Leafs Yearn For Ballard’s Return: European Experiment A Bust In Toronto?

by Louis “King of Roncesvalles” Pisano… To say Harold Ballard wasn’t liked by everyone might be an understatement.

When I skimmed over the players, even after the influx of European talent that began flooding the NHL in his later years, he stood stead fast with his beliefs of drafting mostly Canadian players and almost down-right refused to draft Russians.

Over the years the percentage of Canadian players in the NHL which has been a dominant number thorough out the history of its existence has declined.

The Toronto Maple Leafs one of the Original Six teams is or was Canada’s team, though francophone and Les Habitant fans may argue this point.

They were a group of guys from mostly Ontario Quebec and the Prairie Provinces that were hardnosed hockey players that played the game with heart and passion and brought this game to where it is today.

It sure as hell wasn’t about the money, because they got paid one-one thousandth of what these guys are getting today, if that.

Looking down the list of recent Stanley Cup winning teams, perhaps excluding the Detroit Red Wings, who mind you were led by one of Canada’s best in Stevie Y, the majority of those rosters were made up of Canadian players.

Now taking a look at the Toronto Maple Leafs roster I see 10 Canadian players. What place do they sit in the standings at this point you ask, dead last, I exclaim with disgust!

The San Jose Sharks sit in first overall and their roster has, how many Canadians you ask again, a whopping 17, hmmm?

Is there a correlation between the lack of a Canadian contingency and the bottom of the barrel where they sit in the standings?

Don Cherry may have an opinion on this and I’d bet it might not be far off from what I am trying to get at here!

Is there something in the Canadian water that breeds heart and a night in and night out determination to win whether playing and scoring the game winning goal in the Stanley Cup finals with a broken leg like Bobby Baun, or getting your face in front of a puck to make a save in the pre-goalie mask era like Johnny Bower?

The Toronto Maple Leafs have no chemistry, a lack of determination, a lack of effort for a complete games and it makes me wonder if their limited number of Canadian players is the key factor to their demise.

When Brian Burke finished putting together the team in Anaheim that won the cup in 06-07 they had a team that was made up by a majority of Canadian players, close to the most in the league at that point.

Will Brian Burke build a similar team in Toronto that would make Harold Ballard proud or will Leafs Nation be left wanting for a team that does justice to the history of Canadian hockey and the great honour that it is to don the Blue and White?

Rant on NBA Referees

by Stephen Brotherston… Since the home opener this season, the Toronto Raptors seem to be on the outs with the NBA referees.

I’ll admit to wearing a Raptors’ Fans Glasses. But it seems that when it matters, the Raptors are being held back by some highly biased NBA refereeing.

Not one to hog all the bitter complaining to myself, here’s a recent selection from this season’s refereeing rants.

Stevesraptors:

“@DeMar_DeRozan Raps Fans still made at Refs in Denver – Unfortunately you guys can’t afford to do that!”

DanRapsFan:

“Refs have given some great home court advantage for the Nuggets”

“Triano should get himself tossed on purpose for all of those Bosh non calls by the refs.  WTF no call!”

LetsNBA:

“Welcome to the NBA, raps up 11 refs take over for the home team”

JJTO:

“F**k! The ref’s called a lot of bad fouls in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, but no excuse to hang your head and drag your feet; no mental toughness…”

H to the Immo:

“You need to add ‘refs’ to the lineup. Here – I’ll do your writeup.

Refs – decided that Denver needed to get back into it in the 2nd quarter, resulting in 3 Donaghy’s. More of the same in the 3rd, as Denver was allowed a ridiculous number of fast breaks off non-calls on the offensive glass.”

Dave:

“The Raptors would have had a hard enough time beating just the Nuggets, but having to play against the Nuggets and the Refs they had no chance. During stretches of the game that I saw Bosh was called for goal-tending on a perfectly legal block, Jose was called for a foul on Carmelo when Anthony had clearly fouled Jose first and on and on.”

Waterboy:

“NBA refs are horrible, and players or coaches can’t speak up because they get fined if they do, why shouldn’t we as spectators speak up?”

“all i will say is, the first few games i watched of Toronto (including the cavaliers game) were full of extremely biased calls AGAINST the raptors, which hurts our team tremendously.”

Bogus:

“If you really wanted to get freaked out about the refs, read these excerpts from Donaghy’s book. If he’s telling the truth, it’s completely nuts”

creative1mm:

“well.. yesterday raps were doing fine until the referees made their little run and screwed up the game for them”

“like 4 bad calls in a row, mellow slaps the ball out of Calderon’s arm then elbows Calderon then Calderon gets called for the foul.. that is BS”

Belsius:

“OK I’m f**king pissed. I don’t know if Im being paranoid but to me, it looked like for that stretch of 4 minutes or so the refs really really wanted to make this game close. Making sure the Raptors didn’t get away. 5 or 6 calls against us and none or way.”

brothersteve:

“Aside from Jack Armstrong’s weak (but NBA fine safe) comments that Bosh couldn’t get a call, the BOGUS ref calls in the first half kept the Nuggets in this game – A game the Raps were threatening to run away with.”

