January 24, 2003
Toronto 0 at Buffalo 4

Forwards
Tucker – Green – Corson
Domi – Reichel – Hoglund
Antropov – Sundin – Renberg
Healy – McCauley – Fitzgerald

Tucker – Green – Antropov
Fitzgerald – Green – Corson

Antropov – Sundin – Renberg (pp)
Domi – Reichel – Hoglund (pp)
Tucker – Reichel – Hoglund (pp)

McCauley – Healy (pk)
Sundin – Antropov (pk)
Tucker – Green (pk)

Defense
Svehla – Kaberle
McCabe – Lumme
Berg – Belak

Goal
Belfour
Tellqvist

It’s probably a good idea to think of this game and the earlier 4-1 loss to Philly as somewhat in the same boat. They were both anomalies in the Leaf’s overall play so far since the middle of November and both were markers, the Philly loss being the first home loss since November 16, the Buffalo one being the first loss to that suddenly surging team all year. Bankruptcy seems kind to NHL teams. Makes them play way better.

Coming into this tilt, the Sabres were hot, with only one loss in their last nine games, despite a paltry 2.2 goals per game of offense. The key has been Martin Biron, who rode a two game shutout streak clear through this game. And if Buffalo was suffering from a lack of offensive punch, that should have been somewhat taken care of by the reappearance of Maxim Afinigenov and Jochan Hecht, the first from a season long surgery recovery, the second from a 20 game layoff due to a concussion suffered from taking a slap shot to the head.

On the Leaf’s side there have been the goaltending injuries, prompting the whole St. John’s goaltending platoon to dress for the Philly game. Tellqvist got his first big league start and was understandably nervous although the Leafs did play in front of him like it was the Eagle in goal. Jamie Hodson dressed as backup. For this game, Belfour was back in the lineup, although he got pulled late to save him from tomorrow’s match against the Avalanche, and Tellqvist finished the game admirably.

The key to this loss was chaos. There were a number of disorganized plays, and some really shaky discipline from the Leafs resulting in some dumb penalties and gratuitous shorthanded situations. The game was really lost on the Sabres power play in the first period. With the score 1-0 after the Leafs couldn’t clear a sensational save from Belfour, Green went for an undisciplined double minor, and then McCabe went on what was, to be fair, a questionable call. The resulting 5 on 3 was productive, as the Sabres scored with seven seconds left in Green’s penalty and then again with Bryan in the box. Aki Berg added to the chaos with a dumb high sticking penalty and the first period ended in confusion and with score 2-0 for the home team.

It was really all Buffalo after that, and some sloppy defensive play led to some scary moments, but mostly led to tempers flaring. The best example of that was a fight between Domi and Ray which resulted in Ray taking a face full of left hands until they got separated. Later in the period a weird melee had everyone squaring off and McKee, Green and Svehla mixing it up. Once the Leafs get lured into junkyard hockey like that, the game is lost, and the Sabres knew it. They continued to try to draw penalties and the refs obliged with a couple of soft ones.

The third period started with Hecht hitting the post and then Payette getting behind Berg and Belak and tipping in a Satan shot to seal the game at 3-0. After that the Sabres sat on the lead and added one more for the capper.

The Leafs did have their fair share of chances, and while Healy, Renberg, Antropov and McCabe all had chances, Biron wasn’t giving up anything and the likes of Sundin and Domi weren’t able to pounce on crease garbage. The Leafs powerplay was appalling and the PK wasn’t any better.

Antropov looked great in the early going riding a stretch that has seen him gather 12 points in his last 13 games. He had a couple of chances early, and generated a few decent scoring chances for his line. In the third he had a nice play to deke Biron, but the Sabre goalie made it back in time to cover the empty net. If he can keep that up, and Mogilny can get back in, in might charge the boys up for the week ahead which sees them host Colorado tomorrow night and then a departure for a four game road trip to the Southeast USA and Montreal. Roberts might be back in the line up next Saturday which would make for some very interesting possibilities. The prospect of having a fully healthy team, with some solid line combos and some consistent play looks promising.


