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by Jack Porter… The Toronto Maple Leafs goaltending issue has been well documented. Which is why I believe Toronto should claim St.Louis goaltender Manny Legace off waivers should he be placed on re-entry waivers by the Blues.
Manny has a Stanley Cup under his belt and won’t be a long term cap hit. He currently makes $2.5 million but only has a $2,150,000 salary cap hit.
I am not saying Manny is the long term fix, I’m saying he could help with this season. With Legace on the roster Toronto could have the flexibility to give goaie Vesa Toskala a couple weeks off to really nurse the groin injury that has bothered him all season. Thus giving Toronto a healthy Toskala with the potential to return to his former self.
If Toskala does get healthy that could give GM Brian Burke the negotiating leverage to go to a team with healthy Toskala and maybe just maybe trade Vesa to get a good return.
If not, Legace’s contract is up at the end of this season and it is done with.
Another option could be that Burke trades Legace to a team who is suddenly in need of a back up goaltender at the deadline and the Leafs pull out a 4th or 5th round pick in return.
Another option reported this time by “The Fourth Period” and “CBC’s Hockey Night In Canada”, is that the Leafs as well as the Calgary Flames may be interested in bringing in former Ottawa goaltender Ray Emery as a back up goaltender. Emery is currently in North America after refusing to return to the KHL until he is paid his owed salary. If an NHL team does sign him he’ll have to clear waivers like Columbus goalie Wade Dubielewicz did when he signed with the NY Islanders earlier this season.
by Murray Crawford…
The last time the Rock won at home was on March 21, 2008 against the Edmonton Rush. On February 7, the Rush returned to the Air Canada Centre.
Not only was it the Rock’s first home win in six tries it was also Jamie Batley’s first win as head coach, picking up a 16 – 9 win over the Rush.
“It was a big win, we talked about not winning in this building,” Batley said. “It’s my first time being a coach in here. We talked about that; we talked about how our fans and ourselves deserve a home win. I think the guys really took that home with them.”
Leading the way for the Toronto Rock was Lewis Ratcliff and Jason Crosbie. Ratcliff had seven points, four goals, while Crosbie provided ample production of his own with four goals and one assist.
By the fourth quarter the Rock found a whole new gear, breaking the game wide open with six unanswered goals, two from Jason Crosbie.
Crosbie owned the second half, with all four of his goals coming after the first half. Including, what can only be described as a very creative goal. Shades of Sidney Crosby, the lacrosse Crosbie went behind the net and with one hand on his stick, and a stretched out arm, jumped. While airborne he tucked the ball behind into the top corner, behind Edmonton goalie Steve Dietrich, to give the Rock a three-goal lead with less than ten minutes to go.
“Every time I’ve done something like that it’s been a disaster,” Crosbie said. “It worked out that time. We were down a man; I was just trying to get an angle. I was behind the net, and so I went for it.”
The Edmonton Rush offense was led by Andy Secore and Ryan Benesch, each with four points, Secore with three goals and Benesch with three assists.
With Batley at the helm there are still key things the Rock need to do to make this a trend and not a blip. They are still exposed to screens close to their net, and that was how Edmonton scored a majority of their goals.
“I think maybe the guys are used to the old style of sitting back, we don’t want them to sit back,” Batley said. “We want them to get out and close the gap. When they’re coming off screens we’re really not getting out there.”
Getting to loose balls was key to the Rock victory. Coming in to the game Edmonton lead the league in loose balls, while the Rock were third worst in the league, only Colorado and Minnesota were worse. The Rock out fought the Rush for 88 loose balls, to the Rush’s 76.
Helping matters were Chris Driscoll, Stephen Hoar and Crosbie who buried a shorthanded goal each.
Thematically the third quarter was a game of anything you can do I can do better with the Rock opening up a three goal lead five minutes into the frame. But the Rush responded with two goals in thirty seconds.
Crosbie re-cushioned the lead with this second only to have Andy Secore score close out the period where it started, with a one goal Rock lead.
There was a reoccurring stick controversy throughout the game. First the refs checked a Rush player’s stick, but it was regulation. However, Cam Woods, from the Rock, had his stick measured and it was determined illegal and Woods went in to serve two minutes.
Ratcliff, who had one of his better games, restored the one goal lead with a clean shot from the slot that beat Edmonton goalie Dietrich.