“Bosh was mad because the Raps were getting fouls for doing the same things the Nugs were doing to him for free!”

“The Refs made a blatant attempt to keep the Nugs in the game during the first half.  Throwing a few foul calls the Raps way at the end when it was meaningless!”

Suns game: “The BOGUS charge on Bosh when the ref called the foul then waited until he could see who had hit the floor, Nash stands up and it’s a charge! Not to mention the last minute foul call on Nash’s drive – was that a foul or did the wind just blow through his uniform.”

The Raptors’ fearless broadcast crews have never taken the NBA referees to task for blatantly bad calls over the years.  Perhaps because they work for the Raptors they are, subject to the NBA’s wrath.

There needs to be more of an outpouring of disgust when bad refereeing costs the Raptors a game on the road.

When the Raptors are at home we can jeer with loud calls of B*LLSH1T from the stands!  When they are on the road, the jeers need to come from writers and the posts!

No Mercy for the Refs on Friday Night.  Come Ready to JEER.

Toronto Maple Leafs: Ian White, Alexei Ponikarovsky, Deserving of New Deals

By Mark “The Hard Hitter” Ritter… The first quarter of the NHL season for the Toronto Maple Leafs has been sad. With a record of 3-11-6, the Leafs occupy the 30th and final spot in the NHL standings, leaving no doubt that 2009-10 is yet another in a long line of rebuilding years for the terminally ill Leafs.

As the season progresses, Leafs general manager Brian Burke will have to make some tough decisions as to what he wants to do with some key unrestricted free agents, namely defenseman Ian White, forward Alexei Ponikarovsky, goaltender Jonas Gustavsson, and, to a lesser extent, forward Jiri Tlusty, who currently plays with the Leafs AHL affiliate, Toronto Marlies.

White has been one of the Leafs’ best defensemen this season. His all-out play and steadily increasing hockey sense makes White a good bet to get offered a contract extension.

Through 20 games, White has mustered four goals and 12 points and his plus/minus rating of +5 leads a Leafs team that is chalk full of minus players. While not the flashiest defenseman in the world, White plays a consistent game, one that warrants a two- to three-year extension.

Ponikarovsky, a fourth round (87th overall) pick of the Leafs at the 1998 NHL entry draft, has spent his entire career as a member of the Maple Leafs. The 2008-09 season saw “Poni” register career highs in both Goals (23) and assists (38), amounting to a career high 61 points.

This season, through 20 games, Ponikarovsky has registered eight goals and 11 points, outlining his value as one of the Leafs most consistent scoring threats. Ponikarovsky’s ability to dig the puck out of the corner and his compete level are both underrated. He brings a ton of experience, energy and drive, something the Leafs can ill-afford to let go.

Jonas Gustavsson is still in the infancy of his NHL career and, by all accounts, looks to need a little more seasoning before we can get a true read on what he is capable of. There is no getting away from it, Gustavsson is very talented, takes away the bottom portion of the net and has a quick glove hand, all attributes of a strong goalie.

Where Gustavsson struggles is with his penchant for playing too deep in his net, his inexperience in the shoot-out, and his inability to handle the puck well. Let’s face it, once the information about his poor puck handling skills gets around in NHL circles, it will be something opponents zero in on, ultimately costing Gustavsson and the Leafs more than a few goals.

A former first round pick (13th overall) of the Maple Leafs, Jiri Tlusty continues to struggle to stay up with the big club and, for the most part, has been stuck in neutral with the Toronto Marlies.

Blessed with good hands and decent speed, Tlusty has failed to impress Leafs general manager Brian Burke and, from all accounts, may very well be on his way out if he fails to make an impact with the big club this season.

Tlusty played two games with the Leafs this season, registering zero points and a plus/minus rating of -2, hardly a fair shot, but alarming just the same. Tlusty has played a total of 74 career games with the Leafs, in which he has registered 10 goals, 10 assists and a plus/minus rating of -14, which pretty much says it all.

With the likes of Christian Hanson, Tyler Bozak, Jay Rosehill, Mikhail Stefanovich, Joel Champagne, and Victor Stalberg all vying for jobs with the Leafs, Tlusty should be chomping at the bit to make the Leafs lineup and, to date, after more than three years in the Leafs system, has failed to do so.

White, Ponikarovsky, and Gustavsson should all receive contract offers at or before the end of the 2009-10 season, but I suspect, despite his perceived “upside,” Brian Burke may opt to send Tlusty packing in a deal or just flat out cut ties with the underachieving winger, clearly he is not a fit with the Blue and White, so why delay the obvious?

In the event that Burke gets the vibe that one or more of White, Ponikarovsky and Gustavsson will not resign, then he has three pretty good players that he can peddle for draft picks and/or young blue-chip prospects that the Leafs can use down the road. Either way, Burke has something of value, which is in itself a good thing.

There is still plenty of time to speculate but, by all accounts, the aforementioned four players will poise the biggest debate in Leafland, let’s just hope Burke gets it right.

Until next time,

Peace!