost 6-2.



Defenseman Mathieu Schneider left the game with an upper-body injury in the first period, and leading scorer Andrei Markov was knocked out by Mikhail Grabovski’s hit with 7 minutes to play. I love that!

The Leafs next action comes Tuesday night when they visit the Devils in New Jersey. As always you can hear all of the action live, right here, on Bench Brawl!

Hanson held pointless in NHL Debut

Ok, I'll get to the game in a minute but I wanted to share this amazing video with all of you. I don't know if you know what " Base Jumping " is. It is basically jumping off of cliffs with either a parachute or a wing suit and flying around. This is a bunch of guys in Norway, learning some things about it. I have no plans to try this, but it is sure as heck fun to watch!


wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.


Ok, the Flyers embarrassed the Leafs tonight, handing them an 8-5 loss.

Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson, who will also coach the U.S Olympic team, had some harsh word for his squad.

“We had some guys who basically mailed it in tonight and didn’t want to compete,” Leafs coach Ron Wilson said. “We knew that they would come hard.”

Jeff Carter scored his first career hat-trick and added an assist for a four point night. Mikhail Grabovski continued his late season tare with 19th goal of the season to go along with 27 assists.

New comer Christian Hanson played a little over seventeen and a half minutes and had 1 shot on goal although he just missed a glorious opportunity for his first NHL goal when he failed to get his stick down on a pass from Jason Blake in the second.
His father sat in the stands and drew loud applause when he was introduced in the third period.



The Leafs next action comes Saturday at home against the Canadiens, and as always, tyou can hear all of the action live right here on Bench Brawl!

Leafs dominate in win over Philly

The Maple Leafs have been officially eliminated from the playoffs again, but don't tell them that. They sat that hind site is 20/20, but one can't help but wonder what could have been if some key injuries hadn't taken their toll on our team this year.

Both Jason Blake and Mikeal Grabovski where held pointless tonight, which was un-usual. Jamal Mayers,Lee Stempniak and Ian White, scored for the Leafs.

“We wanted to play as if it was a playoff game and for the most part we did,” Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson said.

Curtis Joseph made 32 saves to record his fifth win of the season. “I felt I wasn’t razor sharp but, fortunately, we battled away, I got good defensive play in front of me, and it worked out,” Joseph said.
With only five games left, and a possible 10 points left to be had, it likely would have only taken an additional six or seven wins to earn a spot in the post season.

Tonight's 3-2 win over the Flyers put the Leafs at .500 and made the chance of garnering a top five pick in the draft all but an impossibility.

I know a lot of fans are crying in their hockey gloves, but don't lose hope. The NHL entry draft is not the only pool of talent from which the team can build their future. There are in fact several very good, and I do mean Very good, college players to be looked at. I will be publishing an article at the end of the season, laying out several different options. It will include a look at several different players, from different places and leagues, so keep your eyes open!



The Leafs next action comes Friday night as they face this very same Flyer team, and as always, you can hear all of the action live, right here on Bench Brawl!

Sabres beat Leafs 5-3

Curtis Joseph followed up his incredible performance on Tuesday with an average one last night. Allowing four goals on just nine shots.

Ryan Miller made his return to the line up after being out with a high ankle sprain and stopped 33 shots to help the Sabres to a 5-3 win over the Leafs

The Leafs penalty kill was a perfect 2 for two, but they on converted once out of five.

Their come back was stopped when while down 4-3, Ian White banked a clearing attempt off of Paul Gaustad of the Sabres and past Justin Pogge, who was otherwise perfect in relief of Cujo.



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

Leafs Win!! Again!!!

Even though Ovechkin scored his 12th goal in 11 career games against the Leafs, they managed to beat the Caps for the second consecutive time tonight, this one by way of a 3-2 shoot out win. Which is an aspect of the Leafs game that has improved tremendously under new coach Ron Wilson.

Martin Gerber, who has been a welcome addition to the team showed a bit of a temper tonight, going after referee Mike Leggo for what he saw as a non-call. Brooks Liach scored the tying goal for Washington by pushing Gerber with the puck under him, across the goal line.

He may have had a point. He was however ejected from the game, receiving a 10 min unsportsmanlike, and a game misconduct with only 56 seconds left to be played.

Cujo came on in relief to stop all 9 shots he faced in overtime, then kept the door closed in the shoot-out, while Jeff Hamilton for the Leafs was the only scorer on either side.



Cujo was astounding tonight coming on in relief, he will likely get the start Friday when the Buds shuffle off to Buffalo put a dagger in the hearts of all those Sabres fans. As always, you can hear all of the action live right here on, Bench Brawl!

Leafs hand Habs un-timely loss!

I love the Leafs, mostly because the beat Montreal, over and over again! They have beaten them 3 out of five times so far this season, this time by a score of 5-2

The line of Mikeal Grabovski, Alexi Ponikarovsky, and Nikolia Kulemin combined for 11 points last night while Jason Blake scored his 25th of the season, and leads the team in both goals and points.

Toronto is 11th in the Eastern Conference with 73 points, eight behind eighth-place Montreal, and is likely to miss the playoffs for a fourth straight season.

The Canadiens, who remain one point ahead of ninth-place Florida, are 1-3-2 since Gainey stepped behind the bench after firing Guy Carbonneau on March 9.

Toronto is 11th in the Eastern Conference with 73 points, eight behind eighth-place Montreal, and is likely to miss the playoffs for a fourth straight season.

The Canadiens, who remain one point ahead of ninth-place Florida, are 1-3-2 since Gainey stepped behind the bench after firing Guy Carbonneau on March 9.