Blaine Manning got into the action in the second quarter, and gave the Rock their first lead of the game. A turnover in front of the Rush net set up his go-ahead goal.
Edmonton managed to even the score in the second when Andy Secore took his spot with in front of Bob Watson. A one time came Secore’s way and all he had to do was delay for a second as Watson sprawled helplessly as Secore buried it top corner.
After a slow start to open the game, down four goals 6 minutes into the opening frame, Lewis Ratcliff threw the Rock on his back and rallied with 3 goals in 4 minutes, to pull the Rock to within one.
Chris Driscoll capped off the comeback. The Rock were shorthanded and pinned deep in their own zone when Peter Lough intercepted a pass to the side of the net. Lough then passed it up the floor to a waiting Driscoll who wired one past Chris Dietrich to tie the game.
Driscoll almost gave the Rock a lead to close out the game, when an empty net attempt from deep in his own zone bounced over the net as time expired.
Long time Rock veteran, goalie Bob Watson, came out with a much better performance than his previous two outings, stopping 31 of 40 shots to provide enough protection for the Rock victory.
On the other end Steve Dietrich just couldn’t close out the second half, especially in the fourth quarter. Though the Rock did get ample shot support, with 59 shots.
The win, the Rock’s second of the season, puts them into a tie with the Philadelphia Wings. The Rush loss means they move to two wins and five losses and remain in the bottom of the western division.
Photo: Paolo Cescato
by Andrew McNair… 
The number of foreign players in the Barclays Premier League has been an issue over the last few years with many people suggesting that the amount of foreigners in England was hampering the national team.
I had been inclined to think that way myself until I stumbled on the Inter Milan squad list while researching another article. It was flooded with foreign players and it got me thinking, does England really have too many foreign players and is this actually hampering the national side?
For my research, I took the top four sides (judging by league tables as of the morning of the 7th February 2009) from Spain’s La Liga, Italy’s Serie A and England’s Premier League and worked out how many foreigners they had as individual clubs and national leagues. I chose the top four as these are the players likely to be representing each country in next years UEFA Champions League.
The Stats: Italy
Having first got the idea for this article while looking at Inter Milan, I’ll start by looking at Serie A. The current top four in Italy are Inter Milan, AC Milan, Juventus and the surprise package of 2008/2009, Genoa.
Inter Milan’s squad is 75 percent foreign and includes only seven Italians.
AC Milan’s squad is 55 percent foreign.
Juventus’s squad is 56 percent foreign.
Genoa’s squad is 64 percent Italian, with only eight foreign players on their current first team squad.
Overall, the look at this sub section of Serie A shows that 56 percent of players in Italy’s top flight are foreign.
Spain
The top four in Spain is Barcelona, Real Madrid, Sevilla and Valencia.
Barcelona’s squad is 54 percent foreign.
Real Madrid’s squad is 64 percent foreign with only nine Spaniards in the first team.
Sevilla’s squad is 70 percent foreign and they have only eight Spanish players.
Valencia with all their well documented problems have a mainly Spanish squad with only 29 percent of the first team being foreign.
Overall, the look at this sub section of La Liga tells us that 55 percent of players in Spain are foreigners.
England
The top four in England is Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Aston Villa.
Manchester United’s squad is 64 percent foreign.
Liverpool’s squad is 77 percent foreign and only have seven English players in their current first team.
Chelsea’s squad is 80 percent foreign and have only five Englishmen in their top squad.
Aston Villa are 64 percent English and have only nine foreign players.
Overall, the look at this sub section of the Barclays Premier League tells us that 57 percent of players in England are foreign.
Does England really have too many foreign players?
England does have the side with the least amount of domestic players (20 percent) in Chelsea but they are hardly dominating in England right now. Italy’s worst is Inter Milan with only 25 percent of their squad being Italian and they are looking at four league wins in a row. Surely then Italy has more of a problem with foreign imports?
England’s most English squad is Aston Villa according to the stats used and that is on a par with Italy’s most Italian team Genoa at 64 percent. Valencia are even better with 71% of their players born in Spain. Proof that you don’t need a foreign side to be successful.
Aston Villa are holding off Arsenal (a side with virtually no English players) and are proof that Englishman are capable of holding their own against sides full of the worlds best players. In Italy, Genoa are the Villa, holding off the Fiorentina’s and Roma’s of this world with a pretty much Italian squad.