Posted 11:17 PM by Chris |

January 18, 2003
Toronto 3 at Montreal 2 (ot)

Forwards
Corson - Green - Tucker
Antropov - Sundin - Renberg
Hoglund - Reichel - Domi
Healy - McCauley - Jackman

Antropov - Sundin - Domi (pp)
Antropov - Sundin - Tucker (PP)

Antropov - Sundin (pk)
McCauley - Healy (pk)
Reichl - Hoglund (pk)

Defense
Kaberle - Svehla
Berg - Belak
McCabe - Eriksson

Goal
Kidd
Tellqvist

So many debuts on one night. The Leafs rolled into Montreal to see if they could put more nails in the coffin of the Canadiens who have lost 10 of 12 since Christmas. New coach Cluade Julien was behind the bench for his first game, on national TV, at home. The pressure must have been killing him and it could only have gotten worse as the Leafs took an early lead, going into the dressing room up 2-0 at the end of the first.

Once again, Quinn had Jackman out on the fourth line, and Healy taking Fitzgerald's place on the PK. Anders Eriksson came up to take the place of Jirki Lumme who had the flu, and Renberg was back in the lineup for his second game after almost dying. With Mogilny and Belfour still spasming in the press box, Antropov stayed up on the first line (a relly BIG line these days) and Kidd got the nod for the tail end of the back to back set.

The Leafs dominated the first period, showing lots of jump after getting pinned down a little by the Canadiens early. The defense played beautifully, with Berg in particular being a big presence in front of the Leaf net, clearing both pucks and bodies with efficiency. Belak got into the act too and an especilly spirited set of belts to Randy McKay's spine led to an equally spirited fight, and McKay ate some knuckles but stood his ground during the subsequent pummeling.

With the hate on, the Leafs were able to generate some offense and a couple of goals (including one beauty from Travis "Wayne" Green) in the middle of the period set the Leafs up for lead they would ride into the third.

Things changed though in the second, with a combination of Montreal;s renewed willingness to do right by their new coach, and the Leafs' desire to sit on the lead combingin to produce a nervous period for Leaf fans. Kidd kept them in the game again, but the Leafs were more lucky than anything in staying on top of the game. Only Antropov got some offense, hitting the post shorthanded late in the period. What could have been a fatal blow came late in the period when Perrault stuffed one by Kidd to half the lead with seven seconds left in the period.

Coming out in the third, Kidd continued his heroics and made a stunning stop on Bullis near the five minute mark of the period. In so doing however, he yanked his groin and a couple of minutes later, he took himself out of the game, leading to Mikael Tellqvist's debut as a Toronto Maple Leaf. Sporting a mask afeaturing a portrait of Borje Salming above the cage, the youngster stretched and got ready to play.

It was nail biting time, and the Leafs got a mlot more conservative and even nervous in front of Tellqvist, but it didn't take long for the future starter to give them a little bit of room to work with. He made a great stop in the first ten seconds, squreing up nicely to a slap shot, and then scrambled to stop some errant bouncing pucks a little later.

But as luck would have it, Tellqvist gave up the tying goal through no fault of his own as Czerkawski's centering pass/shot bounced off Kaberle's right knee and beat Tellqvist on the open side. Unfazed, Tellqvist made a couple more key saves to preserve the tie and send the game into overtime.

That was enough for the Leafs, and they seized the chance that their rookie had given them in the first minute of OT, as Antropov went nearly end to end and potted a beauty behind Theodore for the game winner. It was Tellqvist's first NHL game and his first win, and it was much deserved. Toronto has to play a little more confidently when protecting a lead, but tonight's effort was the result of just enough effort in front of stellar goaltending from the duo.

Belfour will be back, and Kidd's injury isn't too serious so it's not likely that Tellqvist will see any more action in the near future, but he's looking a lot different from the nervous kid that played two exhibition seasons in shakey fashion over the past two years. A win like this will really boost his confidence and get him working even harder to perfect his game and make it with the mother club.


Posted 12:10 PM by Chris |

January 17, 2003
Washington 1 at Toronto 4

Forwards
Corson - Green - Tucker
Renberg - Sundin - Antropov
Domi - Reichel - Hoglund
Healy - McCauley - Jackman

Defense
Lumme - McCabe
Kaberle - Svehla
Belak - Berg

Goal
Kidd

Going into tonight's game, with Mogilny and Belfour nursing wonky backs, Druken returning to the Hurricanes, the team that loaned him to the Leafs for a couple of games, and other assorted ups and downs between the Rock and T.O., one would not have thought that what was required to win this game would be the addition of Richard Jackman to the fourth line.

