Hagman and "The Monster" Feast on Duck!!

It brings me great pleasure to report that our Toronto Maple Leafs have won their first regulation game of the season!!


In a game that saw the return of Jonas " The Monster " Gustavsson, and Niklas Hagman score his second career hat trick, you would of thought that the Leafs would have played better hockey en route to a 6-3 win over the Anaheim Ducks!

Just kidding. Fundamentally their game was sound and they for a change were able to capitalize on the opportunities that were presented to them.

The Ducks would take 17 penalties in total on the night and were out shot 39-28 when all was said and done.

The Leafs on the other hand for the most part were poised, and disciplined for most of the night. Oddly enough, although they didn't seem to have the same intensity and speed that they showed in their previous two games against the Canucks and the Rangers, they still managed to out-play the Ducks for the better part of the night.

Gustavsson stopped 25 of the 28 shots in his return and although he looked very good on a few saves and was obviously comfortable, he was caught looking around a couple of times and his lateral movement was a little slow. All in all, a solid performance.

Niklas Hagman reminded Leafs fans tonight why he's here. He's here to score. Hagman is a proven scorer, who may never reach the 40 or 50 goal mark, but I'll take four 25 goal scorers over one fifty goal scorer any day! Tonight's Hat trick was the second of his career, Kaberle had a goal and four assists, while Stempniak contributed a goal and three assists.


Jason Blake and Alex Ponikarovski were held goal less, although Blake did get an assist. Mikeal Grabovski also scored for the Leafs, his second of the year.

Matt Stajan, who has shown great improvement over the course of the last couple of games had three assists as well, while John Michell chipped in with one.

The Leafs play their third of a five game road trip Wednesday in Dallas, and as always, you can hear all the action, live right here on Bench Brawl!

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!

Oilers hand Leafs first Regulation Loss..........

The Edmonton Oilers handed the Leafs their first regulation loss in 9 games last night. Several Ontario born players were excited about playing close to home, save for perhaps Dwayne Roloson who was a career 0-6 when facing the boys in blue.

The Leafs suffered their first regulation loss with this 4-1 defeat, spoiling Martin Gerbers home debut in a Leafs jersey.

"The puck is going to go through you sometimes," said Gerber. "That's just the way it is when you're a goaltender."

Roloson was easily the busiest of the two goalies facing 40 shots in total, compared to the 17 that the Oilers mustered.

“He’s really on top of his game,” Oilers defenseman Steve Staios said.



Toronto sees their next action Monday at Ottawa. As always, you can hear the action live, right here on Bench Brawl!

Gerber Shines in Leaf Debut!

While I am not going to recant what I said about Gerber when the Buds acquired him, he looked pretty solid out there. Perhaps a little stiff, but the Capitals gave him plenty of exercise firing 38 shots his way in a low scoring 2-1 Maple Leaf Victory.

If the Leafs could have held on another 39 seconds, Gerber would have become just the second Goalie in Leaf history to record a shut-out in their Toronto Debut. The other being Eddie Belfour.



The Leafs next action come Saturday at home to Edmonton. As always, you can hear the game, live right here on Bench Brawl!

Trade Deadline '09

Well, a couple of familiar faces will not be dressing up for the Blue & White any more.

Nik Antropovov, a 9 year veteran with the team was traded to the New York Rangers today. A deal that saw coming back, a second round pick and a conditional pick.

Antropov, a 28-year-old native of Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan, played in 63 games for the Maple Leafs this season registering 21 goals, 25 assists for 46 points with 24 penalty minutes. In 509 career games with the Maple Leafs over nine seasons (1999 to 2009), the 6-6, 230-pound right-winger posted 125 goals, 166 points for 291 points with 477 penalty minutes.


Although I hate to see Nik go, he was a chronic under achiever in my estimation. Even though he managed to put up respectable numbers most of the time, you always had the sense that he should be doing more. Consistency, of lack there of, and injuries where a constant concern. I hope he does very well in New York, although Broadway is usually where careers go to die.


Next up we have Dominic Moore. This guy just pisses me off! I love this kid. Burke couldn't get him signed, so he was traded to Buffalo for a second round pick. Moore was looking for 2.5 a season, Burke was offering 1.5. Burkes final offer was rejected today, it was in the neighborhood of 3 years for 5.7 mil. A pretty goo deal for an exciting young player, that has yet to prove himself.

Moore thinks that he can get that money somewhere else. He might, I doubt it, but he might. Moore knows however, that he may be at his peak now, and the window for making the most money he can may not last long. In that regard, I can see his point. But, there is a stark realization surrounding how Gm's are doing business theses days. They, simply cannot spend money, that they may not have.

Whether, it's Burke in Toronto, Gainey in Montreal or Require in Buffalo, every Gm in the league is working with what is projected to be a 10 million dollar cut in the salary cap over the next 2 years. Dominic Moore has chosen to take his chances. I hope that he, like Antropov does well.

The Leafs also made some other minor moves today in light of the announcement that Vesa Toskala will undergo season ending surgery next week, claiming Martin Gerber off re-entry waivers from Ottawa. For around four hundred thousand for the remainder of the season, they could have just alternated between Cujo and an empty net and saved about 390 of it.

The Leafs also claimed defence man Erik Reitz off waivers from the Rangers. With 48 career NHL games under his belt, he is a career -7, with 2 points and 69 penalty minutes. He is 6'1", 222lbs, and still has some upside as he is still approaching his prime as a defence man.

The Leafs also obtained goaltender Olaf Kolzig, defencemen Jamie Heward, Andy Rogers and a fourth round draft pick in 2009 from the Tampa Bay Lightning for defence man Richard Petiot. In a deal that really amounts to meaning little or nothing to the Leafs. Kolzig is out for the season with an injury.

This will be Hewards second go round in the Leafs organization. He was here from '95 to '97 and did a stint in St John's while he was here. In 394 career games, he has 124 points, 221 penalty minutes and is a career -50.

So, while one of the second round picks acquired today, actually belongs to Carolina, which could be could news as they slide down the standings. The rest of the day in my opinion was a waste of time on Brian Burkes part. He refused to sign a good player, right or wrong, and traded a good player for little more than a back alley crap shoot. Ah, who knows? Maybe he is the hockey genius, or god, or whatever that I keep hearing about, I'm just not seein' it

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!