In Spain, Sevilla have as many foreigners as Valencia have Spaniards but Valencia are right there behind them, despite being practically bankrupt.
Therefore, I don’t believe England has any more of a problem than Spain or Italy.
Is the foreign invasion hampering the national side?
There is certainly not enough evidence to say England can’t win a major trophy because of the foreigners in the Premier League.
Spain are European Champions and have a league with just 2 percent less foreigners across their top clubs.
Italy are the World Champions and have a league with just 1 percent less foreigners amongst their top four sides.
The above totally blows any such claims by the English out of the water.
Whatever/ whoever is to blame for England’s failure to qualify for EURO 2008, it simply isn’t too many non English players in the Premier League but I do believe that it could be the fact England has only one player in Italy or Spain (David Beckham) while top Spanish and Italian players ply their trades in England and Spain or Italy showing their diversity and ability to adapt.
It appears England players need to get out more as it is no surprise England’s greatest global triumph wasn’t global at all, it happened in their own back yard.
by Brandon Warnes…
Judging by the build-up for this game, you knew you were in for a treat. Kostitsyn vs. Grabovski was heavily discussed and both teams were looking to bounce back from tough losses.
Toronto set the tone early as they took a lot of shots compared to how they played in Buffalo a few nights before. It was a chippy affair, as both teams were trading hits early on.
Toronto had the 1-0 lead after the first period. Rookie Luke Schenn has been a great defensive player who has worked hard this season. It payed off as he was able to net his first NHL goal and give his team the early lead.
The officials were not letting a lot go in this, rather than letting them play they called several penalties. It seemed like they called the wrong things and missed calls they should have made, but it didn’t change the course of the game.
While this game was meant to be Kostitsyn vs. Grabovski it never ended up being like that. They both played different shifts and other players on each team were targeting these guys. Montreal would rather see Grabovski sit on his pants all night as that is all they focused on it seemed.
With Montreal something appears to be missing. They have lost too many games as of late and are losing to teams “they’re supposed to be beating.” Carey Price has looked shaky as of late and tonight was no different.
Jason Blake continued his fine play and scored two goals on Price, with one being sent to the top of the net glove side. Price seemed to have his mind elsewhere and was just not into the game at all. Losing focus of the puck and not positioning well to stop shots led to Toronto goals.
That was another story in this game too, the struggles of both team’s goalies. While Price was poor, the same can not be said for Toskala who took the criticism from his general manager and coach to heart. Toskala made the saves he needed to and made some he had no business making, like a Chris Higgins breakaway shot.
Price showed similar signs to the way he played in last year’s playoffs. His start was okay, but as time went on he just wasn’t able to make the key stops and that is how this season has gone for him.
Maybe leaning on him too early wasn’t a good move when they dealt Huet, but either way Montreal needs him to be solid if they have any hopes of doing anything this season.
Toronto looked like a great hockey team, something that hasn’t been seen too much this year. Some nights they are good and the next they are downright awful.
Tonight, though, they got shots on net, forechecked well, and used their speed and made good passes to open up the game and get them a lead. If they could play like this on a nightly basis then they would be a really good team.
Stempniak and Jeff Finger scored for Toronto as well, and D’Agostini and Kostopoulos added makers for Montreal. Next game for Toronto goes Tuesday when they roll into Florida looking to make it two in a row. Montreal is set to start on a six game road trip looking to turn around their as of late.
by Martin Avery… Now that Sean Avery has completed a counseling program under the NHL/NHLPA behavioral health program, will he be a candidate for the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy?
The Lady Byng Trophy is presented each year to the National Hockey League “player adjudged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability”.
The trophy is named in honour of Marie Evelyn Moreton (Lady Byng), wife of Viscount Byng of Vimy, a Vimy Ridge war hero who was Governor General of Canada from 1921 to 1926. Lady Byng, who was an avid hockey fan, decided to donate the trophy to the NHL in 1925.
Wayne Gretzky who won it five times, Red Kelly with four wins, and Bobby Bauer, Alex Delvecchio, Mike Bossy, Ron Francis and Pavel Datsyuk with three each. Because of Boucher’s seven wins, the New York Rangers have won the award the most out of any club, fifteen times.