But that's why Pat Quinn is the coach, and I just blog this crew.

Jackman, who has never played a game at forward in his pro career, acquitted himself fairly well in his new role, perhaps appearing a littl etentative to get deep into the offensive zone, but eventually settling in to provide some useful contributions in what can only be described as one of the Leaf's best defensive games to date.

It wasn't always going to look so clean. The early going was a little tricky as Washingto literally flew at the Leafs net, and pressure came from many places including Jagr, Witt, Nylander, Bondra, Zubria and Gonchar. Their forechecking was relentless at times in the first, but the Leafs were able to match and a tenacious sequence in the Caps zone produced a lovely goal from the streaky Darcy Tucker who both forced a turnover and then positioned himself to bang home a one timer from Green.

When Tucker delflected a shot late in the first after another flurry of activity at the Leaf's end, it was all over, and the next two periods were simply systemic, elegant in execution and well supported by Trevor Kidd, who seemed to find his stride finally in this game. In fact this one may go down as the game in which the last leaf got on board with the turnaround. Kidd, who suffered some of the worst losses of the early season when Belfour was out with the infected arm, seemed to languish in that canfidnece depleting state well after the rest of the team had recovered their composure going into Christmas. Tonight he came clean and showed the kind of solid goal keeping that everyone knew he had.

The result was a pleasant win, and a nice way to break out of the mini slump of the past week, which saw the Bruins and the Rangers have their way with our boys.

Posted 12:09 PM by Chris |

Recent news of note in Leaf land:

• Kaberle comes of age


• Renberg almost back to health


• Rock Express: Gavey and Poni head east


• What the Leafs need to do now

Posted 1:41 PM by Chris |

January 14, 2003
Calgary 2 Leafs 3

Forwards
Hoglund - Reichel - Domi
Antropov - Sundin - Mogilny
Green - Tucker - Corson
Healy - McCauley - Gavey

PK

Mogilny - Sundin
Reichel - Antropov
Green - Tucker

Defense
Svehla - Kaberle
Lumme - McCabe
Belak - Berg

Goal
Belfour

A couple of changes to the lineup as Corson came back, Belak went to the D, and Jackman joined Ponikarovsky in the Press Box. Among the trash-heap of great ideas that didn't work, the only reason this one is missing is because the Leafs eventually pulled two points out of the fire. It sure didn't start that way. Corson drew the first penalty of the game on a high-sticking accident, and Berg was pounced on repeatedly as the only guy to worry about when he and Belak were on the ice. The Leafs were swarmed repeatedly and hemmed in their own end for most of the period. It was a repeat of the New York game to watching the left side of the Leafs D miss both the man and the puck on forechecking pinches. Add in a miserable night for Kaberle when it came to getting feral pucks on his stick. The shots on goal were 15-1 in favour of Calgary. They also had a considerable edge in shots off the post or
wide of the net. Although the energy they used up trying to take care of business would be their nemesis later in the game, at the time it looked like the Leafs 10 game unbeated streak on home ice was going to take a beating.

It was, therefore, quite surprising to see the score 1-0 in favour of the Leafs at the end of the first period, period. Quite late in the
first-third a troika rush by the new odd-triple (Antropov, Sundin, Mogilny) went end to end and Nik flipped it in as he cart-wheeled into
the corner. He came up with a slushy face ... and a goal. Sutter looked dumbfounded behind the Calgary bench (in other words, no change).

The Leafs kept sticking their tongues out at the Lady of the Fate. Down a man, Lumme's stick came around too high and it was box-box time. The PK unit did a good job of killing it all off. The relief was premature - the Lost Faceoff Fairy snapped back and the score was tied. Just like in New York the night before, a win off Sundin led to a point-shot that turned on the red light.

The energy flow went back the other way. The Leafs were scrambling in their own end again. Berg and Belak couldn't handle the pressure. The puck came out from the corner, hit Reichel, and dropped down as Stephane Yelle came around from the back of the net. Red light on. Calgary 2-1. The ghost of the New York Monday Moment started to chuckle.

