Stairway to Heaven Plays on the Radio; Maple Leafs Lose

Habs Eyes on the Prize

It was a night that usually turns out so well: Tuesday night, in Florida, against a SE division opponent, the only thing missing was the game being on LeafsTV. Okay, by now you should know I'm kidding, all of those things combined usually spells disaster for the Leafs and a nasty hangover for Leaf fans the next day.

Tuesday night started out as well as any other night does, the Maple Leafs were down 1-0 through 1, and 2-1 through 2. Of course they lost 5-2 and most fans have dreams of Mikhail Grigorenko (would be cool to have two Mikhail's) in their heads. 

Follow me over the jump for highlights, lowlights, the three stars and three stooges.

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March to the Playoffs

February was a tough month for the Maple Leafs, it saw: the Leafs fall into 12th place in the Eastern conference, Torontonians break swearing records and our media-friendly coach Ron Wilson get fired. Ron Wilson was on his way to becoming one of very few coaches to lead a team into four straight years of early golfing and ridicule when Brian Burke decided that the Toronto Maple Leafs would be Wilson free for March and onward.

Well, Thank God That's Over

This is what he does for us too!

The Maple Leafs have completed one of the most dreadful months in recent memory, of course it came on leap year making our agony just that much longer. February started out so promising, our perceived #1 net-minder James Reimer had two straight shutouts to begin the month, followed by a high scoring game against Edmonton. What a way to start February, with three straight wins under our belts nothing could go wrong.

Maple Leafs Trade Deadline

The NHL trade deadline approaches in nearly 12 hours and the Leafs have yet to make a move. This is something that is strange for Brian Burke, he normally likes to get his trading done well before the deadline so he doesn't overpay. Obviously the Leafs are in need of something to bring a spark to this roster.

Maple Leafs 'Special' teams since the NHL lockout: Penalty Kill

Bond villain, Dallas Eakins.

The Maple Leafs have had a troubled past with the Penalty Kill since the lockout. They have been out of the bottom five once since hockey started up again, when they were ranked 24th in 05/06. Since then their average ranking is 29th.

Is Grabovski a Number One Centre?

Mikhail Grabovski is cleaning up. He is now on pace to better his breakout campain from a year ago in assists and points, in five less games to boot. In my humble opinion, the Leafs would be a much less dangerous team without him, to the point of possibly not being this close to making the playoffs for the first time since before the lockout. But is he good enough to lead a team to the promised land? Read on the find out.

NHL Reffing: an Epidemic?

In the Maple Leafs game on Tuesday night in Pittsburgh Tyler Bozak's pretty goal was called back because the referee was under the impression that Joffery Lupul interfered with the goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. Here's the video, you tell me what it looks like.

This isn't the first time these types of plays go uncalled or miscalled. In fact, the very same night there was another (maybe even worse) goaltender interference call in Phoenix. Leafs fans will also remember Colton Orr running over the Florida Panthers goaltender last season, which directly led to the Leafs game winning goal.

So on the heels of yet another terrible, terrible goaltender interference non-call, people are upset and it seems like its all anyone can talk about. Should the NHL impose a coaches challenge similar to the NFL coaches challenge? I believe I have a simpler solution, take the jump to find out what it is.

Leafs week in preview: January 29th - Febuary 4th

Malkin-71.net

After a perfect two game week last week heading into the All-Star game, the Leafs are headed towards a rather grueling week in comparison, playing a back to back and the standard HNIC game. As are most weeks it's crucial for the Leafs to win two of three and get back into the playoff picture. With the three way tie for 7th and the nice little rest the boys got this weekend, I think it's safe to say it would be disappointing if the Leafs weren't at least in 8th by Sunday.

The newest $15 million dollar man: John-Micheal Liles

Bernard Weil, Toronto Star

Today, John-Micheal Liles was handed a 4 year $15.5 million dollar contract (per TSN.ca). This comes just after the news that he is primed to return from a concussion he received December 22nd vs. Buffalo; a scary thought. While Liles has filled in admirably for long time Leaf Tomas Kaberle since his arrival, this comes as somewhat of a surprise.

