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.