Thursday, February 12, 2009

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!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

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!