Many Leaf fans thought that Liles would receive a pat on the butt as a sign of thanks at the end of the season while heading out the door, thus making room for a couple of young defenders that seem primed to take over for him, Jake Gardiner and Cody Franson. It would seem that this move to re-sign the 31 year old makes one of Gardiner and Franson expendable, and for a Leafs defense that has struggled much of the season, this is worrying.

Leafs week in preview: January 22nd - 28th

"Hey Phil, your car as nice as this one?"

Again we say: "forget about last week, the Leafs are in the playoff hunt!" The Leafs are in 9th still, now 2 points behind the Washington Capitals for 8th. All is not lost: the PK is solved and James Reimer will put up god like numbers again, yes, Phil Kessel is slumping (the goalless total is at about 78 hours now) but Lupul is as hot as ever, and he's playing some pretty good hockey too. No Saturday night game this week as Phil Kessel, Joffery Lupul and Don Phaneuf (my new nickname for him) booked it off.

Do the Leafs really, really need a "number one" centre?

Photo cred: Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press

Apparently the Toronto Maple Leafs are in desperate need of a "humongous big number one" centre - per every single person that gets paid a good amount of money to talk about them. I'm going to go ahead a disagree with that. While it is true that the Leafs need to get stronger up front, as they get pushed around like a bunch of Timbits when they play a strong team, i.e the Boston Bruins. Getting bigger and tougher shouldn't be the most pressing need in the organization, it should be preventing goals against.

Leafs Week in preview: Jan 15th - 21st

Hah, yeah, OK. What? you traded me? JUST NOW?

Well,  last weekend sucked. But we move on, in fact we move onto a whole new week of games! A whole new week of games against teams that are supposed to be worse then our Toronto Maple Leafs.

My dad can beat up your dad: John-Micheal Liles vs. Cody Franson edition

Nobody is better then me.

The other day on Twitter I had a little Tweet explosion comparing John-Micheal Liles to Cody Franson, I figured i may as well write up what was said as it wasn't very understandable. I have also since changed my view point slightly. 

On the surface the two Maple Leaf defensemen look like similar players, both considered offensive guys that are not that particularly great at defense, similar to Tomas Kaberle. But one of them has to be better right? Who do you want to put on in the last minute of a one goal lead, if you had to chose one?

How did we come across these two defensemen? John-Micheal Liles was acquired from the Colorado Avalanche for a 2012 2nd round pick, not bad for the most handsome guy in the league. Cody Franson, as you all know, was apart of the historical trade that sent well known pylon Brett Lebda to Nashville.

Now that they are both playing for the Leafs I get to scream at my TV when they do something wrong, and high five my friends when they do something right. But who is the better defenseman? Let's take a look a little deeper into their play, this year and last.

Leafs week in preview: Jan 8th - 14th 2012

So Golf is for terrible hockey players!

The second half is here! Where the Maple Leafs start to play for real! If last year is any indication of what will happen, a young goalie, who we have never given a second thought too, will emerge as an all-star and Phil Kessel will start scoring at a PPG rate (booya!).


This week is make or break for the young leafs (oh, no wait that was last week). In reality the Leafs could lose all three of the games they play this week and still make the playoffs, but that wouldn't be the best thing for them, or our livers. So let's see who we have to beat this week.

Burke Sees into the Future of the NHL: Role of Enforcer Diminishing, But is it for Better or Worse?

Marlies?!?

Brian Burke had the painful task this week of putting team favorite Colton Orr on waivers, which he cleared and then assigning him to the Leafs farm team, the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League (AHL).  This obviously didn't sit well with him, as he went on a tirade in a press conference about his concerns with the direction of the NHL, and the role of the endangered enforcer.  It is widely known that Burke is a supporter of the enforcer role and that NHL players should first police themselves before the league gets involved with a disciplinary role.  So it’s not a surprise when Burke makes the comments he did about “rats” taking over the NHL landscape, therefore making it easy to dismiss his comments because, well, that’s just Burke being Burke.  But Burke makes a compelling argument that with the role of the enforcer being slowly extricated from hockey, players no longer have to worry about retribution for cheap shots.  This not only means more pests, but a general lack of respect for other players.  The “lack of respect” is what many NHL analysts attribute to the rash of high-sticking penalties and illegal hits.  Maybe this lack of respect is what Brendan Shanahan, current NHL disciplinarian, should be focusing on restoring.