Then the energy started to shift to the Leafs (the story of the night). Calgary played, and lost, the previous night in Montreal. The fast tempo of the first period may have been a factor in going shellward after the second goal ... or maybe it was a series of awesome saves by Belfour that kept the score where it was. A series of three penalties on Calgary late in the second and into the third gave the Leafs a chance to regroup, re-organize, and re-charge. Although no goals were scored with the man-add, the extra room helped the Leafs get back in gear with moving and passing the puck.

The tying goal came in the third. Breaking the blue-line in a three man rush, Svehla snagged the puck at the blueline and passed behind the net to Jonas Hoglund. He popped it to the vacant lot out in front of the net; Robert Reichel reached and smacked it into the backweb for the kisser - a very nice goal on a very nice team play. For an encore, the new Sundin Line manufactured a(nother) three-man rush. This time it was Mogilny to Antropov to heat things up inside the blueline. Antro dropped off to Sundin and Mats did a zig-zag, weave, and wrist into the net for the 'prettiest' goal of the game. It certainly had that great Sundin-smile big time on the TV afterwards.

The score was now tilted the Leafs way, and the energy reserves appeared to be drained both ways. For about five minutes it was distraction time as both teams did the gentlemanly thing and tried to preen each other's faces with their gloves. There seemed to be a lot of two word reactions ... but it didn't look like 'thank you' ... or 'happy birthday'. Fortunately it never got out of control and instead of going out with a whimper, the last two minutes turned into a wild west show. The action was end-to-end, there were good chances all around. The score was the only thing sitting still. The final minute was the funniest of the whole game.

Calgary pulled their goal-tender. Calgary got some pressure. Then the Leafs got the puck out, and up-ice they went. Tucker took a wild chance from centre ice and it banged by the left side. Green won the battle on the far boards and rang one off the post. Calgary scrambled to get up ice again. The puck squirted around like the last of the soap-bar, and out it came again. Nik Antropov got a diving lunge shot at the Leafs' blue line to start rolling on it's edge toward the open net - it seemed to roll forever, losing speed as it rolled. It juuust slid off the side of the net. The buzzer brought the fun to a halt.

Forget the analysis. It ended the right way all a-round.

Posted 9:52 AM by Chris |

January 13, 2003
Toronto 1 at New York Rangers 5

Forwards

Hoglund - Reichel - Domi
Green - Pick-a-Leaf - Belak
(pick-a-Leaf)-Sundin-(pick-a-Leaf)
Healy - McCauley - Gavey

PK

Mogilny - Sundin
Reichel - Antropov
Green - Tucker

Defense
Svehla - Kaberle
Lumme - McCabe
Jackman - Berg

Goal
Kidd

The game went off the rails 36 seconds in. Mouth-You Barnaby swirled on the sideboards to make a pass and Darcy Tucker caught him. The check slid up the back and caught him at the shoulders. Barnaby went down like a barn in a snowdrift, and he had to be helped off the ice. Tucker got the max sentence '5-and-a-game'. To everyone's amazed relief, Barnaby re-appeared on the Nork's bench four minutes later, and actually got on for a shift while the 5-minute major still had time on it. The Leafs killed off the penalty, but seemed forgot it was over for most of the remaining 55 minutes.

The slow pace picked up after a blueline collision between Dvorak and Antropov half-way through the first. Most of the time the Leafs were fighting - with the Rangers, with the refs, and with the puck. The first goal came just as the period was ending - Holik won a face-off and Kasparaitis wired a blast off the bouncing backflip.

The second period had a more balanced look to it until Kidd threw a gift wraparound to Ranger's Karpa at the point. Kidd stopped the 'Incoming!', but the rebound went straight to Lindros's fully cocked stick - it even looked fast on the slow-motion replay.

The killer blow was a combo shot. Alyn McCauley was called for a high stick along the boards, after Dave Karpa was hit in the face ... by the puck. The game had that kind of look to it anyway. A short-handed rush turned into a power-play rush, and Nedved buried his first of three on a wobbler that slowly slid under Kidd. It spiralled down from there - Svehla lost his stick and the Leafs spent almost a full minute trying to kill off a phantom penalty. The buzzer finally put the period out of its misery.