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

Leafs Lose 4-3 to Panthers!

Despite firing 38 shot's at Florida net minder Tomas Vokoun, the Leafs came away with a 3-1 loss last night, “They’ve been struggling of late, having lost four,” Toronto right wing Jamal Mayers said. “We knew that. We couldn’t quite get that second goal to hopefully make them tighten up a little bit. But you’ve got to give their goalie credit, he played well.”

The story of Martin Gerber coming to Toronto varies, depending on who you ask but so far, I think he has played fairly well. ( Ugh!, I can't believe I might be warming up to this guy!) He allowed 3 goals on 42 shot's last night and is a respectable .500 since taking over for Toskala after the trade deadline.

“We had chances and we had good puck possession,” Gerber said. “In the second period, we just lost the momentum and they were on top of us for a while. We had a tough time getting out of our zone. In the third, we tried everything we could. We had some chances, but we couldn’t put it in.”



The Leafs next action comes Saturday against Montreal, and my buddy Patrick is going to owe me another 5 bucks! As always, you can hear all the action live, right here on Bench Brawl!

Leafs Beat Lightning in Shoot Out!

With only 11 games left in this season that has been full of contradiction for the Leafs, it was great to see them beat Tampa and avoid the season sweep. Especially given that it would have come at the hands of a team who for the most part are at least as good at under achieving as the Ottawa Senators!

The final tonight was a 4-3 shoot out win that saw the Buds gain another 2 points and entrench them firmly in no mans land in regard to the up coming draft. Currently in 11th place in the Eastern Conference, only 8 points out, the could make things very exciting down the stretch!

The Leafs failed to convert on 3 consecutive power play chances in the first period only to allow LeCavalier and the Lightning a power play goal to take the lead in the first.

Stamkos and Pettinger both scored in the second to put Tampa up 3-0 in the second before John Mitchell scored at 19:36 of the second to put the Leafs on the board

Blake and new comer Jeff Hamilton score in the third to tie things up, with Hamiltons goal coming with just five and half left to play in regulation.

Overtime solved nothing and the shootout went six rounds before John Michell snuck a shot low shot past the right skate of rookie net minder Karri Ramo.



The Leafs next action comes Thursday night as they travel to Florida to face the Panthers,. As always, you can hear all of the action live, right here on Bench brawl!

Tampa 'shocks' T O with 4-1 win

The leagues second worst team managed to pull off a win over the Leafs tonight. Yep, The Tampa Bay Lightning, second only to the New York Islanders in the league basement managed a 4-1 win over Gerber and the Leafs.

Tampa managed 30 shots while Toronto somehow only managed 21. Not a total that will instill fear in the minds of a lot of teams.

Jason Blake, ( man I love this guy ) is still just trippin' along, picking up another assist tonight to bring his point total this season to 52. If he stays healthy and has a couple of good games, with 13 left in the season, he could eclipse his career high in points of 69. He has already tied last years total.

But enough about him, here are you highlights.



The Leafs next game is Saturday night at home to Calgary............

Leafs beat Isles 3-2

Actually, the head line should read " I'm an Idiot because I didn't realize there was a game on Monday against the Senators that I missed "............ But, I couldn't fit it all into the little space I have for my headline.

So, on Monday, the Leafs lost to Ottawa by a final of 2-1. After Alfredson tied it in the second period, which by the way was the 2,500 th goal that Cujo has surrendered in his career, Heatley scored the eventual game winner on a deflection.

When asked about the milestone that he shares with 5 other goalies in NHL history, Cujo replied “Good one. Good one,” Joseph said. “Believe me, it’s not baseball, we don’t keep stats like that. I mean, it just means I played a lot.”



Ian White scored in the first period for Toronto, which lost in regulation for the second straight game after earning at least a point in its eight previous games (6-0-2).

“We got off to a quick start and had somewhat control of the game and they came out in the second and took it to us,” White said. “We didn’t respond the way we needed to.”



The Leafs Beat the Isles 3-2 tonight to again put Leaf Nation in a tizzie! (no, I'm not sure if that is actually a word)!

And what do ya know Grabovski scored a goal!!!! Wow, I had all but forgotten about him. I'm just kidding. He has been playing pretty well, for the most part including some impressive improvement in the defensive department.

His first goal in 18 games couldn't have come at a better time. It proved to be the overtime winner, the first overtime goal of his career, “The coach had faith in me and gave me a chance to play in overtime,” Grabovski said. “It’s my first career goal in overtime, so I’m pretty happy.

Gerber made 28 save for his second win in a Leafs uniform and his first in front of the home crowd.



On a bit of a sad note, one of my favorite all time Leafs, Gary Roberts announced his retirement today. Here is an excerpt from a piece by Pierre LeBrun of ESPN.ca

"I think back to the Toronto days and how good a team we had, it is a disappointment for me that we had that group of people and we didn't win," admitted Roberts. "Sure, we had some injury issues like everybody does in playoffs. Mats [Sundin] was out for part of that '02 run. We played a team like Carolina that was so disciplined and basically we beat ourselves in that series, I felt.

"But definitely, a disappointing part is that we never won. We were very competitive. I think we were a 100-point team every year that I was here in Toronto, so to have won a Stanley Cup obviously would have been the ultimate. We didn't do that. But I have fond memories of the teammates that I played with here [in Toronto] and the organization. It was a sad day for me when I left Toronto." ....more


The Leafs next action comes Thursday at the Hanger against Tampa Bay. As always, you can hear all of the action live, right here on Bench Brawl!