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!

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!