The third produced three more goals (2-1 in the Norks' favour), but the safety was off and the fuse was short. Domi found the re-energized bunny Barnaby and took his faceoff. Belak and McCarthy turned a waltz into a elbow and uppercut boogie. On the final rush of the game everyone was watching the rush that produced Nedved's hattrick. Everyone missed the cross-ice rush that Domi made to spin Kaspar like a top. Both sides were willing combatants in a very conflicted game. It had a vaudeville look to it - there were long expectations of the next confrontation, while the goals happened suddenly and somewhat shruggishly.

There were three keys to the tilted score. First, the puck didn't go in at the Nork end, but it went in repeatedly at the Leafs end (no matter which end it was ... or which end the Leafs put out there). The second key was a breakdown on the right side of the Leafs D, especially at the Nork blueline - Svehla, McCabe and Jackman all had repeated troubles getting the puck to co-operate, and the Norks swarmed them because it looked like a good thing to do. The third key were repeated phantom pinches on the left side of the Leafs D. As a result New York had repeated odd-man rushes and any pressure by the Leafs in the New York end was brief and weak. PQuinn later described it was unnecessarily risky play, but it wasn't that at all - it was poor focus and shabby execution. The Leafs passing game has been erratic all season and this game it was at its worst.

Posted 9:47 AM by Chris |

January 11, 2003
Toronto2 at Boston 6

Forwards
(Antropov/Hoglund) - Reichel - Domi
Green - Tucker - Belak
(McCauley/Antropov)-Sundin-(Mogilny/Healey)
Ponikarovsky - McCauley - (Healey/Mogilny)

Mogilny - Sundin (pk)
Reichel - Antropov (pk)
Green - Tucker (pk)

Defense
Svehla - Kaberle
Lumme - McCabe
Jackman - Berg

Goal
Belfour

The forward lines defined the game - it was very confusing. Sundin came back from his shoulder injury, but was very ineffective. Basically, he couldn't shoot, and he could only take face-offs in the neutral zone. PQuinn jiggled with line combos. For the first period there was some stability with Hog/Reichel/Domi and Green/Tucker/Belak. After that it was a guessing game to see who would be out there next. Mogilny was doubled-shifted, the bench was shortened, and some ratty line-changes added to the scramble.

The defence had more than their share of problems and Boston combined pressure on the d-guys with quick transition through the neutral zone to repeatedly get the Leafs disorganized in their own end. The reverse was not true - Leafs passing game looked more erratic as the game went on. The most common problem was passing to a guy standing still and covered by a Bruin defender - when it worked the puck was turned over, and when it didn't work there were scrambles and odd-man rushes coming at Belfour. The underlying problem was Leafs with the puck didn't lug it enough.

The game was tied after the second built out of Boston goals off an odd-man rush with a pass from behind the net, and a forechecking success that interrupted a line-change and kept working it until the puck was in the net - Belfour gave up a family-sized rebound. The Leafs scored two man-ad goals. The first one was good - Svehla wound up for a point-shot and just took enough off it so the pass across to Mogilny in the far-side circle fooled everyone. Mogilny roofed it from a bad angle. The second goal was very different - a flat power-play had 4 seconds left in it when a goal-mouth scramble by Hoglund squirted out to Mogilny and he flipped it in.

The game was still on the table - the score was tied, and three or four fights only had one clear decision (Belak ended up throwing Sean Brown to the ice like a flour sack after an exchange).

Boston came out stronger. The pressure kept coming, and the Leafs were forced to ice a few times. It never turned around and Murray buried one from the high slot. The Leafs tried to put turn things around, but the Bruins clogged the neutral zone and played the percentages. They got their next red-light with five minutes left to go off the rush. That could have ended it, but the Leafs had a power-play late. Lumme tripped at the point, and suddenly Boston had a 3on1 rush during a penalty-kill.

