Toskala Is Still Our Number One Goalie

by Eric Warren… This quote was issued by Leafs GM Brian Burke in downtown Toronto yesterday, and while Jonas Gustavsson will get the start tonight in goal against the Wild, I have to ask:

Has Burke gone off the deep end?

Here we have a team who is staring to come around. Starting to play good, solid, consistent hockey, and then we have an occasionally-idiotic GM make one statement that could bring all that crashing down.

Now, I suppose that may be a little bold, I mean I am Canadian!

But gosh, Brian, why would you puff out your chest and exhale onto the house of cards that is the Toronto Maple Leaf hockey team?

Geez, I’d better settle down and have a nice hot chocolate or something, is it too early for a beer?

Here’s the way I see it: Everything is finally going the way it was apparently supposed to go right from the start.

The players are playing well together, the goal-tending is getting better with each game, and the team seems to be buying into the Ron Wilson system.

So why rock the boat by stoking the fire of another goalie controversy?

Rafa Stares into the Abyss after Birmingham Draw

by Willie Gannon… The best slant that can be put on another poor Liverpool performance is that they managed to come from behind to draw. But that tells its own tale: as the equalizing goal came from a penalty after David Ngog had dived to win the spot kick.

Little was done in this game to lift the pressure that Rafael Benitez now finds himself under.

If anything, Rafa’s time in charge of Liverpool can be summed up as a team stronger than the sum of their parts, defensively solid, and one which always rose to the occasion of a big match.

So far this year it has been almost the complete opposite. Their once sound defense has been found wanting against teams that have attacked, and their midfield has been bypassed, out-fought, out-thought, and is clearly missing the influence of Xabi Alonso.

Their much talked about ‘zonal marking’ system has been shown for the shambles it always was, and now Liverpool looks like conceding a goal from every cross and set piece. The problem in using this system is that it relies heavily on every player being 100 percent switched on; even then it is very susceptible against well organized opponents.

Last season the big four in the EPL: Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Liverpool only lost 17 games all season, with the Anfield giants losing only twice.

But this year those four teams have already lost 12, and Liverpool has contributed a massive five to that total.

Add in their Champions League problems and Rafa is facing the first and possibly last crisis of his Liverpool career.

His problems can be traced back to his purchases over his six seasons in charge. The once great club now looks like they have a paper thin squad.

It says much about the quality that Benitez has at his disposal that he was forced to bring on a half fit Steven Gerrard at half time against Birmingham and for him to be Liverpool’s most potent threat on goal-whilst playing on one leg.

Before tonight, Birmingham boasted the worst forward line in the EPL, having only scored eight goals from their 11 matches. Yet somehow they managed to ask questions of Rafa’s team as others have done before them.

Of course, Liverpool did not start tonight with either of their world class talents, Gerrard and Torres, but they should still have had enough to brush Alex McLeish’s team aside.

Without the duo the onus to create falls upon Yossi Benayoun. While he is a very capable player, he is not of the upper echelon of Premiership quality and can struggle without the main attacking pair in the team.

Rafa’s run without a win has now stretched to nine games. To some this will be summed up as just a bad run. Many will be praying that all their injured return after the international break to face the EPL’s other club on the verge of a crisis, Manchester City.

While to others, they can point to the clubs worst start to a league campaign in over 50 years.

Liverpool are only three points off the coveted Champions League spot. Sources from within Anfield have confirmed that Rafa will only be sacked if it is mathematically impossible for them to qualify for next years tournament.

Never mind if they go out early this year; which is a very real possibility.

So where to Liverpool and Rafa turn to now?

Well, the international break has come at an ideal time. It should allow their star players an extra couple of weeks to recuperate, but if you believe everything you hear, then Rafa has been guiding Fernando Torres through the last couple of games until Gerrard returns. At that point, he will have an operation on his troublesome groin.

Without Torres or Gerrard in the team, Liverpool are a shadow of themselves, and without the Spaniard in particular, it is hard to see them breaking down the kind of quality that rests in the upper half of the Premiership.

His power and pace combined with his undoubted skill mark Torres out as one of the finest strikers in the world, and David Ngog isn’t even on the same planet as a player.

Without either of the pair, Liverpool’s win percentage is only 56 percent; with them it is a dramatic 79 percent.

And that now means the game against City is now a huge one for both clubs.

Currently, Manchester City sit one point ahead of Liverpool but with one game in hand. If they were to beat the Reds at Anfield and win that extra game, they would then be seven points in front heading towards January.

It is here that the battle for fourth will be won and lost this year.

Liverpool have very little in the way spending power, but their owners could be forced to dig deep to buy back up for Torres.

City is expected to buy heavily to consolidate their push for fourth. After spending somewhere in the region of £150 million in less than one year, it is easy to come to that conclusion.

The other contenders for fourth are Tottenham, and with Spurs being somewhat of a pushover in midfield, Harry Redknapp is expected to sign two if not three new players while the Lilywhites push City and Liverpool to the line.

So for all intensive purposes, the week following the international break will take be one of utmost importance for Rafa.

Manchester City (h), Debrechen (a), and Everton (a) are the three biggest games of the season for Rafa.

To guarantee his job he must win all three.

Lose two of these games and Tom Hicks and George Gillett will be seeking advice on Rafa’s future.

The abyss is staring back.

Brian Burke’s Fuzzy Picture Starts To Come Into Focus?

by Eric Warren… I am a huge Toronto Maple Leafs Fan. Really, I’m like 6′2″ tall and 225lbs!

I was less than enthused when I heard Brian Burke was coming to town, it isn’t really that I dis-liked the man, but he had the aura of a cocky young business exec who was trying to climb the corporate ladder and would probably eat his young on the way up.

I don’t like people like that, and he’s got ridiculous hair (of course, that may be jealousy speaking).

The fact of the matter is, this is not his first kick at the can when it come to building a contender, say what you want about the man, he’s here for a reason.

Brian Burke knows what it takes to do the job, and is getting used to life in the pressure cooker that is Leaf Nation .

After the return of Phill Kessel, and getting 10 out of a possible 14 points in the last seven games, including, their first three wins of the season, things are starting to look good for the boys in blue.

You can go all the way back to October 17 against the Rangers if you are looking for a turning point.

From that game on, they have looked like a different team. With The Monster and Toskala both sidelined due to injury, Joey Macdonald was the starting goaltender and for some reason that seemed to spark the team.

I don’t think it was because the players necessarily believed MacDonald is a better goalie than either Gustavsson or Toskala, more like there was suddenly no distraction as to who was going to be starting.

The Leafs currently sit tied for 28th in the league in points overall, with Florida. Although, they haven’t surrendered a power play goal in more than four games (the last one one was the OT winner in Buffalo by Tim Connolly), they are still dead last in the league on the Penalty kill.

On the flip side however, they are second to only the Flyers on the power play.

In the first seven games of the season (before Oct 17 ), the Leafs had scored only 14 goals and allowed 30.

In the last 8 games however, they have scored 26, and allowed 22. The difference has been like night and day.

The Leafs chances of making the playoffs were certainly not helped by their disastrous start, but don’t count them out just yet.

With 67 games left, they would need to win probably 42 of them for a total of 95 points to make the playoffs, and while it may seem like a daunting task, it is certainly not an impossible one.

The Red Rocket and the Spurs got the best of the Raps