The voting is conducted at the end of the regular season by members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, and each individual voter ranks their top five candidates on a 10-7-5-3-1 points system. Three finalists are named and the trophy is awarded at the NHL Awards ceremony after the playoffs.
Avery had 77 minutes in penalties at the start of the season, with the Dallas Stars, before undergoing ‘anger management’. Avery agreed to seek professional anger-management evaluation and, if necessary, structured counseling in light of his pattern of behavior, which the NHL has deemed unacceptable and antisocial behavior.
Little is known about the program offered by the NHL and the NHLPA.
The goal of anger management is to reduce both your emotional feelings and the physiological arousal that anger causes. They say you can’t get rid of, or avoid, the things or the people that enrage you, nor can you change them, but you can learn to control your reactions.
Violence and fighting in the NHL are issues that have been debated for decades. Trash-talking has been identified with other professional sports.
Many sports fans find it ironic an NHL player could be suspended indefinitely for something he said about Hollywood stars and hockey players while the game remains violent and fight-filled.
When Avery returns, I don’t think he will be like Alex in A Clockwork Orange, or a candidate for the Lady Byng. But I’d bet he’ll chose his words more precisely when the TV cameras are rolling.
by Kevin van Steendelaar… Carey Price was not scheduled to start tonight in Montreal, but a sudden case of the flu from back-up Jaroslav Halak gave coach Guy Carbonneau no choice but to start his struggling No. 1 goaltender.
Price was clearly not prepared for the game and nor were his teammates as the lost 5-2 to their long-time rival Toronto Maple Leafs.
Once Georges Laraque enticed the home crowd early in the first period by delivering a series of left hooks to the Leafs’ Brad May, the real game could begin.
Price did look sharp in the first period, facing 18 Leafs shots while his teammates only managed five against the Leafs’ Vesa Toskala.
But the Leafs would manage the lone goal of the period. Their first round pick of 2009, Luke Schenn, scored his first NHL goal, beating a partially screened Price with a wrist shot from the face-off circle that went through Price’s legs.
Toskala, recently criticized by both his coach and general manager, knew this was a must win game and played just that.
Facing 15 Canadiens shots in the second period, his only miss was on a Canadiens five-on-three power play when Matt D’Agostini scored at 19:35.
Nikolai Kulemin would put the Leafs ahead again shortly after, catching Price to far in his crease and beating him with a long shot. It was one of only five shots Price faced in he second period.
Jason Blake would beat Price twice in the third period, going glove high on both occasions where he young Canadiens goaltender looked out of position.
Tom Kostopoulus would cash in a rebound for the Canadiens at 11:02 but that was as close as it would get for Montreal.
The Leafs’ Jeff Finger would catch Price napping on a face-off with just over a minute remaining to put it well out of reach.
Although the Canadiens defence played poorly in front of him by allowing 41 Leafs shots, the bulk of the attention in the loss turned to Price.
“I can’t go like this the whole year. There’s no way,” Price told the media post-game. “I won’t allow it. I’ll find a way around it.”
“It doesn’t fall on one guy, ” said defenceman Mike Komisarek, who put it more as a whole team breakdown as opposed to an individual failure.
“It falls on six defencemen, 12 forwards. It falls on every single guy in this locker room. We still have some time to figure it out and get on the same page.”
Coach Carbonneau was a little more critical on his goaltender.
“Where do you want me to start?” he answered in a frustrated tone to a reporter when asked what he didn’t like about Price. “He gave five goals.”
“Today was not a good defensive game,” Carbonneau later added.
“Right now we’re struggling on every front. It seems to be (either) not being able to score goals or tough times scoring goals and every time we make mistakes it’s in our net.”
The Canadiens now head out on a six-game road trip starting Monday in Calgary. It will be a true test for the Habs as they have lost their last five road games.
by M.C. Robins…
How long do we in the Toronto sports area have to put up with these two hacks?
If it isn’t Steve Simmons swearing over one year ago that Mats Sundin was finished and going to have his hip replaced, it’s Damien Cox constantly second-guessing anything the Leafs do.
Damn, the only thing worse in Toronto sports media is the fact that a useless former knuckle-dragger from the NHL, “Kryprios,” gets paid for his thoughts on both The Fan and Sportsnet.
Tell me, how do you get these jobs?
I am sure most of the writers here can do a better job.
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