Just to put the insult icing on the confusion cake, PQuinn pulled Belfour with 1:20 left to go and the score 5-2. The result was Rolston taking a 5-iron shot from the Bruins side of centre for an EN goal. It still wasn't quite over - Wade Belak and Marty Lapointe decided there was some unfinished business and went for 15 rounds near the Boston net. No clear winner ... but the fans were so busy cheering Marty declared himself the winner.

Although the results were lop-sided (the wrong way for a Leafs fan), and the play was frustrating with the turnovers, there were some bright spots. Mogilny played well, Belfour was big early, and Sundin is back from the shoulder injury. The effort was there, the execution was AWOL. The result ended Boston's six game losing streak and put them back into a tie with the Leafs for second place in the north-east. Boston still has a game in hand.

Posted 9:45 AM by Chris |

Once again, I hit the road at the same time as the Leafs did and the inimitable Steve Church contributes the first of four reports. Thanks again Steve!

January 10, 2003
Toronto 4 at Pittsburgh 2

Forwards
Hoglund - Reichel - Domi
Ponikarovsky - Antropov - Mogilny
Green - Tucker - Belak
Gavey - McCauley - Healey

Mogilny - Antropov (pk)
McCauley - Green (pk)
Reichel - Gavey/Healey(pk)

Defense
Svehla - Kaberle
Lumme - McCabe
Jackman - Berg

Goal
Belfour

If you have trouble recognizing some of the names, you can find their bio's on the St. John's Maple Leafs site - It's like a deja vu we've seen before. An entire Leafs line is on the injured list (Renberg/Sundin/Fitzgerald), Corson is still out, and call-up Karel Pilar was returned to St. John's without any ice-time (the flu).

So how did they lay the dime on the Penguins? Well, the Penguins are missing all their top-drawers sockers as well - Lemieux, Morozov, Tjarnstrom. The injuries should have made for a mucky game with a heap of bouncy on top.

Instead it was a fine piece of entertainment (well, if you're a Leafs fan). Lumme's first goal was a double-cheer - the puck went in, arms went up ... puck wasn't in, arms went down. Puck went in, arms went up. (they oughta give 3 points for that one). The second goal was an short-handed beauty by Travis 'artful dodger' Green. Taking a pass from Ed Belfour near centre ice, he slalomed his way to the net. Using Darcy Tucker as a screen, he buried it. The other highlight of the the first was a testosterone duel between Wade Belak and Steve McKenna - Wade took a few twinklers, but McKenna got the worst of it.

The lowlight of the period was a string of soft calls against the Leafs. It carried on into the second - by the end of 40 minutes, the Leafs had spent 14 minutes on the pk. They weren't bad calls - more like the shrug/okay stuff.

And by the end of the second, the score was tied. Shawn McKenna took a breaking pass in for a run to the net. The puck slid under Belfour covered in a camoflage of ice-dust. The Pens #1 power-play finally produced on a board-side scramble, a d-lapse, and an uncovered scooper doing his job in front of Belfour.

The third was a hee-saw see-saw with more open play and luck-pressing than you'd expect (no one looked tired ... or bored). Belfour chose to let 'em know who the pipe-king was and made stops that flipped between great and lucky. Aubin at the other end was one stop less fortunate. A great side-board pass from Mogilny to Ponikarovsky would have been Aubin's best stop ... if the puck hadn't squirted on an angle and the long lunging stick of Nik Antropov hadn't fed the puck to the hungry net. After that the Pens kept knocking and the D+Belfour wouldn't open the door. Aubin was lifted for a sixth attacker - Antropov proceeded to
pounce on the puck and feed Mogilny a waltz in for the EN goal. That's all she wrote ... not quite. With 10 seconds left on the clock, Dan Lacouture and Tie Domi decided there was some unfinished business and proceeded to tenderize each other (even the replay couldn't find a motive).

The strong performance kudo really goes to the team for this one. Some special gold stars should go to Jyrki Lumme, Nik Antropov, and Travis Greene (not the usual suspects, eh?). If they'd lost, it was injuries. They won, so it's depth. PQuinn coached a heckuva game, but few people notice the coach when 2-points goes into the vault.

A final thought. The goal is the Stanley Cup, but the drive you take rying to get there is 99% of the deal. It's entertainment - up to 3
hours a game (imagine Lord of the Rings, Part 82). Last night's broadcast was a pleasure. Two guys named Joe Bowen and Harry Neale should get a note of thanks (they'd probably prefer a liquid tilt) for making that game so damned much fun to listen to. Other broadcasters should take notes as well.

