Maple Leafs Visit Montreal on the Way to the Cup

by Graeme Boyce… I wonder if part of the Leafs’ strategy to win the Cup is simply one based on confusion. Sign some players, add a coach or two, and see what happens. Sounds like if anyone could do that then they could also run an American bank and get back a few mil each year, regardless of their performance.

Well, someone one has done that—in fact several general managers who attract talent and negotiate contracts have delivered unto Toronto one of the most confusing teams I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching.

On Saturday, the Leafs will tussle with the Habs, and with a lucky bounce here and a lucky bounce there, the Leafs will win. We know Antropov and Poni will try a little and will set the bar for the rest of the team. After all, other than Blake, they’re the team’s top offensive producers.

We know most Leafs wingers will either (a) dump in the puck and chase it, or (b) upon crossing the blue line, slam on the brakes and determine which of their linemates miraculously got into the open.

Kubina’s playing well. Kubina playing his best, however, is still ensuring a second-round draft pick in exchange. Unless Burke gets ballsy and assembles the uber-trade deal, and in one clean sweep tosses out the bathwater and the baby in the hopes of landing Crosby.

Yes, Sid the Kid can’t do anymore for the Pens, as long as he’s playing with Malkin, but imagine his endorsement deals if he did as little playing in Toronto.

Everyone likes to carve on the Leafs as another season unfolds and the team is befouled as completely ineffective, but for one brief moment take a look at Ottawa or Colorado, not to mention any team playing in the southeastern states these days.

I say it’s time for a shake-up. Would the Pens do any worse without Crosby, yet with such high-flying twin towers like Antropov and Poni on the team and Kaberle and Kubina on the blue line?

I think either Erik Cole or Jay Bouwmeester, or both, would look good in the blue and white. So would Scott Hannan, Colby Armstroing, and Vincent Lecavalier. OK, I can’t see Ottawa letting Heatley go now. After all, he’s leading his team in goals scored; but I’ll bet Spezza would do quite well scoring goals for the Leafs.

First things first: beating Montreal.

Well, they are luckily in turmoil due to their own trade rumours flying around. Apparently, they are trying to fill Lang’s skates. They’d take, for example, the Stars’ Brad Richards, who happens to be leading his team in scoring. Well, so is Blake…So we can’t take too much stock in that stat, can we?

I’ve heard Blake is simply untradeable, yet he’s the Leafs’ leading goal scorer—surely someone as hockey-savvy as Brian Burke can spin it properly.

With Toskala hurt and destined for a trip to the hospital to repair his groin, Manny Legace, an all-star goalie, is available. But speaking of untradeable, I’m sure Gretzky thought he was untradeable prior to donning a Kings sweater way back when.

Best Supporting-Role Players In Raptors’ History

By Alexander Lyle…

Everyone loves a superstar, right? It’s the guys like Vince Carter and Chris Bosh that stick in your memory for decades. They are the guys that kids in thirty years will read about. Well if we know they’re gonna be immortalized, why waste good ink. Let’s instead cast our minds back over the Raptors short history and fish out the other guys. Here’s a little about the best supporting-acts to ever pull on a Raps jersey.

Tracy Murrary was the first ever Raptor to play every game in a regular season. He played 160 games for the team in two different stints. In the all important first season of the expansion club, Murray was third in points per game for the team (16.2) and first in 3-point field goal percentage (.422). He had 23 points and 12 rebounds in one of the Raptors best wins- in their first year against the Bulls. During his second go around, his numbers were down, but was a useful part of the Raptors greatest season (00-01).

The Raptors’ all-time leader in games played (542), Morris Peterson was an integral part of the team during his seven years in Canada. MoPete also holds the records in T.O for most consecutive games played (371), minutes played (16,059), three-point field goals made (801) and most threes attempted (2158). He’s also second in steals to Doug Christie with (552). Needless to say, this guy is a Raptor legend. Despite all these feats, Morris was never really the first or second star of the team- in none of his seasons did he lead the Raps in scoring, assists, rebounds, steals or blocks. Peterson is also the only player to be present on both of the Raptors’ two best teams, the 00-01 team, and the suprising 06-07 sqaud.

One of the more unique Raptor careers was that of Spaniard Jorge Garbajosa. He was a somewhat out-of-the-blue signing by Bryan Colangelo prior to the 06-07 season, but became a fundamental piece of the Raptors puzzle for that year. He gave them a bit of everything with 8.5 PPG, 1.2 steals a night, 1.9 assists, 4.9 rebounds and 1 triple made a night. The next year he only logged 7 games due to a foot injury. He has since gone back to Spain, most likely to never be seen in the NBA again.

Alvin Williams was the king of support players in the heyday of this ball club. He was arguably the second most important reason the Raps had so much success from 1999-2002, behind Vince Carter of course. He was one of Vince’s main suppliers during that time, and is the Raps all-time leader in assists (1791) and second in games played (417). He was also known for saving some of his best performances for the most important of times.He hit game winning shots against Atlanta (a 3 in OT) in ‘02 and Seattle in ‘01 (a putback with .01 seconds left). He had 19 points, 8 assists and 3 rebounds in his first proper playoff game (he played one postseason minute the previous season) against the Knicks in ‘01, and then contributed 18 points and 4 assists in the fifth game of that ‘01 first round series against New York, the game that gave Toronto their only ever playoff series win.

Jerome Williams was a true fan favourite whilst in T.O. He spent five years in a Toronto uniform and put up some very respectable numbers during that time. His best year for the Raps came in 02-03, when he posted 9.7 PPG and 9.2 RPG in an average of 33 minutes played. Even though it took a stinking Raps team that year for him to put up his best numbers, he still was a handy part of more than handy teams in his first two years in Toronto. He averaged 5 and 4 in his opening Raptor season and 7.6 and 5.7 the next year. Unfortunately for the Junkyard Dog, the Raps were fizzling out just as he was heating up.

Doug Christie logged 314 games for Toronto over five seasons. Through all of those years, he contributed useful stats. His best individual year statistically (97-98) came whilst playing in Toronto. During that season he averaged 16.5 PPG, 5.2 RPG, 3.6 APG as well as 2.4 swipes a match. Other notable Christie facts are: he had 12 points, 8 dimes, 4 rebounds and 2 steals in his first ever start as a Raptor ( on 12 March, ‘96, in place of the injured Damon Stoudamire), he was runner-up for the league’s Most Improved Player award for the 96-97 season (behind Miami’s Isaac Austin) and in that same year he was one of only four players to total at least 400 rebounds, 300 assists, 100 steals and 100 three-pointers (the others were some guys named Jordan, Pippen and Blaylock). He went on to become a big part of the powerhouse Kings teams at the start of this century.