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!

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!

OH Yeah!!!!

I almost forgot, if you, or anyone you know is interested. I have 2 center ice golds to an upcoming Leafs game against the Nashville Predators on Jan 14th. Click the ' ticket raffle ' link for details.