Posted 9:42 AM by Chris |

Dig this cool plug from SportsFilter:

Required reading for fans of this team include the journal of "all-around good guy" Alyn McCauley, and Chris Corrigan’s always excellent Blogging The Leafs.

Shucks. Thanks.

Posted 8:36 PM by Chris |

The Senators are about to file for bankruptcy. This is really too bad, as the Battle of Ontario has been a tremendous post season highlight over the last three years. I hope the team can stay in Ottawa and keep it alive. They are a great team at the moment, and have every reason to expect further success in the coming years. It would be awful if anpother Canadian team, poised for long term success, were to flee to the US and win a Stanley Cup there.

I'll see if I can't fix things up while I'm there on the weekend.

;-)

Posted 1:49 PM by Chris |

Preview for tonight's game against Boston:

• Leafs set to continue unbeaten streak


• Lapointe embodies Bruin struggles


• Game preview

Posted 1:44 PM by Chris |

A curious home-and-home series against the Devils. The Leafs called up a bevy of youngsters, including Gavey, Ponikarovsky and Healy to add to Jackman and Druken and split the series, with a 2-1 loss in New Jersey and a brilliant outing from Belfour, who stopped fifty shots in a 2-1 win at home. That win marks Toronto's 11th straight win on home ice.

As Travis Green remarked, "It's beginning to look a lot like the playoffs."

At the half way point all the major media outlets are spinning their reviews of the team. The Star puts Belfour and his 1.98, .930 numbers at the top of the heap. Over at The Sun, they have a nice concise review that also mentions the Sports Illustrated debacle.

Game 41, kicking off the second half of the season, happens tonight against Boston. The Bruins yesterday added Krzysztof Oliwa in a draft pick swap from the Rangers. They are dogging it a little these days, coming off a loss to Carolina and losing 9 of their last 12. GM Mike O'Connell says "''We're making mistakes that hurt us. We're taking penalties we shouldn't be taking and not initiating enough like other teams initiate. We're not skating without the puck, we're not skating with the puck. We have to regain our focus and what's successful for us. We did that at the start of the year, all we did was focus on winning, and I think we've lost that.''

The Bruins have sunk down the table a little, and a win against them tomorrow night will pull the Leafs even, with a three way share of fourth place in the conference (with New Jersey).

I'll blog tomorrow night's game but then I'm off to Ottawa for a stretch and I won't have time to catch up. Possibly a little blogging from the road, but no detailed stuff for a bit.

Posted 1:51 AM by Chris |

Renberg: Doctors considered amputating hand

Good lord! Apparently Mikael Renberg was close to losing his hand this week after the infection spread through his arm, Scary stuff. Brent Smith says that the words"amputation and death" were used in conversations with doctors. Thank god he's okay.

More previews coming into tonight:

Injury update: Mogilny to play tonight, Corson tomorrow, every one else still sick
Preview: Jersey coming off a defensive loss to Florida

Posted 10:15 AM by Chris |

Nice article from the world juniors about Colaiacovo and White:

[Colaiacovo] hesitated when asked if, rather than being part of Canada's stirring 5-3 win over Finland on New Year's Eve, he would have preferred being in Vancouver helping out the short-handed Leafs in their upset win over the Canucks.

"That's a tough question. That's where I want to be eventually, and my intention is to one day be there," he said. "But it's important to represent my country. I guess it's about being in the right place at the right time, and this is the right place for me right now."

Colaiacovo has led a band of 10 solid to average Leaf prospects at this world junior event, leaving the Leafs as intensely interested in the competition as any NHL franchise. Despite the reality the majority of these players won't make it to the NHL or will do so for another team, right now most dreamily see themselves as future Leafs.

"Me and Carlo joke around, saying we might be running the Leaf power play in a few years," said Team Canada defenceman Ian White, also a Leaf draft. "I can see myself in a Leaf uniform down the road and strive toward it."

Like Colaiacovo, White quickly snaps back to the here and now after a few moments spent remembering facing Mats Sundin and Alexander Mogilny last September at the Leaf training camp.

Hockey hopes, after all, best reside in the moment, with the day after tomorrow too unpredictable to safely consider.

Posted 1:21 PM by Chris |

And Bob Wren was traded to Nashville yesterday, for Nathan Perrott.

A Wren for a Perrott?


Posted 4:26 AM by Chris |

December 31, 2002
Toronto 5 at Vancouver 3

Forwards
Healy – Druken – Fitzgerald
Healy – McCauley – Belak
Domi – Reichel – Hoglund
Tucker – Antropov – Green
Hoglund – McCauley – Belak
Healy – McCauley – Fitzgerald
Hoglund – Reichel – Green
Tucker – Druken – Green
Hoglund – Reichel – Belak

Tucker – Antropov – Green (pp)
Druken – Reichel – Hoglund (pp)
Domi – Green – Tucker (pp)

Fitzgerald – Reichel (pk)
Tucker – McCauley (pk)

Defense
Svehla – Kaberle
McCabe – Lumme
Berg – Jackman

Goal
Belfour

Toronto had every reason to expect that this game would be a wash out. Sundin, Mogilny, Corson, Pilar, Renberg were all out. The Leafs started with only 11 forwards and they lost Antropov in the second period. Jackman spent most of the second in the dressing room with a sore knee and Domi sat for a 10 minute misconduct.

But with all that going against them, the Leafs pulled out a stunning win, making the most of their slim opportunities, chances that came between the driving waves of attack from the Sedins, Naslund, Bertuzzi and Cooke. Belfour held up his end of the bargain, and the likes of Paul Healy and Darcy Tucker and Jirki Lumme did the rest, getting the key goals, before the call went out to lock down the neutral zone and sit on the lead. Amazing resistance from the Leafs won this game, rotating three lines, two of which were improvised.

There were also moments of team brilliance such as late in the third with Naslund running wild behind the net when it seemed like the most important thing was that everyone had a man to check. He couldn't find anyone to pass to and Lumme eventually cleared it. Just the fact that everyone looked to play so responsibly reminded me of the playoffs last year, when the Leafs faced so much adversity with enough heart and smarts and courage to get wins where they needed them.

The tone of the game was set early when Antropov got the Leafs' first goal only seconds after Bertuzzi opened the scoring. The message was "this is not going to be a cakewalk." The action was end to end in the first and the pressure kept on with Kaberle getting a post and Fitzgerald and Hoglund getting chances too. But a series of penalties late in the period gave the Canucks all the room they needed to go up 3-1, after which the Leafs looked impotent.

But there was something in the intermission Gatorade, because, despite being short Antro (who was lost to an uncalled slash on the forearm from Murray Baron), the Leafs came out looking for creative ways to solve the Canucks. Tucker busting up his drought shorthanded was the way to do it. That was followed a little later by a patented Paul Healy all-heart goal and the Leafs were suddenly back in the game. Ric Jackman went down funny stripping the d-corp to only five guys. When Domi was lost at the 13:00 minute mark of the third, the Leafs had no choice but to lock it down and the rest of the period was very conservative. The Canucks tried to press their advantage, and were active all night trying to goad the Leafs into dumb penalties with late hits and after-the-whistle chatter. Only Domi bought that crap.

In the third period, Jackman was back on and after the misconduct was over, Naslund got called on a dodgy tripping penalty and the Leafs saw daylight. Knowing that this could have been their last chance to make something happen, they pinched on the powerplay. Matt Cooke got the puck and had a clear breakaway shorthanded but at the last second he pulled up and Belfour poke checked the puck harmlessly away. The resulting turnover went to McCabe who found Reichel moving into the Canucks zone. Reichel fed Lumme who came up on the left side and he bagged the winner. On the next shift, McCauley almost scored into an empty net, and it was only quick thinking from Henrik Sedin that stopped him.

From there on in the Leafs rolled their three lines and tried to keep the Canuck attack at bay. Late pressure with the net empty didn't get them the result the wanted and Reichel potted the capper with one second left.

A great game, full of heart and grit. A great way to end the year, and a nice tone to set for what will inevitably happen in the spring, if the resolve is there!

Posted 4:25 AM by Chris |